So, ever since I’d heard that Bill Murray had to drop out of filming Asteroid City, I’ve wondered which role he’d meant to play. After seeing the movie, I thought it was either the grandfather (played by Tom Hanks) or the hotel manager (Steve Carell) and it was Carell’s role:
Murray was originally cast as a motel manager in the desert town where the movie is set, in 1955. “Normally, I don’t think it’s such a nice idea to tell everyone the person who didn’t end up in the movie,” Anderson said recently. “But Bill got covid in Ireland, and it was four days before he was supposed to work.” Murray was in Ireland for a family trip (“And usually golf has something to do with it,” Anderson said), en route to Spain, where “Asteroid City” was shooting. With Murray in quarantine, Anderson scrambled to recast the part. “The movie was a jigsaw puzzle of actors’ schedules, so we couldn’t wait,” he recalled. “We were extremely lucky that Steve Carell said yes — and was perfect in the part.”
Then, the day after the movie wrapped, Anderson and Murray concocted an idea: in a metatheatrical curlicue, Murray would play a character who was cut from the film. Anderson corralled Schwartzman, who plays a war photographer (and the actor playing the war photographer), and they shot a short scene in the style of a retro promotional trailer for a Hollywood film, in which a director or a studio executive would give a stilted pitch for an exciting new picture. Think of the Paramount head Robert Evans boosting “Love Story” and “The Godfather,” or Cecil B. DeMille hyping his 1934 production of “Cleopatra.” Anderson recalled, “We made this very peculiar thing that is just a spontaneous creation before the set was going to be struck down. It was the last thing we did. And then we put all our things in the golf cart and drove off into the sunset.”
[I know, this is a lot of Asteroid City stuff — maybe you don’t care about this quite so much? He gets like this about stuff he likes. It’s ok, he’ll grow tired of it in a few days and the site will go back to being about *checks notes* everything else in this whole wide world. -ed]
I know, I know — recursive humor is tricky, and most of the time, it doesn’t really work. But I was nearly as thrilled as Ned Ryerson bumping into an old friend when I noticed that my guestblogging time was going to coincide with the Thirtieth Anniversary of the classic Bill Murray / Andie MacDowell / Harold Ramis romantic comedy Groundhog Day — i.e., the tenth anniversary of Kottke.org’s 2013 twentieth anniversary Groundhog Day liveblog, written by Jason Kottke, Aaron Cohen, Sarah Pavis, and me.
Can you believe it’s been ten years? Feels like both just one day and a whole lifetime. It’s true; sometimes today is tomorrow.
For those few of you not content with reliving old Groundhog Day content, here are some deleted scenes of Phil Connors shooting pool and bowling a perfect game. (Look how gloriously 1993 it is! Scoring by hand!)
Bill Murray is a co-owner of the Charleston RiverDogs, a Class A minor league team in the South Atlantic League. His official title is “Director of Fun.” In 2012, Amy Nelson and an SBNation video team went down to interview Murray for his induction into that league’s hall of fame.
Netflix will air a Christmas special starring Bill Murray and directed by Sofia Coppola. That is an amazing collection of proper nouns all together in the same sentence.
Written by Sofia Coppola, Bill Murray and Mitch Glazer and directed by Sofia Coppola, A Very Murray Christmas is described as an homage to the classic variety show featuring Bill Murray playing himself, as he worries no one will show up to his TV show due to a terrible snow storm in New York City. Through luck and perseverance, guests arrive at the Carlyle hotel to help him; dancing and singing in holiday spirit.
According to several sources — including news posts yesterday by local NBC affiliate sites that have since been taken down — the one and only Bill Murray will be making a glorious return to SNL to help ring in its 40th year on the air, while fellow SNL alum Sarah Silverman and TV-turned-movie star Chris Pratt will host the second and third episodes, respectively.
NBC has announced that Chris Pratt will be hosting the season premiere, with Sarah Silverman hosting the second episode. It’s not clear what happened to Murray-as-host — it may have been rescheduled to later in the season or canceled altogether.
Go back to your homes and places of business in peace. No looting please. (via @zakmahshie)
If you’re reading this site, you’ll probably like watching Charlie Rose interview Bill Murray for nearly an hour. The whole thing is available on Hulu (US only):
The video is recent too: Feb 9, 2014. A clip is available on YouTube…check out that leather vest!
And from a different interview with Murray, we learn that everyone has been drinking champagne incorrectly. Here’s the Murray method:
I learned how to drink champagne a while ago. But the way I like to drink champagne is I like to make what we call a Montana Cooler, where you buy a case of champagne and you take all the bottles out, and you take all the cardboard out, and you put a garbage bag inside of it, then you put all the bottles back in and then you cover it with ice, and then you wrap it up and you close it. And that will keep it all cold for a weekend and you can drink every single bottle. And the way I like to drink it in a big pint glass with ice. I fill it with ice and I pour the champagne in it, because champagne can never be too cold. And the problem people have with champagne is they drink it and they crash with it, because the sugar content is so high and you get really dehydrated. But if you can get the ice in it, you can drink it supremely cold and at the same time you’re getting the melting ice, so it’s like a hydration level, and you can stay at this great level for a whole weekend. You don’t want to crash. You want to keep that buzz, that bling, that smile.
