“Digging For Fire,” the new film from indie relationship dramedy favorite Joe Swanberg, premiered on Monday (January 26) evening at the Sundance Film Festival.
You can check out my review of the star-studded film here.
Bright and early on Wednesday, I caught up with the sleep-deprived Swanberg, co-writer and star Jake Johnson and star Rosemarie DeWitt to talk about “Digging For Fire.”
Swanberg skipped in after happily watching the first 15 minutes of the 8:30 a.m. screening of “Digging For Fire,” enthusiastically reporting crowd response to Johnson, who had only another few hours in Park City before returning to LA and work on “New Girl.”
The “Drinking Buddies” veterans admitted that they were surprised by how much of “Digging For Fire” played as drama at its premiere, reflecting on Swanberg's sets make every scene feel like a party.
“Digging For Fire” is about a long-married couple (Johnson and DeWitt), who contemplate their growing maturity during a weekend apart, a weekend in which Johnson's character becomes obsessed with digging in his backyard after finding a gun and a bone.
In our interview, I got all three “Digging For Fire” principles to discuss their own metaphorical holes and for Johnson to go into depth on the actual find in his own backyard that was the original genesis.
We also discussed one of my favorite little details of “Digging for Fire”: In a cast that features Orlando Bloom. Sam Elliott, Judith Light, Anna Kendrick, Sam Rockwell and Chris Messina, the coveted “And…” credit goes to Jude Swanberg, the director's four-year-old son.
At the premiere, Swanberg introduced the movie by thanking Sundance for existing as a respite from the multiplex world of superhero movies so, taking that as a challenge, I asked him what a Joe Swanberg superhero movie would be.
The first half of the interview is above. The second half, including the superhero answer, is below: