DELIVERY MAN written and directed by Ken Scott, based on the screenplay by Scott and Martin Petit, with Vince Vaughn, Chris Pratt, Cobie Smulders and Britt Robertson. A Touchstone Pictures release. 105 minutes. Opens Friday (November 22). For venues and times, see listings.
Not many filmmakers find themselves in the position Ken Scott did last year.
DreamWorks SKG had bought the remake rights to Starbuck, Scott’s 2011 Quebecois comedy starring Patrick Huard as a no-account slacker who discovers that his youthful donations to a fertility clinic have resulted in 533 children. The movie was a hit in Canada, and DreamWorks asked Scott to remake it for American audiences.
The result is Delivery Man, which stars Vince Vaughn in the Huard role and Cobie Smulders and Chris Pratt as his girlfriend and best friend respectively. It’s very, very similar to Starbuck, though Scott, over the phone from Boston, says that was entirely coincidental.
“I tried not to think in those terms,” he says. “I just tried to tell a story the best way possible and not think about the fact that there was already one done, because I think that’s a trap. You know, if I were just trying to copy the original, it would feel pale. If I were trying to be different just to be different, that would have kept me away from some good moments.”
Scott says he relied on his cast to bring a different energy to this version.
“Vince, Chris, Cobie – they’re all good with comedy,” he says. “They bring that [energy] through timing and knowing what comedy’s all about. But then we just wanted to try to be as realistic as possible – you know, for those situations where a guy has just realized he’s the father of 533 kids,” he says, laughing.
“We have this premise that seems huge, but you get into the movie and it actually seems totally plausible. That’s the way we wanted to play it, and the actors committed to believing in this situation.”
Scott credits Vaughn in particular with being willing to tamp down the manic qualities the actor has leaned on in recent years and play the role straight.
“He’s a master of improv,” Scott says. “There are two moments in the movie where we were doing a scene and I felt it needed something, or we could explore a bit, and he was very impressive. But for all the other scenes, there’s a story that needed to be told in an efficient way. Vince committed to the script, he committed to those words, and he was great at it.”
As it happens, Delivery Man isn’t the only remake of a Ken Scott movie produced this year. The Grand Seduction, which premiered at TIFF earlier this fall, is a reworking of his 2003 Quebec script for Seducing Dr. Lewis.
“I haven’t seen the movie,” he says. “I was actually shooting another movie with Vince Vaughn called Business Trip, so for the last three months I’ve been in Germany and right now I’m in Boston for another month finishing it off. I can’t wait. The reactions seemed very positive in Toronto.”
Interview Clips
Ken Scott on how he kept Starbuck and Delivery Man separate in his mind:
Scott on the one actor who returns from Starbuck:
normw@nowtoronto.com | @wilnervision