Q: If you could go back in time and have a conversation with one person, who would it be and why?
A: That’s a grand question, golly.
I kind of like scientists, in a funny way. Albert Einstein was a pretty cool guy. The thing about Einstein was that he was a theoretical physicist, so they were all theories. He was just a smart guy. I’m kind of interested in genetics though. I think I would have liked to have met Gregor Mendel.
Because he was a monk who just sort of figured this stuff out on his own. That’s a higher mind, that’s a mind that’s connected. They have a vision, and they just sort of see it because they are so connected intellectually and mechanically and spiritually, they can access a higher mind. Mendel was a guy so long ago that I don’t necessarily know very much about him, but I know that Einstein did his work in the mountains in Switzerland. I think the altitude had an effect on the way they spoke and thought.
But I would like to know about Mendel, because i remember going to the Philippines and thinking “this is like Mendel’s garden” because it had been invaded by so many different countries over the years, and you could see the children shared the genetic traits of all their invaders over the years, and it made for this beautiful varietal garden.
In celebration of Groundhog Day and the 20th anniversary of the release of Groundhog Day, the classic movie directed by Harold Ramis and starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell, we’re going to be liveblogging the movie starting at 8pm EST tonight.
If you’d like to watch along, you have several options: you can buy or rent on iTunes, buy or rent it on Amazon, find it on Bittorrent or Usenet, or stream it on Netflix (not sure if it’s actually available). If you’re awesome, you might already own a copy of the movie on DVD or Blu-ray. AMC is also showing Groundhog Day several times today but not at 8 so you’ll have to DVR it earlier. Check local listings as they say. There will be commercials in the AMC version, so you’ll get behind every time there’s a break, which is a bummer but not an insurmountable issue.
However you choose to watch it, queue up the movie at the blank screen just an instant before the clouds appear and at 08:00:00 pm EST on this clock, push play. Ok, cool. We’ll see you right back here at 8 pm tonight?
(Oh, and Bill, if you’re out there, we’d love to have you join in. Send me an email.)
An update: Ok, the liveblog has concluded, the archive is here. Also, Bill never emailed. :(
Update 2 [February 2, 2016]: So, Branch shut down, and with it the live link to the liveblog. But the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine came to the rescue. Here then, allow me to present, a lightly formatted record of our February 2, 2013 liveblog of Groundhog Day. — Tim Carmody
February 2, 2013
Jason Kottke
Hey guys, we’ll be getting started here in a little bit. Hope this is fun….I’ve never liveblogged a non-live event before. Quick Bill Murray update: he has not emailed me yet.
2013-02-03 00:43:35
Tim Carmody
Someone, tell Bill Murray his wife is about to have sex on TV!
2013-02-03 00:49:13
Tim Carmody
So years ago, I bought the Special Edition DVD of Groundhog Day, which has a little featurette and director’s commentary from Harold Ramis. And the featurette is pretty good — the original script was much darker/artier, it started with Phil being already caught in the repeating loop. But the director’s commentary is just terrible.
2013-02-03 00:59:32
Jason Kottke
Ok, and we’re off!!
2013-02-03 01:00:20
Tim Carmody
You know all the jokes about bad DVD commentary? This hit every single one of them. It’s just Harold Ramis watching his own movie, and then saying the punchlines to the jokes right before the actors say them. And every once in a while saying how much he likes a scene.
2013-02-03 01:00:33
Jason Kottke
So the first thing that you’ll notice is that movies used to be a lot slower.
2013-02-03 01:01:17
Aaron Cohen
Tom Hanks was the first choice for Phil, but he was too nice. Tori Amos was considered for Rita.
2013-02-03 01:01:32
Tim Carmody
I had a huge crush on Andie McDowell in this movie, and my first real girlfriend in college looked and acted quite a bit like Rita.
2013-02-03 01:01:51
Tim Carmody
I wonder what debt Anchorman owes or has acknowledged to this movie?
2013-02-03 01:03:29
Jason Kottke
So, we’re still getting credits here. We’re watching a van drive. Isn’t Bill Murray just the perfect weather guy though? And the perfect amount of disgust on his face…
2013-02-03 01:04:48
Jason Kottke
I will not be typing Puxatawny or however it is spelled. I will be typing Puxawhatever. Deal.
2013-02-03 01:06:24
Jason Kottke
Rise and shine count: 1
2013-02-03 01:08:00
Tim Carmody
I was talking to a new friend of mine about this movie yesterday and she said that she hated this movie in the theater. It made her feel physically uncomfortable, anxious, and trapped, like Phil is in the story. Later, she saw it on TV and loved it.
2013-02-03 01:10:06
Jason Kottke
Stephen Tobolowsky!
2013-02-03 01:10:29
Sarah Pavis
it’s great to see stephen tobolowsky back when he was so jaunty
2013-02-03 01:11:06
Tim Carmody
I think I first saw Tobolowsky in Sneakers.
