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Rawson Marshall Thurber Unravels The Mysteries of Pittsburgh
Sophomore writer-director goes from Dodgeball to Sundance
Rawson Marshall Thurber, Sienna Miller and Peter Sarsgaard on the set of The Mysteries of PIttsburgh (2008).
Just days before the January premiere of his adaptation of The Mysteries of Pittsburgh at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, Rawson Marshall Thurber shared with MM his journey from conception to exhibition. Now, in honor of its August 4, 2009 DVD and Blu-ray release from Phase 4 Films, MM revisits Thurber’s essay, originally published on January 18, 2008.
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In the summer of 1995 I was suspended from college. The incident amounted to a minor fracas, but it had major political ramifications, so they suspended me for two semesters. I went back home to California to think things over. My best friend was moving to Los Angeles and I decided to go with him to see what all the fuss was about. It was there, rudderless and contemplative, that it happened.
I was at the beach (which seemed like the thing to do in Los Angeles before I discovered that no one from Los Angeles actually ever goes to the beach) with another friend of mine who happened to be reading a book. Every few pages he would laugh or let out a low whistle in admiration. Finally, I asked him what the hell he was reading. He told me. I read it. And that’s when I knew.
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh was so beautifully written, so smartly considered, so funny, so overwhelmingly gosh-wow wonderful that I fell head over heels in love with it. I was smitten. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life, but I knew that I wanted to make the movie of Michael Chabon’s novel before I even knew I wanted to make movies. That’s how much it meant to me.
Nearly 10 years later, my first film, Dodgeball, came out and did well at the box office. In fact, the weekend it opened, no other film did better at the turnstiles and I found myself, strangely, with a little bit of clout. Go figure. My agent called me with offers, sent me script after script after script—a couple of them were even pretty good. But I wasn’t interested. After finishing my first film, I knew fully how hard it was to make one—how much it required from you personally and how much you had to really love the story to be able to get up, day after day, night after night, to fight for it—to see it through to the end, to be its custodian, its guardian and its champion. There was really only one story I loved like that.
So I decided to do what I’d wanted to do from the very beginning. The guy who made Dodgeball was going to go make The Mysteries of Pittsburgh. I remember thinking to myself: ‘Fuck it. If I’m going to fail, I might as well fail doing something I love.’ (Which is really the only way to do it if you ask me.)
I wrote Michael Chabon a fan letter. I asked him if I could take him out to breakfast to discuss the possibility of adapting his first novel. Over the course of coffee and eggs, I would lay out my fairly radical plan, which was as much amputation and alteration as it was adaptation. Shortly thereafter, I received an e-mail from Michael saying, “Sounds great. Let’s do it.” I was stunned. I don’t think I ever imagined that he would say “Yes.” But he did and I spent the next 10 months writing my guts out.
The film is now finished and I’m very proud of it. My actors delivered such lovely, heartbreaking performances that I feel pretty well spoiled for any who follow. We’ve been accepted into Sundance and are going to unveil the film there. I can’t wait.
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, starring Jon Foster, Sienna Miller, Peter Sarsgaard and Nick Nolte, premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.
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COMMENTS | POST A COMMENT 
- Comment by Rapidshare Movies on 3/24/08 at 11:44 pm
WOW! That’s quite inspirational and well written! I’ll definitely keep a look out for your movie!
And I loved Dodgeball :D
Cheers!
- Comment by Haiming on 4/10/08 at 2:03 am
Coool,I will buy one and take a look :-)
- Comment by Watermarker on 5/26/08 at 8:48 am
Where I can download “The Mysteries of Pittsburgh”?
- Comment by shwoomp.com on 8/13/08 at 4:17 am
it sounds good..i want to watch that moviee..
- Comment by Sanford Brown on 8/26/08 at 4:19 pm
Hats off to Rawson....
- Comment by Hidden object games on 10/09/08 at 10:09 am
Good post, carry on your great work!
- Comment by Watch TV Shows Online on 10/31/08 at 4:09 pm
Great post man.
