Video:Nanette Burstein, Geoff LaTulippe on Going the Distance

Transcript:Nanette Burstein, Geoff LaTulippe on Going the Distance

Rebecca Murray from About.com Hollywood Movies at the LA Premiere of New Line Cinema's Going the Distance.

Going the Distance Director Nanette Burstein

So was making the transition to feature film everything you thought it would be?

Nanette Burstein: "Well, I didn't know what to think so... I don't think so, because I really didn't know what to expect. But it was a fun adventure and one I want to do again."

This has turned you from a documentary filmmaker into not?

Nanette Burstein: "I mean I still want to work in documentaries in some capacity, but I definitely want to make a feature next. You know, I'd be so lucky. I really enjoyed the experience. I made documentaries for 15 years so I really love doing something completely different. And movies that can reach a broad audience is exciting to me. I want to make movies that a lot of people see and enjoy."

I know that in most romantic comedies, the female is not necessarily the tough, stand on her own type of woman, but this one is. So how interesting is that twist?

Nanette Burstein: "I mean that's one of the things I loved about the script is that the female character, she wasn't interested in getting a ring - that wasn't her main purpose. And she wasn't super uptight, neurotic and controlling, you know, like an A personality. She was just a cool chick, like the girls I hang out with. And the conflict is really of course the circumstance - right guy, wrong time. 'What do I do? And I have to choose between my career and love.' And it was such a relatable thing. It was like a real girl. So that was really refreshing to me."

And they don't censor how they talk, which is also something that usually happens in romantic comedies.

Nanette Burstein: "No. They get to use the f-bomb should they choose. But you know it's really about just making the comedy as big as possible at times because it's so honest and they don't have to worry about what language they use or what situation they're in. So we had a lot of fun with that."

Because you let them improv so much, right?

Nanette Burstein: "We did a lot of improv. We would shoot the script and then we would do a lot of improvisation, so it made it even more genuine."

Going the Distance Screenwriter Geoff LaTulippe

Geoff LaTulippe: "I love About.com How else would I find out about things?"

So I hear this movie came about because you got drunk and you thought it up?

Geoff LaTulippe: "Like most great things, we were having a few beers one night and one of my good friends, Dave Neustadter - who is the exec on the movie - had been in a long distance relationship really recently and he said, 'We should write a movie about this.' And I said, 'We should,' because then I can get paid. And that's pretty much what ended up happening."

Did his work out?

Geoff LaTulippe: "They're still really good friends, but they are not actually together. Not a happy, happy ending."

So he didn't have a Hollywood ending on his relationship.

Geoff LaTulippe: "No, he didn't. What the hell is that?"

Is it kind of freeing that they didn't put a PG rating on you when you were working on this?

Geoff LaTulippe: "I can't write PG. I'm horrible. I'm one of the worst people ever. My language, it wouldn't just cut it. No. I'd write a really bad PG movie."

Do you feel bad when you hear that they do a lot of improv?

Geoff LaTulippe: "No. No, it's one of those things where, especially in comedy, you have to know as the writer that you're kind of giving them a set piece to work with and the things that come out of that they're building on what you do. When I saw it for the first time I was actually really glad because I got to watch things that I didn't even know were going to happen, and that's really exciting for me. I think that's awesome."


 And your next movie is going to be a zombie movie [Breathers: A Zombie's Lament]?


Geoff LaTulippe: "I hope so."

Have you started working on it?

Geoff LaTulippe: "Yeah. We've got the script in and Searchlight seems to like it. We'll see if we can put it together. That would be really great."

So are zombies the next big thing?

Geoff LaTulippe: "I think the zombies have been the last big thing, and now I'm going to try to make them into something a little different."

How close does it stay to the book?

Geoff LaTulippe: "I tried to stay really close to the book. You know, there's some things that obviously you have to change. But I tried to stay really close to the book because I loved it so much. Scott Brown's a great writer."

Is it tough when you do love the book so much to make it your own, because you do have to make the changes?

Geoff LaTulippe: "You know, I was really... Okay, here comes the cliche Hollywood answer: I was really concerned about writing the best story and I thought that if I stayed close to the book that would make the best story, so there wasn't really much stamp-putting. I just wanted to tell that story, which is why I liked it in the first place."

That was not a total Hollywood cliche answer - not a total.

Geoff LaTulippe: "Thanks. I appreciate that."

More on Going the Distance:

Going the Distance Photo Gallery

Drew Barrymore and Christina Applegate

Going the Distance Interviews, Poster, Trailer, Clips and Cast List