2013-02-03 01:11:36
Tim Carmody
Tomorrow we liveblog Sneakers.
2013-02-03 01:11:43
Tim Carmody
It’s kind of a shame this movie didn’t make anyone’s career. Maybe, MAYBE Tobolowsky.
2013-02-03 01:12:42
Jason Kottke
I’m not sure I saw this in the theater. Don’t really remember when I did see it for the first time.
2013-02-03 01:13:09
Tim Carmody
It redefined Bill Murray’s career. But there are no breakout stars, even though the supporting cast does a great job.
2013-02-03 01:13:16
Tim Carmody
I first saw it at my cousin’s house. I think that may have been the first time I ever got drunk.
2013-02-03 01:13:54
Jason Kottke
I dunno, I think this was a little bit of a revitalization of Murray’s career, before Wes Anderson got ahold of him.
2013-02-03 01:14:01
Sarah Pavis
for me groundhog day is one of the few perfect movies along with princess bride & galaxy quest
2013-02-03 01:14:26
Tim Carmody
Not everyone may know that the mayor/impresario/whoever (not fully clear what his official role is) is Bill’s brother Brian Doyle Murray.
2013-02-03 01:14:43
Aaron Cohen
That’s Murray’s brother reading the groundhog proclamation… And groundhog’s have a predictive value of about 30%-40%.
Tim Carmody
It’s weird that Phil could have been Tom Hanks (who had a dark, sarcastic streak as a young actor) when one of my fantasies is to recast Cast Away with Bill Murray instead of Hanks (and Julianne Moore instead of Helen Hunt).
2013-02-03 01:16:28
Jason Kottke
Back in the real world, the groundhog didn’t see his shadow this morning, so spring is around the corner:
Tim Carmody
This moment with the state trooper is the first where Phil’s behavior isn’t just jerky, but kind of implausibly outrageous.
2013-02-03 01:17:42
Sarah Pavis
30-40%? that’s statistically significant, if in a non-optimal direction. if we took the opposite advice of groundhogs we’d be right 70% of the time.
2013-02-03 01:18:49
Aaron Cohen
I like casting movie remakes so I spent some time thinking of who would be in Groundhog Day 2013. I got Gerard Butler for Murray, Tina Fey for Rita, Chris Elliot or Steve Buscemi for Chris Elliot… With some alternates and darkhorses…
2013-02-03 01:19:00
Tim Carmody
Murray improvised and rewrote a lot of his lines, Scorsese-style (he and Ramis pitched, and then they set it). “Read a little Hustler or something” is very Bill Murray.
2013-02-03 01:19:04
Jason Kottke
Gerard Butler? Come on, you’re very close to being kicked off the team here. Man up, Cohen.
2013-02-03 01:19:52
Tim Carmody
If you put Tina Fey in Groundhog Day 2013, I think she has to be the protagonist.
2013-02-03 01:19:58
Sarah Pavis
you need someone more deadpan and morose for the lead, i nominate aubrey plaza
2013-02-03 01:21:05
Tim Carmody
“Don’t mess with me, Pork Chop” is a deft foreshadowing of the character Phil would later come to call “Bronco.”
2013-02-03 01:21:13
Aaron Cohen
Alternates for Murray were Jon Krasinski, Jason Segel, Chris Rock…
2013-02-03 01:21:26
Tim Carmody
I think if I recast Phil’s character in this movie today I would do my very best to secure Bill Murray.
2013-02-03 01:22:22
Jason Kottke
Man, I can’t even think who would be good to play Phil in a reboot. Ryan Gosling can do anything, right?
2013-02-03 01:22:43
Tim Carmody
Murray does some real, quite subtle acting in these early first-repetition scenes.
2013-02-03 01:23:09
Jason Kottke
How many times does Tobolowsky say “bing”? Do we have a count on that?
2013-02-03 01:23:15
Sarah Pavis
richard ayoade would be awesome as phil
2013-02-03 01:24:00
Tim Carmody
When was the last time you saw a movie where so many people wear so many clothes?
2013-02-03 01:24:08
Jason Kottke
I’m reading this Buzzfeed list about GHD and Tori Amos was considered for the role of Rita? buzzfeed.com
Aaron Cohen
It really is called Gobblers Knob, that commons, which is weird.
2013-02-03 01:24:28
Tim Carmody
Sometimes I think about the way Phil just walks out of places whenever I feel deeply uncomfortable somewhere. And then, as often as not, I go ahead and just walk out without saying anything.
I like to say “I put the Irish in Irish Goodbye.”
2013-02-03 01:25:56
Aaron Cohen
Continuity issue: By skipping breakfast, Phil would be a few seconds ahead of Ned Ryerson etc, right?
2013-02-03 01:26:44
Jason Kottke
This is the third time through?
2013-02-03 01:26:49
Tim Carmody
If I remember correctly, they shot Groundhog Day in a small town in Illinois.
2013-02-03 01:26:58
Tim Carmody
Time number three. “I’ve already done it twice.”