I really appreciate the way you have written.
thank you.- Comment by pay as you go mobile phones on 11/18/08 at 4:35 pm
thanks for sharing this movie script with us sir.
i really liked the way it was written.
thanks again
regards,
pay as you go mobile phones- Comment by kinlne on 11/29/08 at 1:23 pm
where did these guys get this script?? really awsome script..
thanks for sharing such an wonderful script..
regards,
goji noni- Comment by Lawyer from Pittsburgh on 1/07/09 at 1:39 pm
Any idea what the title of the movie is going to be?
- Comment by Funny Sayings collection on 1/10/09 at 4:03 am
I think it is fantastic.
- Comment by temporary insurance on 1/22/09 at 9:48 am
Awesome script mate. Really i was waiting for this script since 15days. Now i am feeling happy.
regards,
Hogg.- Comment by Urban Clothing on 6/05/09 at 3:06 pm
That is a pretty impressive cast in this film. Peter Sarsgaard, Mena Suvari, Nick Nolte, Sienna Miller. Clout indeed!
- Comment by California Animation College on 6/22/09 at 5:40 pm
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh was so beautifully written, so smartly considered, so funny, so overwhelmingly gosh-wow wonderful that I fell head over heels in love with it. I was smitten. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life, but I knew that I wanted to make the movie of Michael Chabon’s novel before I even knew I wanted to make movies. That’s how much it meant to me.
- Comment by Judith Heydt on 8/28/09 at 11:53 am
Congratulations on your dedication and commitment in this adaptation. Keep up the great work!
- Comment by airjordanpremium on 9/08/09 at 3:05 am
I really agree that The Mysteries of Pittsburgh was so beautifully written, so smartly considered, so funny, so overwhelmingly gosh-wow wonderful that I fell head over heels in love with
- Comment by sell and rent back on 9/11/09 at 12:13 pm
I’m not sure this movie is that great, it has its moments, but on the whole is a bit boring
- Comment by personal injury lawyer houston on 9/23/09 at 1:26 am
Hi,
When you want to hire a lawyer especially personal injury lawyer what information you should look for?When you want to hire a lawyer especially personal injury lawyer what information you should look for or what questions you will ask from the lawyer?..Thank you…
personal injury lawyer houston- Comment by acupuncturists in Tampa on 9/28/09 at 6:33 am
i have been trying to get the The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, but i guess where i live it is really not available
- Comment by testking MB2-633 on 10/23/09 at 11:22 pm
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh,” sure. But also the mysteries of literary adaptation. Michael Chabon’s earnest first novel from 1988 about a young man’s bisexual coming of age is now what could pass for a flavorless pilot for the CW. Almost nothing works in this movie, which was written and directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber, whose previous film, the antic “Dodgeball,” would be a hundred times more preferable come prep-school movie night. Like many young people, Thurber appears to have fallen in love with Chabon’s book (its finest moments perfectly capture the thwack of attraction). Unlike those other readers, Thurber got the book’s rights and proceeded to conflate and excise characters and scenarios until only the most generic possible movie remained. testking 642-456 we still have the story of Art Bechstein (Jon Foster), a recent college graduate, studying one summer for his Series 7 stockbroker exam (the movie is set in the mid-1980s), dating the manager of the bookstore where he works (Mena Suvari), and trying to please his father, a gangster played by Nick Nolte. Sadly, Art seems a passive observer of his life. This could be a matter of Foster’s mild approach to acting. It’s as if Thurber decided to scour the nation’s top lacrosse teams for a lead. It could be the fact that the film relies so heavily on poor Foster to recite large paragraphs of Chabon’s manuscript. The scenes feel plunked down between narration, so no true rhythm can get going. Really, Foster just isn’t very interesting to watch. Of course, under the circumstances, neither are Peter Sarsgaard and Sienna Miller, who speed into the proceedings as Cleveland, a mid-level thug in a leather jacket, and his girlfriend, Jane. These two rope Art into their ho-hum adventures (drinking, leaping into pools, sitting around). testking 70-448 But why should we care about anybody who chooses to spend the livelong day with Art? At some point it’s clear that Cleveland likes Art in a way that has nothing to do with Jane. The consummation of their attraction occupies the film’s second half, and gives the movie its only shot at honesty, although their interest in each other makes no sense. It’s like Richie Cunningham making love to The Fonz. In the novel, Art fell for a different, more convincing man. The movie gives us a bad fantasy. It’s conceivable that you could leave this movie thinking it had been adapted from a teenage boy’s diary.
