Interview (Part 6): Tess Morris (“Man Up”)
Tess Morris wrote the screenplay for the movie Man Up, a romantic comedy starring Lake Bell and Simon Pegg, directed by Ben Palmer. Generating strong reviews, the movie opens this weekend in the United Kingdom, and has been picked up for distribution in North America by Saban Films.
I recently had a wonderful conversation with Tess in which we covered a lot of territory. I will be rolling out that interview in several installments this week.
Today in Part 6, Tess reveals how Man Up went from spec script to acquisition, development to production, and what it’s been like to work with Rachael Prior, Big Talk Productions development exec and one of the producers of Man Up:
Scott: You wrote Man Up on spec. How did it end up with Big Talk Pictures?
Tess: Well, I wrote it on spec, then I sent it to my agent, and I always remember… I was actually in New York, I took a week off rewarding myself because I had written a screenplay, hooray! — and I got an email from my agent, and it just said, “It’s really good, Tess.” That was such a nice email to get. I remember we spoke on the phone, and I said, “Do I need to do any work on it?” She said, “Well, yeah, but let’s not worry about that, let’s get it out there. Who do you want to send it to?”
And I said, “I want to send it to Big Talk, I want Big Talk to make this”, never expecting in a million years that they would. I think we sent it to a handful of others, but I wouldn’t really even have entertained anyone else… I mean, I would have had to entertain other people if Big Talk hadn’t liked it, obviously.
So my agent sent it off to Big Talk. And I wait, and I wait, and then few months later, I get a phone call saying that they wanted to option it. It was fucking incredible. It was so weird, considering I’d been thinking I was going to have to pack it all in. It was a very nice turning point, in my script life!
Also, I had my little bit of luck, which was Bridesmaids. I think they’d just screened it, at South by Southwest, and Nira at Big Talk had seen it, and was lamenting, “Where are all the funny female British scripts? What the fuck?” Then Man Up landed on her desk.
That was a really nice little fortuitous piece of timing for me. Bridesmaids is amazing, and I wouldn’t try to compare myself to that film, but there was a sudden movement towards female skewed comedy, which there hadn’t been for a while, and proving that, box office wise, women had some power. That was good, yeah.
Big Talk had a first look with Studio Canal then, so Studio Canal read it and came on board immediately, with BBC Films later on. That was June 2011. Ever since then, in movie terms, it’s been pretty quick, although my dad’s always like, “When the hell is your film coming out?”
[laughter]
Tess: And I say “Well, we haven’t shot it yet, Dad. Or, well, now we’re editing it Dad. Everyone’s always like, “When? When? When? When? When? When?” But four years is actually quite quick from script to screen in movie terms. [laughs] And now I can say ‘now!’.
Scott: So you’ve seen screenings of it?
Tess: I’ve seen it loads, yeah.
Scott: Has there been a premiere? I know it’s going to be released in May in the UK.
Tess: We’ve got our Tribeca World Prem a week on Sunday.
Scott: Are you going to be there?
Tess: Fuck yes. [laughs] Not nervous about that at all. Having our World Premiere there is amazing because Lake’s a real New York gal, obviously, and I love Annie Hall, Moonstruck, The Apartment, and so on. Also, I like to think that Man Up has a slight New York feel to it, it could have been set in New York.
Scott: Absolutely.
Tess: It’s a really good festival for us to be showing at. Yeah, we have that, and then we come out here, in the UK, on May the 29th. Then, I think they’re announcing some US distribution stuff in the next few weeks. I don’t know when we’ll come out in the US, but we’ll definitely come out in the US.
Scott: That’s exciting. You’ve got a couple other projects with Big Talk, don’t you?
Tess: Yes.
Scott: “Secret Santa” and…
Tess: I have “Secret Santa,” which is my Christmas movie, which is also with Studio Canal. Then, I have another film with Big Talk and the BBC, as well, which is “Textbook Behavior,” which is essentially me, age 38 now, writing “Man Up Two.”
Scott: Write what you know?
Tess: Write who you know.
Scott: Well, that makes at least three projects with Big Talk, which means you work closely with the head of development, Rachael Prior.