2013-02-03 01:27:23
Jason Kottke
Is GHD a time travel movie? Like Primer or Looper?
2013-02-03 01:28:24
Aaron Cohen
It’s Dr. Spaceman!
2013-02-03 01:28:34
Tim Carmody
Re: Aaron’s point about continuity, there’s a certain conservation principle at work in Phil’s repetitions. He can’t really change or affect the circumstances around him, in a meaningful way. The only thing he can change is himself.
2013-02-03 01:28:41
Jason Kottke
Ramis! I forgot he was in this.
2013-02-03 01:28:45
Tim Carmody
This was the first time we saw fat Harold Ramis.
2013-02-03 01:29:32
Sarah Pavis
I thought that too, Aaron. He wouldn’t have seen Ned. He went through the lobby too fast.
2013-02-03 01:30:04
Tim Carmody
The guy with the beard is Rick Overton, a terrific comedian.
2013-02-03 01:30:14
Aaron Cohen
Sea otters make love like sea otters so they don’t drift away when they sleep.
2013-02-03 01:30:50
Jason Kottke
So, there’s an entire book about this movie:
Tim Carmody
“What would you do if you were stuck in one place, and everything was exactly the same, and nothing that you did mattered?” was the joke that hit me full in the face when I saw this at 13.
2013-02-03 01:31:18
Jason Kottke
The author of the book wrote this piece for the Guardian: guardian.co.uk
Aaron Cohen
How many days in a row of it being the same day would it take you to decide you could do whatever you wanted? Seems like a sane person might need more than 3…
2013-02-03 01:32:50
Tim Carmody
Here’s a theory: Phil can’t ever really harm himself. Not just that if he attempts suicide, he restarts. But he can’t injure himself, or even really get drunk, or get a stomachache from eating too much food. Are there counterexamples in the film?
2013-02-03 01:33:06
Sarah Pavis
wow phil gets fatalist fast in this. i’d forgotten.
2013-02-03 01:33:16
Tim Carmody
Like he crashes the car, and everybody else gets hurt, but not Phil. That’s crazy.
2013-02-03 01:34:31
Aaron Cohen
Here’s the original NYT review from 2/93.
“That glimmer of recognition is what makes “Groundhog Day” a particularly witty and resonant comedy, even when its jokes are more apt to prompt gentle giggles than rolling in the aisles. The story’s premise, conceived as a sitcom-style visit to the Twilight Zone, starts out lightweight but becomes strangely affecting. Phil Connors, Mr. Murray’s amusingly rude Pittsburgh television personality, surely deserves to be punished for his arrogance. But who in the audience hasn’t ever wished time would stand still and offer a second, third or even a 20th chance?”
Jason Kottke
I dunno, I think you’d feel invincible pretty quick. Like being a superhero or something. Except for the whole you can’t affect any true change in the world.
2013-02-03 01:35:33
Tim Carmody
I love that bit of acting when he’s in jail and the bars close on him, like he wonders for a brief moment whether he’s just really screwed up. Then his divine exuberance in the morning.
2013-02-03 01:35:38
Sarah Pavis
i think this plays out more like a video game than a time travel movie. phil fucks up: reboot.
2013-02-03 01:35:48
Aaron Cohen
I would like to try that with a piece of angle food cake sometime.
2013-02-03 01:37:05
Jason Kottke
I love how he sticks that whole thing in his mouth.
2013-02-03 01:37:54
Tim Carmody
If there are any teenagers watching this, Willard Scott was Al Roker before Al Roker.
2013-02-03 01:38:17
Jason Kottke
That poem is My Native Land by Sir Walter Scott: poemhunter.com
Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land!
Whose heart hath ne’er within him burn’d,
As home his footsteps he hath turn’d
From wandering on a foreign strand!
If such there breathe, go, mark him well;
For him no Minstrel raptures swell;
High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim;
Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
The wretch, concentred all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust, from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonour’d, and unsung.
Tim Carmody
I kind of like how Nancy is an attractive but by movie standards ordinary-looking small-town woman. If they made this movie now, Phil would be banging Megan Fox or something.
2013-02-03 01:39:42
Sarah Pavis
if bill murray weren’t so likeable, bamboozling women into liking/sleeping with him would be creepy
2013-02-03 01:40:08
Aaron Cohen
Tim mentioned that so Jason would be forced to share Megan Fox’s toe thumbs.
2013-02-03 01:40:25
Tim Carmody
That’s his secret, Sarah — he can be genuinely sleazy and we like him anyways.
2013-02-03 01:40:41
Tim Carmody
I like how this jump (the first, I think to do this) implies that Phil’s spent a LOT of time in this town. If we see his first four-five loops as they happen, now he may be 100X or more into it.
2013-02-03 01:42:23
Jason Kottke
So there’s discontinuity here, yes? I mean, this can’t be the 5th time through. He probably watched that bank truck, what, 20 times?
2013-02-03 01:43:05
Sarah Pavis
didn’t the director say that he repeated the day something like 10,000 times?
