The big names keep taking the stage as the 60th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) and Tuesday’s expanded and broadened KVIFF Industry Days program was no exception — closing out with a conversation between Nomadland producer Mollye Asher and A House of Dynamite producer Greg Shapiro on the art of building a slate with intention.
The latter surprised and entertained the crowd when he made an unexpected comparison: “I made this series of movies called Harold & Kumar. The first one was Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle. The second one came out and was made right before The Hurt Locker was made, and they both came out around the same time. And everyone sort of was scratching their head, saying, ‘How can you make Harold & Kumar, which has a lot of really low-brow fart jokes and is a stoner comedy, and The Hurt Locker, which is a really high-minded, very intense war film?’”
His answer was simpler than anyone expected. “In my mind I was always thinking they are kind of the same movie. I love low-brow stoner comedies, and I also love really high-brow war films, so to me it was just working on something that I loved. I really loved both of those movies.”
Asked about the status of the fourth Harold & Kumar movie, Shapiro shared that the screenplay is currently being written. “Everybody’s back,” he added. “Hopefully we’ll be shooting soon.”
