Wet Hot American Summer Screening and Q&A | LA Film School | 06.09.11

David Wain and Joe Lo Truglio read an old chat transcript between Wain and Showalter for potential names for the movie. Unfortunately, the only name I can remember is “Bunk” and “Tiny Fingers Searching for Penis and Vaginas.” (thanks androsky)

Notes from the Q&A which will be released as a podcast from @yogoldsmith.

• If you’ve listened to the WTF with Marc Maron interview with Michael Showalter, you’ll know that Showalter was/is still pretty disheartened at the lack of success of Wet Hot American Summer… and here’s why. The movie was shot for $1.8 Million dollars, after being shopped at Sundance, no one was interested. Months later, USA Films made an offer… of $100,000. Then when it was finally released, pretty much every reviewer hated it. That can understandably make one quite bitter.
• The scene in which Marino’s character plows the van into a tree is directly based on an incident that happened to Wain.
• In one of the first drafts of the scene where Andy throws the kid out of the van after witnessing him let his swimming buddy drown, Wain originally had Andy take out a gun, screw on a silencer and pop a bullet in the back of the kids head.
  Wain’s dad read it and said if he kept the scene in, he would disown him.