2013-02-03 01:43:11
Aaron Cohen
Several semi-official timelines exist from 4-5 years to 10 years to 10K years.
2013-02-03 01:44:05
Tim Carmody
This is “Phil the professional” phase. He repeats and refines his day the same way he repeats and refines the little schtick he does in front of the groundhog. He’s learning and memorizing his lines. He’s trying to live his life like it’s a broadcast.
2013-02-03 01:45:14
Jason Kottke
Jamie Zawinski calculated four years but the screenwriter said it was about 10 years: jwz.org
Happy Groundhog Day! jwz.org
2013-02-03 01:45:39
Sarah Pavis
no, i think he’s just bored of messing with the townies and wants to up his game with a longer con.
2013-02-03 01:46:41
Aaron Cohen
Ordering sweet vermouth on the rocks at that bar would probably get you the nastiest tasting drink of all time.
2013-02-03 01:47:06
Jason Kottke
That screenwriter was Danny Rubin…he wrote a book called “How to Write Groundhog Day” that answers a bunch of questions about the film: howtowritegroundhogday.com
How to Write Groundhog Day howtowritegroundhogday.com
2013-02-03 01:47:25
Tim Carmody
I’ve never had it, but sweet vermouth on the rocks with lemon sounds like a terrible drink. I like vermouth, but it needs something more. As Phil says, “I’d like one more of these with some booze in it.”
2013-02-03 01:47:36
Tim Carmody
Bill Murray himself hates vermouth. When he makes a martini, he whispers the word “vermouth” over the glass.
2013-02-03 01:48:02
Aaron Cohen
I just don’t expect that type of bar would go through enough vermouth to keep it from going bad.
2013-02-03 01:48:23
Tim Carmody
I’m so happy Aaron agrees with me on vermouth.
2013-02-03 01:48:59
Tim Carmody
I’ve always wondered whether the “live in the mountains, at high altitudes” line is something Phil cooked up by workshopping it with Rita, or if that’s somehow his idea of what would impress someone like her, and he just stuck with it.
2013-02-03 01:49:59
Jason Kottke
This liveblogging is totally interfering with my enjoyment of the movie.
2013-02-03 01:50:24
Tim Carmody
Sarah I agree that it’s a long con on Rita, but the way he goes about it is really pulling in all his (limited, but impressive) skills as a TV weatherman. It’s memorization, repetition, and performance.
2013-02-03 01:50:45
Sarah Pavis
with pick-up artist bullshit being so prevalent nowadays this section conning rita feels a lot creepier watching it now than it did when i originally watched it years ago. as tim maly said, phil’s acting like a redditor.
2013-02-03 01:50:56
Tim Carmody
“phil’s acting like a redditor.” <— Ha! good one, Tim.
2013-02-03 01:51:31
Aaron Cohen
Are the types of things he’s doing the same as the pick-up artist bullshit? He’s saying what she wants to hear, not aggressively pressuring with suggestive touches… Realizing how much I know of that culture makes me want a shower now.
2013-02-03 01:52:16
Jason Kottke
The universe doesn’t like creepy. It doesn’t let Phil off the hook until he genuinely changes.
2013-02-03 01:52:47
Tim Carmody
I think all of us have thought about repeating things or trying to make/plan a “perfect day,” but I do wonder if videogame culture has that kind of strategy hardwired into us a little bit more.
2013-02-03 01:52:55
Tim Carmody
I think it’s important that this doesn’t actually work on Rita. It wins her over for a moment, but 1) she sees through him pretty quickly and 2) as Jason says, the universe sort of keeps Phil from changing her too much.
2013-02-03 01:54:54
Aaron Cohen
Phil Connors never punts when he plays Madden.
2013-02-03 01:55:02
Tim Carmody
Groundhog Day speedrun
2013-02-03 01:55:41
Tim Carmody
On this second full runthrough, Phil starts to lose it. Where he could fake sincerity for a little while before, now he can’t even fool himself.
2013-02-03 01:56:27
Tim Carmody
Guys, when you try to do that pickup artist stuff, this is the Phil you look like.
2013-02-03 01:56:50
Aaron Cohen
The slaps come earlier and earlier when the day loses any spontaneity.
2013-02-03 01:57:00
Sarah Pavis
Groundhog Day as PUA morality play
2013-02-03 01:57:11
Tim Carmody
This, with Phil lying in bed, repeating the radio patter, is when I realized this movie wasn’t operating at typical comedy level.
2013-02-03 01:58:32
Aaron Cohen
I thought Phil was a Jim Beam man, but that wasn’t Beam, was it?
2013-02-03 01:58:54
Jason Kottke
Fun fact! On Nantucket, they pull a clam out of the harbor and see if it spits left or right. This year, it spit left, which means 6 more weeks of winter. Meet Quentin the Quahog: ack.net
Tim Carmody
When I watch this movie, I like to say Phil’s Jeopardy answers at the same time that he does. In related news, I’m obnoxious.
