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“HIGH SCHOOL” | co-writer-director, John Stalberg Jr.

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Sunday, Jan. 24, 11:30 pm — Library Center Theatre, Park City]

Cutting three scenes that I loved was a particularly difficult decision. One was a wonderfully awkward scene with Michael Chiklis and Erica Phillips, another was a deranged scene with Adrien Brody and Mykelti Williamson in Psycho Ed’s grow room, and then there was a classic with Andrew Wilson, discussing his freakish Moroccan childhood. These were some of the best scenes in the movie. I was so pleased with them, but ultimately they didn’t push the story along. I was trying to balance audience bladder pressure with laughs by tightening the movie as much as possible. I did use the Brody scene in a teaser trailer — having an Academy Award-winning actor like Adrien Brody fully committed to the insanity of that scene was too good to not keep in some form. However eliminating these scenes from the movie vastly improved the overall pace of the film. Lean is good. People have to pee.

Photo By: Neil Jacobs

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