Tess: I do. I love Rachael Prior.
Scott: Rachael’s also a producer on Man Up.
Tess: Yep. She’s an incredible producer and script editor. She gives fantastic notes, and she really understands storytelling to a point where it’s encyclopedic as well. Things that you’ve forgotten about, that she will go, “Tess, what about that?” I’ll go, “Shit, yeah.”
She’s also very good at pushing me into going a bit further with my writing. When we got into pre‑production on Man Up, and the pressure was on, I was having to deliver pages fast. We were in rehearsals, and I’d send something over to her, and she’d go, “No. It needs more Tess, needs more Tess.” I’d be crying sometimes going, “I can’t write anymore!” [laughs]
And she’d go “Come on, Tess! More Tess!” She’s a brilliant person to have by your writing side. In fact, I don’t know how I’m going to write stuff without Rachael, ever, really. It’s quite a strange thing to think about. I might just not do it. I’ve done quite a lot of rewrites over the past few years without her, for other people, but she is definitely my lucky charm. Every writer should be lucky to have someone like that.
Scott: That’s terrific. I’m glad you two have intersected. Good luck with the movie. Let’s move into some craft questions if you don’t mind?
Tess: I love a bit of craft.
Scott: Earlier you said, “high‑concept, low‑fi.” I would take that low‑fi to be more reflective of the fact you like character‑driven stories.
Tess: Yes.
Scott: Where do you come up with the high‑concept ideas?
Tess: I don’t know. I’m obviously a big fan of the “what if.” A lot of my ideas come from saying to myself, “What if I didn’t do that?” or “What if I did that?” and pushing something a lot further than I would have thought.
So yes, it’s fair to say that most of my ideas are grounded in that. “Secret Santa” is high‑concept, in the sense that the basic premise is about a woman who dates Santa. [laughs] Again, that’s a what‑if… “What if I went out with Santa?”
Scott: Is that your original idea?
Tess: Yes. Yeah [laughs].
Scott: That was clever.
Tess: The other one, “Textbook Behavior,” I probably won’t tell you the pitch for that because I should probably write it and it should be more of a surprise. But it’s very much like I give myself a problem or a dilemma or a thing and then I think, “What if…’
I think that’s a really fun way to come up with ideas. My brain definitely works like that… because I’m not a very adventurous person in real life. [laughs] But my brain is, if that makes sense. That’s quite helpful in writing, because the things I would never do in real life, I like to write about instead.
Scott: Is that an active process for you? Do you daily have one track of your brain thinking of ideas, or how does that work?
Tess: Not totally… but I am always on the look out. If I read an article on something that I find interesting, then I might say to myself, “What if I did the opposite to what that article does?’.
That kind of stuff. I’m not constantly daily thinking about it, and I probably maybe have only, I would say, two ideas a year. [laughs] But they’re usually two that I think are strong enough to support a cinematic event!
Once I’ve got that initial nugget, essentially the pitch, like “What if you were under the clock at Waterloo and someone thought that you were their blind date”… next I obviously have to work out everything that’s going to come after that.
So, what if you dated Santa? And then the whole can of script worms opens. And Billy Mernit’s book was very helpful in organizing all those worms. It’s like, can you tell your story very quickly to someone, so that they laugh, and then go “and then what happens?” If they say that, with a chuckle, then you’ve probably got a good idea for a comedy movie…
The last time I had one of those moments was probably last year. I get very nervous when I haven’t had an idea for a year or so… But it’s so satisfying when you do think of something and you go, “Ooh, that’s a good idea for a film.”
Tomorrow in Part 7, Tess and I dig into her thoughts about the writing craft.
For Part 1 of the interview, go here.
Part 2, here.
Part 3, here.
Part 4, here.
Part 5, here.
For GITS readers in the U.K. who want to see more original movies, especially those of you waiting for an increase in romantic comedies, although I have yet to see it, I can tell you from reading the script, Man Up is an excellent story — funny, touching, human, and surprising — and by all accounts really great entertainment.
In other words, go support Man Up in theaters this weekend!
Tess is repped by WME and Julia Tyrrell Management.
Twitter: @TheTessMorris.