2013-02-03 01:59:06
Sarah Pavis
took me awhile to snap and upload but OMG RITA’S VEST remember the 90s? i owned more vests than i care to admit to
2013-02-03 02:00:46
Tim Carmody
“Out of his gourd” is still a pretty important part of my vocabulary. As is “I’ve come to the end of me.”
2013-02-03 02:01:02
Sarah Pavis
tim, sounds like you should do a commentary track
2013-02-03 02:01:23
Jason Kottke
I wore a vest to a job interview in 1996. And a puffy shirt! Oh God, we’re dredging up some bad things here.
2013-02-03 02:01:48
Tim Carmody
Yeppppp OBNOXIOUS
2013-02-03 02:01:55
Aaron Cohen
Don’t drive angry.
2013-02-03 02:03:27
Jason Kottke
The stealing the groundhog scene is my favorite in the movie. “Pretty good for a quadruped.” “Side of the eye, side of the eye.” “Don’t drive angry.”
2013-02-03 02:04:15
Jason Kottke
Aaron, where’s that from? (I mean, I know, but others might want to know.)
2013-02-03 02:05:12
Tim Carmody
This moment here, after Phil falls from the church window, is unusual in that we see all the other characters continue with their day after Phil has died.
2013-02-03 02:06:14
Aaron Cohen
That piece was Chris Pasick’s submission to last year’s Super Precious Art Gallery’s mini-Groundhog Day art show. superprecio.us
Tim Carmody
This long “I am a god” scene is my favorite. Watch how it turns from him being smug and kind of jokey. At first Phil just wants to humor Rita. By the end, he’s sincerely desperate for her to believe him.
2013-02-03 02:07:26
Tim Carmody
Then the long “you like boats but not the ocean” speech. Getting a little misty, frankly.
2013-02-03 02:08:57
Jason Kottke
Is this a comedy? Drama? Something in-between? I mean, it’s funny but there’s also a lot more too it. Like existential heavy things.
2013-02-03 02:09:25
Tim Carmody
I think it’s a comedy with existential motifs. It’s an exploration of the absurd. But, for all its reality-bending metaphysics and philosophical themes, it also has a fairly traditional comic-romantic arc.
2013-02-03 02:11:12
Aaron Cohen
Jason, heard that was the gist of the trouble between Ramis and Murray. Ramis wanted it to be more of a comedy and Murray wanted it to be darker…
2013-02-03 02:11:28
Tim Carmody
“Gosh, you’re an upbeat lady!” is a formula I go to pretty often too.
2013-02-03 02:11:52
Jason Kottke
Most of my favorite movies hit in-between genres like that.
2013-02-03 02:12:16
Aaron Cohen
Just like Unstoppable.
2013-02-03 02:12:58
Tim Carmody
“I don’t deserve someone like you…” is also a pretty amazing moment, with great, not-too-flashy writing.
2013-02-03 02:13:26
Jason Kottke
My wife: although creepy, Phil doesn’t resort to raping Rita. Which is a fair point.
2013-02-03 02:13:28
Sarah Pavis
or like Crank. i love that crazy balls action comedy.
2013-02-03 02:14:06
Tim Carmody
Let’s all pass out our “Hey, I’m not a Rapist!!” pins
2013-02-03 02:14:17
Jason Kottke
Ok, so why didn’t Phil’s ordeal end after that? He finally gets it, right? I think it’s because the whole thing hinges on Rita. She needs to fall in love with him before things can move on.
2013-02-03 02:17:25
Aaron Cohen
The Groundhog Day liveblog 2014 is going to go up against the Super Bowl if we do it at night. (The Patriots will beat the Lions and Bernard Pollard (who went to the Lions as a freeagent will leave the field with a career ending knee injury).
2013-02-03 02:17:38
Tim Carmody
There’s also the whole self-improvement and selflessness thing.
2013-02-03 02:19:44
Sarah Pavis
i legit forget how this movie ends. is it about rita falling in love with him or him living one day sincerely?
2013-02-03 02:19:57
Tim Carmody
Some poignant, strange, not fully revealed subtext in Phil calling the old homeless man “father” and “pop.”
2013-02-03 02:21:11
Jason Kottke
Does the old man actually remember him? The one character that does?
2013-02-03 02:21:41
Tim Carmody
He also has to realize his own limits, that not everything is or will be under his control. That is part of what this sequence is about.
2013-02-03 02:22:06
Jason Kottke
OH: “I want Tim Carmody to commentate my life.”
2013-02-03 02:22:43
Tim Carmody
It helps if I’ve seen your life at least a hundred times before.
2013-02-03 02:23:15
Aaron Cohen
Is “Not today” the start of Phil trying to change how the day ends? Also, Phil calls him father, dad, pop, hinting at possible father abandonment issues for our erstwhile protagonist is one of the greatest analytical leaps I’ve ever made.
2013-02-03 02:23:22
Tim Carmody
That kid who falls out of the tree isn’t Joseph Gordon Levitt, but wouldn’t it be awesome if he were?
2013-02-03 02:24:38
Jason Kottke
There’s a playlist on Rdio of all the music from the movie: rdio.com
Groundhog Day Soundtrack rdio.com
2013-02-03 02:25:00
Aaron Cohen
No joke, I was at an event where Dr Henry Heimlich’s wife called herself Mrs. Maneuver.
