If Baltimore had a pop-culture Mount Rushmore, Barry Levinson, John Waters and David Simon would be on it.
In a few months, it might be time to start clearing room for one more filmmaker.
On April 8, Pikesville-bred TV comedy whiz Jason Winer makes his big-screen debut with a star-studded production of a beloved old movie: "Arthur." The trade journal Variety has already called him "One of the top ten directors to watch."
2010 was a powerhouse year for Winer. He executive-produced the Emmy-winning ABC comedy "Modern Family" and directed every other episode in the first season. He also won a Directors Guild of America Award for directing the pilot.
But "directing a movie has been my dream since I was a little kid," he said last week. "I used to come home from a movie in Baltimore, and my parents would indulge me as I told them the entire plot of the movie, complete with dialogue, acting it out. They were very patient. They acted interested."
His dreaming and their patience have paid off. Winer spent last summer in New York energetically revamping the 30-year-old big-screen comedy classic, with Russell Brand in Dudley Moore's signature role of Arthur Bach, a whimsical, super-rich drunk.
"At times I had to pinch myself and look around and appreciate the caliber of artist I was lucky enough to work with," said Winer.
The cast also includes Helen Mirren as Arthur's governess, Jennifer Garner as his conniving fiancee and Nick Nolte as his menacing prospective father-in-law. It promises to be the rare remake that takes on a life of its own — the kind of movie that young Jason might have acted out in his living-room.
The original "Arthur" wasn't the first film to enter Winer's photographic movie memory. When he was 6 or 7, he said, "the movie I was so excited to see was ' Superman.' I was aware the movie was coming out, and I was so excited about it, I told my parents that if it was rated R, they would have to sneak me inside in a suitcase." Luckily, the 1978 rendering of the Man of Steel rated a PG, and Winer entered the Security Square cinemas on his own two little feet.
But "Arthur" (1981) earned a special place in Winer's pantheon. "It was in heavy rotation on HBO when we first got HBO." It was one of the first adult movies Winer got to see — and it affected him so deeply that he recalls it as an R-rated film when, like "Superman," it was actually rated PG.
"My generation was able to feel like it was just a little bit naughty that we were getting to see it. And I think that's part of why it made a big impression. Also, it's hysterical."
Another "iconically New York movie" invaded his imagination then. "From a very early age, I enjoyed watching 'Annie Hall.' I was oddly into Woody Allen — like, when I was 7 years old. " Could it be that Winer has a primal connection to playful or ironic humor? "It's true, it was something very present in my family growing up. My parents don't give themselves credit for it, but they're funny people — consciously funny."
The three households in the extended clan of "Modern Family" are often unconsciously funny. But the series has won popular and critical success because Winer and his collaborators get audiences to laugh with them and at them simultaneously. Domestic satire seasoned with affection — that's the secret to this polyglot, crazy-quilt comedy about straight, gay, young, middle-age and old parents and children. (At times, they all act like children.)
This blend of sass and sympathy fit the aspirations of the new "Arthur." When its producers went after Winer, "I wasn't really interested, because the original is a great movie. You don't want to mess with something that's not broken. Then I heard Russell Brand was doing it. He's a tremendously smart and charming guy and a brilliant comedic improviser, which is right up my alley. I studied with ImprovOlympic and [the late improv guru] Del Close in Chicago. To work with somebody like Brand, whose talents line up so well with what I do, was tempting. And I also thought, 'Boy, casting him in that role instantly reinvents the character for whole generations of people who never saw the original movie.'"
Cheeky and spontaneous, Brand is the rare actor who can play semi-fatuous and semi-brilliant — at the same time. He's perfect for a fellow whose wit gets filtered through an alcoholic fog. Movie audiences fell in love with Brand, despite themselves, when he played self-absorbed rock star Aldous Snow in "Forgetting Sarah Marshall." He was ineffably disarming, especially when telling an awe-struck hotel waiter, who has handed him a demo, "I was going to listen to that, but then I just carried on living my life." (Brand expanded the same role in "Get Him to the Greek.")