Thurber is clearly taken with these people, but he lacks the imagination to pass his enthusiasm on to us. Frolicking montages set to Ryan Adams and Iron & Wine tell us more about the contents of Thurber’s iPod than about the inner lives of his characters. For what it’s worth, “The Mysteries of Pittsburgh” follows “The Great Buck Howard” and “Adventureland” as another wishy-washy portrait of a kid wandering across adulthood’s threshold. None of these movies incorporates a kind of rearview wisdom or successfully re-creates any oscillation between the electricity and doldrums of youth. Our heroes insist these are the times that will define them, but the movies themselves are dull and interchangeably vague.
- Comment by testking 642-972 on 10/23/09 at 11:29 pm
When asked what the purpose of making films is] Well, number one, it’s too late for me now to change and to become a gardener. Number two is to get away from the house and the vacuum cleaner. I want to be in my office and think. And number three, it’s very exciting. I like to tell stories. Ultimately it’s interesting. You meet nice people, it’s glamorous, and, if you get lucky, very profitable. You suffer a great deal, but to paraphrase President Truman, if you can’t take all that crap, get out of the studio. Believe me, this is not a profession for a dignified human being. I can see the interest in pictures when I talk to you students [at the American Film Institute], especially now that almost every university has something connected with movies. testking 650-251 But if I had a son I would beat him with a very large whip trying to make a gardener, a dentist or something else out of him. Don’t do it. It’s just too tough. It hurts, and the moments of glory are very far between. Well, it’s too late for me to turn back, too late for me to become a gardener. I can’t bend over the azaleas. Not anymore. testking PK0-002 [on Jack Lemmon] I’m terribly fond of Jack. We understand each other very well and it’s a pleasure to work with him. He is a thinking actor, but not an argumentative one. By that way I mean if we start shooting at nine o’clock, he would be there at 8:15 and would come to my office and say, “Hey, I’ve got a great idea! Look, why don’t we do this? Blah, blah, blah, blah.” And I just look at him, and he says, “I don’t like it either.” And he walks out. Everybody in the audience is an idiot, but taken together they’re a genius.
- Comment by Facebook Layouts on 12/21/09 at 7:34 am
I discovered that no one from Los Angeles actually ever goes to the beach with another friend of mine who happened to be reading a book.Every few pages he would laugh or let out a low whistle in admiration.
- Comment by MK35 on 1/25/10 at 2:58 pm
This movie was terrible. How this guy Thurber got it into his head to completely change major characters or eliminate them entirely in one of the greatest coming of age stories of the last quarter century is beyond me.
Eliminating Arthur Lecomte and stripping down Phlox Lombardi from the hilarious, sexy, cultural sophisticate that she was in the book to a drab, bookstore manager with absolutely no personality that Thurber makes her in the movie is unforgivable.
It also gives one a better understanding as to why J.D. Salinger was right to refuse to allow his novel to be adapted into a film. Because he knew what Hollywood would do to his masterpiece. They would cut it apart and rip it to shreds for the sake of money. Why adapt a novel if you’re not going to honor the characters and plot of the novel that so many readers have come to love?
- Comment by nike dunk on 1/27/10 at 9:21 pm
It also gives one a better understanding as to why J.D. Salinger was right to refuse to allow his novel to be adapted into a film. Because he knew what Hollywood would do to his masterpiece.
<a href=http://chicago-bears-jerseys.blogspot.com>Chicago Bears Jerseys</a> They would cut it apart and rip it to shreds for the sake of money. Why adapt a novel if you’re not going to honor the characters and plot of the novel that so many readers have come to love?- Comment by شات on 11/22/10 at 8:58 am
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- Comment by Graphic Web Design Perth on 4/12/11 at 7:39 am
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This story was published in the Winter 2008 MovieMaker Magazine. The headline was:
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