2013-02-03 02:25:11
Tim Carmody
Pick-up artist guys, you also look like Chris Elliott trying to pick up Nancy.
2013-02-03 02:25:46
Sarah Pavis
i saw him in the diner scene, i never knew michael shannon was in this movie cityoffilms.com
Jason Kottke
My wife is talking about how Phil’s behavior at various loops through the day mirrors Freud’s theories about the id, ego, and superego.
2013-02-03 02:27:29
Sarah Pavis
this movie plays it small, the comedy & the existentialism.
2013-02-03 02:28:24
Aaron Cohen
“Fastest jack in Jefferson County.”
2013-02-03 02:28:33
Tim Carmody
One day, I just want a woman to look in my eyes with as much love as the “fastest jack in Jefferson County” woman has for Phil.
2013-02-03 02:28:45
Sarah Pavis
whoa young michael shannon is a cutie (still got those psycho eyes though)
2013-02-03 02:29:24
Tim Carmody
The great Robin Duke. Lots of old Second City/SNL people in this movie.
2013-02-03 02:31:04
Jason Kottke
Checkbook! Who carries a checkbook around anymore?
2013-02-03 02:31:28
Tim Carmody
Kids, in 1993, $60 was a lot of money.
2013-02-03 02:31:35
Sarah Pavis
what’s that in bitcoin, grandpa
2013-02-03 02:32:01
Tim Carmody
I bid two bitcoins
2013-02-03 02:32:24
Tim Carmody
“Let’s not spoil it!” is the moment when you feel like Rita is actually snarky enough to throw down with Phil, not just laugh at his jokes and make him a better man.
2013-02-03 02:33:32
Jason Kottke
Stephen Tobolowsky doing the Eartha Kitt Catwomen noise is amazing. ROWR…
2013-02-03 02:33:46
Aaron Cohen
That snow sculpture looks like Maid Marian from the Kevin Costner Robinhood.
2013-02-03 02:33:49
Tim Carmody
Guys, kissing is awesome
2013-02-03 02:34:57
Jason Kottke
Aaaaaand still no email from Bill Murray.
2013-02-03 02:35:05
Sarah Pavis
swinging back to reboot casting: my ideal would be richard ayoade/anne hathaway. gender swapped casting would be aubrey plaza as girl-phil/daniel bruhl as boy-rita.
2013-02-03 02:36:53
Tim Carmody
When she says “I’m sure I can think of something,” everyone agrees she means oral sex, right?
2013-02-03 02:37:32
Aaron Cohen
Anne Hathaway and Zooey Deschanel don’t get to be in any of the movies I’m remaking.
2013-02-03 02:38:01
Jason Kottke
Do you think that Feb 3 then repeats over and over again until something else happens?
2013-02-03 02:38:15
Tim Carmody
This movie is so unrealistic what are Phil and Rita going to do for work in Punxsutawney start their own TV station give music lessons ice sculpt no sir no ma’am no way I don’t think so
2013-02-03 02:38:57
Jason Kottke
Man, 20 years was a long time ago. These credits look ancient.
2013-02-03 02:40:06
Aaron Cohen
They’ll commute to Channel 9 Pittsburgh.
2013-02-03 02:40:12
Tim Carmody
Aaron, you’ve got that moisture on your head.
2013-02-03 02:41:03
Jason Kottke
All right, we’re all done. Thanks for joining us everyone! See you next year? If you missed the whole thing, here’s a YT video of all the best stuff: youtube.com
2013-02-03 02:42:09
Sarah Pavis
suicide, suicide, jail. nice summary of the movie, dvd menu screen.
The internet is awash in great Bill Murray stories, but this one might be one of the very best. From the middle of an AV Club interview with Kelly Lynch in October:
AVC: It seems like your sex scene in [Road House] must be one of the most uncomfortable in cinematic history, being up against a rock wall and all.
KL: Oh, I know, but I was padded. [Laughs.] No one knows, so it looks more painful that it was. They really liked everything about the way that scene looked, with the blonde hair against the rocks behind me, but I was like, “Isn’t this kind of… mean?” So they put a thin padding under my dress, so you can’t see it. But he’s still slamming me against the rocks, so I had to be careful not to hit my head. Thank God Patrick was so strong. He could’ve carried me around that room forever.
By the way, speaking of Bill Murray, every time Road House is on and he or one of his idiot brothers are watching TV — and they’re always watching TV — one of them calls my husband and says [In a reasonable approximation of Carl Spackler], “Kelly’s having sex with Patrick Swayze right now. They’re doing it. He’s throwing her against the rocks.” [Away from the receiver.] What? Oh, my God. Mitch was just walking out the door to the set, and he said that Bill once called him from Russia.
AVC: Sorry, not to dwell on this, but you said that Bill Murray “or one of his idiot brothers” will call. Which brothers are we talking about?
KL: All of them! Joel has called; Brian Doyle has called. They will all call! Any and all of them!
