When commercial production house Park Pictures diversified with the launch of Park Pictures Features in 2011, the new venture made an auspicious debut with Robot & Frank, a Jake Schreier-directed movie which won the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 2012. Park Pictures Features next turned out the John Slattery-directed drama God’s Pocket and the Maya Forbes-helmed dramatic comedy Infinitely Polar Bear, both of which were selected for the 2014 Sundance Festival’s Dramatic Competition. And now with its fourth film, Park Pictures again has earned inclusion in the Sundance lineup, this time for Cop Car from director/writer Jon Watts and writer Christopher D. Ford. Ford also wrote Robot & Frank, for which he was nominated for a 2013 Film Independent Spirit Award in the Best First Screenplay category.
Cop Car is slated to debut in the Park City At Midnight program at Sundance which showcases genre-defying, “unruly” work billed to keep audiences at the edge of their seats and wide awake. The film centers on two 10-year-old boys who steal an abandoned police car. The cast includes Kevin Bacon, James Freeson-Jackson, Hays Wellford, Shea Whigham and Camryn Manheim.
Cop Car is the second feature film directed by Watts, the first being the horror flick Clown, a 2014 release produced by Eli Roth–and written by Watts and Ford.
Watts broke into directing via extensive music video work, then moved into commercials and shorts. He enjoyed a lengthy tenure at production house Smuggler, where he started out as an assistant to director Brian Beletic, before moving up to become a director on the shop’s roster. Watts’ music video credits span such artists as Swedish House Mafia, Japanese Popstars, Fatboy Slim and Death Cab for Cutie. Watts–who’s directed spots for the likes of MetLife, ESPN, Budweiser, Sprite and the SyFy network–said he has now made Park Pictures his commercialmaking roost.
SHOOT: What inspired Cop Car?
Watts: It’s based on this recurring panic dream I have had since I was 10–me and my friend Travis as kids taking over a car. Sparked by this dream, Chris [Ford] and I wrote this script, making the vehicle a cop car. This started out as a fun thing to do, to get writing again. Part of you thinks it can’t be good if it was fun but people have responded to it. And to have it chosen for Sundance is amazing.
In ways, the film is a cross between classic Spielberg/Amblin Entertainment stuff–two boys on an adventure–and No Country For Old Men, with a cop [played by Kevin Bacon] on a journey trying to get his car back.
The story is personal for me. We shot in my hometown in Colorado, five minutes from where my mom lives. The characters are named after kids I knew.
SHOOT: Kevin Bacon plays the sheriff whose car is stolen. How did you go about casting the two youngsters?
Watts: We called in tapes from all over the country and whittled them down to a handful for auditions in person. James Freeson Jackson from New Jersey and Hays Wellford from Virginia just stood out. They were both so good that we knew they were right for the movie.
SHOOT: What drew you to Park Pictures Features for Cop Car? Your writing partner has a successful history there with Robot & Frank. Was that the catalyst for you to send your script there?
Watts: He has enjoyed success there but I was also familiar with Park Pictures. I was at Smuggler forever and their office was located just below Park Pictures. I left Smuggler when we started making Cop Car. And now I’m getting back into commercials through Park Pictures.
SHOOT: What does Cop Car being selected for Sundance mean to you?
Watts: Everything. It’s amazing to be included in the Sundance program. When they notified us, they told us they wanted it for that Park City at Midnight crowd. And it’s also in a Midnight program that includes Eli Roth’s film Knock Knock [starring Keanu Reeves] which is scheduled to play the night before our film. Eli produced my first feature.
SHOOT: That first feature being Clown in which a father finds a clown suit for his son’s birthday party only to find out that the suit is part of an evil curse that turns its wearer into a maniacal killer. How did you get the break with Clown becoming your feature directorial debut?
Watts: Clown was just a prank trailer which Chris and I teamed on. We put Eli’s name on it as if he directed this fake movie. After the trailer was posted online, Eli called me. I thought, “please don’t sue me.” Instead he thought the idea was cool and wanted to make it into a movie. He asked if we had a feature script. We lied and said we did. He got it all set up for us. We were very fortunate.
