Austin Film Festival Retrospective: 2 Face

When people started talking about the live script reading of Vince Gilligan's 2 Face, I was thinking to myself "is there really enough there for that Batman villain to get a spinoff?" Ha - not really (actually really, but I'm too embarrassed to admit it now). Okay, in all honesty I did not know what people were talking about and hearing how long the line would be and how early I'd have to get there I was absolutely sure I wasn't going.

And then, of course, I went. Shocking twist!

Talking with people in line, I gathered enough information (without betraying my complete incompetence) to determine that this was a rather famously unproduced comedy script originally written in the 90's. I knew Will Ferrell was there to read for it (everyone knew Will Ferrell was there to read for it) and that was all I could get without blowing my cover.

Thanks to Slackerwood for this picture. Also, Slackerwood, may I use your picture?

The picture above should sufficiently answer your question as to whether waiting in line for two hours was worth the trouble. Without going into details (for fear of losing my life and those I love, I am forbade from details of any sort regarding this stage reading), I'll just say that it's been a while since I laughed so hard. And I'm pretty proud of how often and how hard I laugh. Others are usually just startled.

It's almost impossible at these film festivals (because I've been to two, you know) to determine what to go to and what you can miss without creating an endless void within oneself that will never be filled by anything else. In trying to nail down exactly what it was about this script reading that I was willing to devote four hours of my life (two standing hours) to it, I can only boil it down to this: Will Ferrell, Vince Gilligan, unproduced script. Should those three stars ever align again, I will be there.