John Francis Daley and Jonathan M. Goldstein were on top of the world. They just weren’t allowed to admit it yet.
The writers and directors of Vacation, the reboot-slash-long gestating sequel to the hit National Lampoon comedies, have a major summer release on their hands this weekend, and they’ve also been outed – unofficially – as the writers of Marvel Studios’ upcoming Spider-Man movie. They’re weren’t able to acknowledge that news just yet, but in the following interview for Crave, they basically did it anyway.
We sat down with John Francis Daley and Jonathan M. Goldstein, two comedy writers who can’t help but ham it up. Goldstein opened by apologizing that he and his co-director sound so much alike that transcribing the interview would turn out to be quite the chore. (It wasn’t.)
Vacation is now playing in theaters nationwide.
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Jonathan Goldstein: It’s a similar voice.
Crave: It is a similar voice. It’s going to be a real problem. But I imagine having a similar voice helps with the writing and directing of a film.
Jonathan Goldstein: Heyyyy…!
John Francis Daley: Are you Segue Magazine?
I am Segue Magazine.
John Francis Daley: It is very beneficial when you’re co-directing, because if we did not see eye-to-eye there would be a lot of fights and the would have probably never gotten finished.
There had to be some point where you didn’t see eye-to-eye. Is there a particular moment or gag or scene?
Jonathan Goldstein: Five minutes ago. I wanted to leave and he said stay for the next interview.
John Francis Daley: We’re different heights and when we stand up we don’t actually see eye-to-eye.
I get it. So you’re comedy writers. I can tell.
Jonathan Goldstein: We can’t turn it off. I would say more in post-production because there’s more time to disagree than in shooting.
John Francis Daley: [Laughs.] That’s true.
Jonathan Goldstein: There’s a million ways to edit a scene and so we would look at takes and sometimes not always agree, but ultimately come to a…
John Francis Daley: Fortunately, because there’s all that time, you do have a chance to see it a million different ways…
Jonathan Goldstein: And test it, have people see it.
It must be interesting to take on a Vacation movie, because as someone pointed out this is an incredibly fatalistic franchise. The same things happen to these poor bastards again and again.
John Francis Daley: [Laughs.] Right, right.
Jonathan Goldstein: But don’t we all? Isn’t that kind of life?
John Francis Daley: Every damned waking minute of my life.
Jonathan Goldstein: Vacations are often fucked up but we keep taking them. They’re stressful and exhausting and expensive.
John Francis Daley: Now he’s quoting the movie. Yes, no, it was a serious challenge and we wanted to pay our respects to the original but also tell it in our own voice.
We were interested in going to Graceland, and we decided not to do that. It was this scene where they discovered some silly thing about Elvis.
It’s it’s a travelogue. You go to the Grand Canyon, the Four Corners Monument, what other ideas did you have? Did they go to the world’s largest ball of twine?
John Francis Daley: We thought about that, yeah.
Jonathan Goldstein: We were interested in going to Graceland, and we decided not to do that. It was this scene where they discovered some silly thing about Elvis. We’d do that. It used to be, the sorority thing was like the kid, Kevin [Steele Stebbins], winds up in a sorority house…
John Francis Daley: There was a version before that when it was just one sorority girl that is related, that is a niece of Debbie, Christina Applegate’s character, that’s leading them around the thing. She seems really, really drunk and out of it and Christina gives her a stern talking to, and then basically tells her that you can’t go through college like this because you’re never actually going to learn anything and you could get taken advantage of by acting like then. But then the girl reveals to her that she was in a car accident and she’s woozy because of a brain injury. [Laughs.]
Jonathan Goldstein: But then she goes and takes a drink. She really was drunk.
John Francis Daley: “Suckers!”
Jonathan Goldstein: So it was a mess.
There’s one joke I have to ask you about in particular. It’s a recurring gag and it never quite pays off: the swastika button.
Jonathan Goldstein: The swastika. That’s funny, you’re like the fifth person to ask about that.
Don’t answer it then!
Jonathan Goldstein: No, we want people to wonder. We just don’t ever want to address it.
Do you know in your head what it is?
John Francis Daley: The swastika button we think of as what Bill Murray whispers to Scarlett Johansson in Lost in Translation.
Jonathan Goldstein: And this movie is very similar to that.
The swastika button we think of as what Bill Murray whispers to Scarlett Johansson in Lost in Translation.
I kept expecting them to return the car and the rental guy is like, “You never used the vortex button? The thing that teleports you exactly where you’re supposed to go?”
Jonathan Goldstein: “The vortex button…” Sounds good.
Thank you, you can use that in the sequel. You know, there have been so many Vacation movies, have you thought about the sequel? Thanksgiving Vacation, or…?
John Francis Daley: It really depends on how this movie does.
Of course, but at the same time, once the movie does well…
John Francis Daley: But yes, we have absolutely thought about it.
Jonathan Goldstein: We’ve had early conversations about possible sequel ideas. I’m thinking outer space, because that’s always good…
I think it’s only a matter of time.
John Francis Daley: I’m thinking Boyhood style, where we follow them over the course of ten years…
That’s a long trip to Wally World.
Jonathan Goldstein: …in space though. Boyhood in space.
John Francis Daley: All one shot for ten years.
We’ve had early conversations about possible sequel ideas. I’m thinking outer space…
You’ve got a big legacy to deal with…
Jonathan Goldstein: That we’ve created?
Yeah, sure, why not…
John Francis Daley: Thank you. We appreciate it and agree.
Jonathan Goldstein: Yeah, we’re a hard act to follow.
Sigh… interviewing comedians… I was thinking specifically John Hughes.
John Francis Daley: Yes.
He’s a legend.
John Francis Daley: He’s a genius.
What do you look at from the writing of John Hughes? Or are you trying to completely think outside and in our own realm?
John Francis Daley: Our loyalty lay with being true to his characters. Where we wanted Rusty to have semblances of Clark, and obviously bringing Clark and Ellen back as well. We wanted [them] from the get go. But we did know that we had to sort of tell it in our own voice in order for it to be new, and that was the balance that we were sometimes up against.
Jonathan Goldstein: Yeah, we’re not trying to ape John Hughes’s writing style. We wouldn’t presume to do that. So it’s really just about finding the funniest version of this, but yeah obviously it’s all built on the architecture he created.
It’s funny to me because… congratulations on the Spider-Man thing, by the way.
John Francis Daley: We can’t even thank you. That would be acknowledging it.
But I don’t know why it’s awesome because that would imply… oh shit…
It’s just funny to me because Marvel keeps referencing the John Hughes elements. And now we’ve got these John Hughes writers. It’s very funny. I know you really can’t say a damned thing. Can you give me a knowing look?
Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley: [Laughter]
You poor bastards! That’s an awkward situation. What is it like?
John Francis Daley: I know. What is it like? It’s frustrating.
Jonathan Goldstein: It’s heavenly. It’s heavenly.
John Francis Daley: And awesome. But I don’t know why it’s awesome because that would imply… oh shit…
Jonathan Goldstein: It’s nice when the trades report things about you, whether they’re true or not.
Did they ever report anything that was outright false?
Jonathan Goldstein: They often say John’s gay.
John Francis Daley: [Laughs.]
Jonathan Goldstein: And that’s just, I mean… I don’t think it’s true.
John Francis Daley: Look, you know, any publicity is good publicity.
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and the host of The B-Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
