Will Russell and Scott Shuffitt, "I'm A Lebowski, You're A Lebowski" co-authors: Mr. Media Interview, Part 3 (Return to Part 2)

(Return to Part 1)

BOB ANDELMAN/Mr. MEDIA: Let’s give the book a little plug here. And by the way, I want to point out that there are actually four guys credited on the book. In addition to Will Russell and Scott Shuffitt, who are on the phone with us, Bill Green and Ben Peskoe are also co-authors of the book. Tell folks a little about the book, if they haven’t seen it. And particularly anyone who’s listening to this and has gotten this far with us is no doubt a fan of The Big Lebowski. So tell folks a little bit about what’s in it. It’s a lot of interviews and a lot of photos, but what else is in it? What’s most special about the book to you guys?

SCOTT SHUFFITT: I think the thing that’s really special about it is just that it’s such a collection of information about the film. Like you said, there are interviews with the actors - John Goodman, Jeff Bridges, John Turturro, Philip Seymour Hoffman and more. We did interviews with the folks that the Coen Brothers based the characters on, which is fantastic, one of them being Jake Freeman, who was the real Little Larry, which was a fantastic story. There is a minute-by-minute kind of thing that you can go along with with the DVD that points out little things, little trivial things. So it’s jam-packed with information, for sure.






WILL RUSSELL: One of my favorite parts are the behind-the-scenes photos that Jeff Bridges took on the set. He’s got this big wide-angle camera, and they’re just great shots because you recognize the scene from seeing the movie so much, but it’s like such a different perspective. And it’s like the closest thing, I think, that we’ll ever get to like deleted scenes or extra footage cause, apparently, the Coen Brothers like to keep a real tight wrap on that kind of stuff. It’s just a great different perspective to the movie.

ANDELMAN: Jim, I’m gonna ask your question because I thought it was a good one, and I think I have the answer at the same time. We were talking last night, and Jim was wondering, “How do the Coen Brothers feel about all this?” And thumbing through the book, I saw that really the first page is actually a quote from them. It says, “They have neither our blessings nor our curse.” Have you guys had contact with them? How do they feel about you profiting from their work like this?

RUSSELL: The one official interaction we had was through their assistant. They let us borrow the prop marmot -- or ferret, if you will -- from the film. They had it stuffed and put in a glass case, and they let us borrow it for one of the Lebowski Fests in Louisville. And they asked for a couple Achiever shirts and a poster. I think the lending of the marmot was an unofficial thumbs-up, but yes, they won’t go on the record saying either way. I think they’re probably a little scared of us, which I can’t say I blame them, I guess.

JIM DOTEN: Just a little.

RUSSELL: I would imagine they probably get a kick out of it cause it’s all pretty ridiculous.

DOTEN: You don’t have to license like, say, those bumper stickers you have online that you sell? They don’t say, “Hey, you’re using a line from there, you have to license it” or anything like that?
SHUFFITT: They haven’t given us their curse yet.

DOTEN: Okay. You haven’t gotten any form letter from their attorneys. Okay.

ANDELMAN: So I have to ask – dollar-wise, in the year 2007, what’s the ownership of all this worth to you guys?

RUSSELL: Who knows?

ANDELMAN: Oh, I think you guys know. I’m just asking if you’ll tell us.

RUSSELL: I think that it’s something that me and Scott kind of started this thing, and it’s just kind of way bigger than what we’re doing. It’s kind of this massive worldwide following of The Big Lebowski. There are a lot of midnight screenings that pop up around the country, and people getting together and dressing up in bathrobes like The Dude and going bowling. We just kind of opened the doors, and everybody else kind of has taken it from where we started.

DOTEN: Party central.

ANDELMAN: The Coen Brothers haven’t come after you for licensing, as Jim was asking, but what I wondered is what if you found other people putting on Lebowski Fests? Would you go after them?

SHUFFITT: Well, Lebowski Fest is just a term. We do feel like it’s a brand that we’ve created, and we ain’t gonna go after anybody. First and foremost, anybody who has watched The Big Lebowski 125 times ain’t gonna get off the couch unless the house is on fire, pretty much. But we do feel like just the term “Lebowski Fest,” we feel like that kind of does belong to us. Who knows?

RUSSELL: Yeah. If people want to have Big Lebowski parties or whatever, that’s totally cool. We love it, but it’s just we don’t want people to use “Lebowski Fest” just so people don’t get confused as to who’s doing what. We work hard to put on a good event, and we want it to be a certain way.





ANDELMAN: I asked you guys early in the conversation how you felt about the comparison to Star Trek fans. I thought of another one. This was probably something Jim planted in my mind - Rocky Horror Picture Show. Big Lebowski even has a big musical number in it. Is that a closer, fairer comparison?

RUSSELL: Sure. Rocky Horror is kind of the definitive cult movie. It was like the first one to really be a sensation.

SHUFFITT: Midnight screenings and all that.

RUSSELL: Yeah, yeah. And the dressing up and the rituals and all that stuff. So, yeah, we’re definitely in the same vein. We just don’t cross-dress quite as much.

SHUFFITT: When I was doing research for the book, one of the things that I found was that there is a group of people that do a Wizard of Oz -- I don’t know if it’s like a fest, it’s probably more just like a little convention or something, but they’ve been doing that for like 50 years. So you don’t hear about it as much, but we are definitely not the first people to put on a gathering of people based around the love of a film.

RUSSELL: Going on all over.

ANDELMAN: I guess the next event is Chicago in March. Is that right?

RUSSELL: Yeah. We’ve got a Creedence cover band that’s gonna play.

DOTEN: Alright.

ANDELMAN: If Fogerty’s out there touring, maybe you can just bring him in.

RUSSELL: Who’s that? Fogerty?

ANDELMAN: Fogerty, yeah.

RUSSELL: Fogerty’s a little pricey. We like the Creedence cover band. It helps us keep the ticket prices down.

ANDELMAN: I know Jim is actually thinking about coming up to Chicago in March for this -- what will he find? Is it a one-day event? Is it two days? What kind of things are going on?

RUSSELL: It’s two days. The first night we have bands play like Creedence cover band and Chicago, and then we’ve got this beautiful, historic theater called the Portage Theater where we’re gonna screen the original 35 mm film print of The Big Lebowski. And this is actually the ten-year anniversary of the film’s release that weekend, March 7th, and then the next day, March 8th, is at a bowling alley, Waveland Bowl. And it’s just kind of madness like the world of Lebowski comes to life where people are running around in costume dressed as The Dude or nihilists.

DOTEN: What’s the wildest costume you guys have seen?

SHUFFITT: “A World of Pain,” which was this costume…It was in Louisville this past summer. He brought it in on the back of his truck and once he got to Louisville, he actually had to assemble it. He stayed in this thing all night, and it was on wheels, about five and a half foot tall. It was about five and a half foot wide, and it had these two levers on it that he operated from the inside. It looked like a huge globe, and he had these levers on the inside where he made an axe and a big hammer come down on the globe up on his head as it was sticking out of the top of this globe. And it was called “A World of Pain.” It was completely ridiculous and fantastic all at the same time.

DOTEN: Sounds like an acid flashback.

SHUFFITT: Yeah, no doubt.

ANDELMAN: Well, guys, in the immortal words of Walter, “Fuck it, Dude, let’s go bowling.”

© 2007 by Bob Andelman. All rights reserved.

Labels: Coen Brothers, I'm A Lebowski, Jeff Bridges, Lebowski Fest, Scott Shuffitt, The Big Lebowski, Will Russell, You're A Lebowski

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