AVC: This was already an awesome story, but now it’s even better.
KL: I know, right? I dread it. If I know it’s coming on — and I can tell when it’s coming on, because it blows up on Twitter when it is — I’m just like, “Oh, my God…” And God help me when AMC’s doing their Road House marathon, because I know the phone is just going to keep ringing. It doesn’t matter if it’s 2 or 3 in morning. “Hi, Kelly’s having sex with Patrick Swayze right now…”
The whole Monty Python group was there, most of us from [SNL], a lot of other funny people, and Gilda. Gilda showed up and she’d already had cancer and gone into remission and then had it again, I guess. Anyway she was slim. We hadn’t seen her in a long time. And she started doing, “I’ve got to go,” and she was just going to leave, and I was like, “Going to leave?” It felt like she was going to really leave forever.
Dave Itzkoff went to interview Bill Murray for the NY Times on the occasion of the release of his new film, Hyde Park on Hudson, in which Murray plays Franklin D. Roosevelt. Itzkoff was expecting just a normal interview but, due to a scheduling problem, ended up accompanying Murray on stage at an evening appearance and continued the interview in front of members of the Screen Actors Guild.
Mr. Murray, having changed his shirt but still in the blue shorts, leaves the hotel and boards a chauffeured S.U.V., where the conversation continues.
Q. It sounds as if you also wanted to convey Roosevelt’s voice as much as his physical presence.
A. We had a discussion about it, and we agreed that you don’t want to do an impression. You want to get it in you, and then you want to play — [The car is suddenly cut off by another vehicle.] That person was insane. [To his driver] Well-avoided, Mustafa. But you can bump her now. She’s got it coming.
If you’re like me, you can read interviews with Bill Murray all day long. Here, go nuts.
When I work, my first relationship with people is professional. There are people who want to be your friend right away. I say, “We’re not gonna be friends until we get this done. If we don’t get this done, we’re never going to be friends, because if we don’t get the job done, then the one thing we did together that we had to do together we failed.” People confuse friendship and relaxation. It’s incredibly important to be relaxed — you don’t have a chance if you’re not relaxed. So I try very hard to relax any kind of tension. But friendship is different.
They told me I have two minutes. I’m going to pop this Red Hot [candy, pops in mouth] so I’ll be finished in two minutes [mumbling with candy in mouth]. Why do you give this award? Why? Because you have to throw a party. Because you have to compete with the Golden Globes. [Cheers.] We all asked that question. You’re able to get out tonight, celebrate - without your relatives - you earned, you deserve it.
But why do you give it to Sofia Coppola? Why? Because you want to encourage her, I think. I think that’s the real reason. Look at her. Look at her! She comes from a family, mother and father both very successful, creating entertainments, amusements and thought-provoking work. She wrote a spec script for The Virgin Suicides. The ambition of these young people! Can you believe it? The ambition! She got the job as the director. She directed Lost in Translation in another country in another language, and got a prize for it. [Pause.] God, this is a hot, hot Red Hot. But I’m not going to quit on you people, because I’ve got another half in my pocket. [Pulls out of pocket and puts in mouth.] I got one-and-a-half in my mouth right now. [Mumbling.]
And the whole bit about life and success and freedom derailing careers and creative work is just spot on gold. (thx, david)
Man, what if Spike Jonze had made Being Bill Murray instead? Casey Weldon did a series of paintings of Bill Murray as characters from Wes Anderson’s movies…but non-Murray characters like Max Fischer, Margot Tenenbaum, and the Baumer.
This has been linked around quite a bit in the last week, but it’s worth a look if you haven’t read it and like Bill Murray at all. According to the article, this is only the fourth or fifth time that Murray has been interviewed in the past ten years. On his involvement with Garfield: The Movie:
No! I didn’t make that for the dough! Well, not completely. I thought it would be kind of fun, because doing a voice is challenging, and I’d never done that. Plus, I looked at the script, and it said, “So-and-so and Joel Coen.” And I thought: Christ, well, I love those Coens! They’re funny. So I sorta read a few pages of it and thought, Yeah, I’d like to do that.
[…] So I worked all day and kept going, “That’s the line? Well, I can’t say that.” And you sit there and go, What can I say that will make this funny? And make it make sense? And I worked. I was exhausted, soaked with sweat, and the lines got worse and worse. And I said, “Okay, you better show me the whole rest of the movie, so we can see what we’re dealing with.” So I sat down and watched the whole thing, and I kept saying, “Who the hell cut this thing? Who did this? What the fuck was Coen thinking?” And then they explained it to me: It wasn’t written by that Joel Coen.
And I love that he loved Kung Fu Hustle so much…I agree that it is underrated.
What did Bill Murray whisper into Scarlett Johansson’s ear at the end of Lost in Translation? Someone did a bit of audio analysis and posted their findings as a video. (via avenues)
Update on The Darjeeling Limited, Wes Anderson’s new film starring Anderson regulars Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, and Jason Schwartzman. Apparently this article confirms the rumors that Bill Murray is in the film. (via goldenfiddle)
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