When Theodore Melfi’s oldest brother passed away at the age of 38, he left behind an 11-year-old daughter. Theodore and his wife adopted the girl, enrolled her in a parochial school and one day she got a homework assignment asking her to find a Catholic saint who inspired her–and a person she knows who mimics that saintly spirit.
“She picked the patron saint of adopted children–and she picked me,” recalled Melfi. “That’s the story behind what became the movie St. Vincent. My script sprung from that homework assignment–except the guy is not me; he’s a drunk, curmudgeonly Vietnam vet who wound up being portrayed by Bill Murray.”
Murray stars as Vincent, a retired grouch with a penchant for booze and gambling. When a single mother (played by Melissa McCarthy) and her 12-year-old son (Jaeden Lieberher) become his Brooklyn neighbors, a strapped-for-cash Vincent ends up taking care of the lad whose mom keeps long hours at work. An odd friendship soon blossoms between Vincent and the boy. Together with a pregnant stripper (Naomi Watts), Vincent brings the youngster along on all his routine stops–the horse racetrack, a strip club and a local dive bar. While Vincent is an unlikely role model, the boy comes of age under his wing.
He begins to know the cantankerous Vincent as a misunderstood man with a good heart.
St. Vincent marks Melfi’s theatrical feature directing debut. It premiered at last month’s Toronto Film Festival, receiving an ovation as well as rave reviews. “The Toronto Festival is the perfect blend of art and commerce,” assessed Melfi. “To have my movie chosen for the festival was amazing. You make a movie you have your heart in, with no expectations of anything. And then your film is being talked about as an awards contender. It’s kind of shocking.”
The road to Toronto was paved by Melfi’s screenplay. “The script was well received right away,” related Melfi. “It was one of those stories you hear about a script going out and a crazy bidding war for it being triggered. That’s a one-in-a-million thing in this town. The story touched people’s hearts and found its way around pretty quickly and ended up on Harvey Weinstein’s desk. He wanted to make the film and we were on our way.”
Melfi also landed the St. Vincent directing gig based in part on his experience in commercials and short films, the latter including Roshambo, which won best comedy honors at the Malibu Film Festival.
Melfi got into commercials years ago when his wife wanted to settle down and start a family. He had been working in indie features and saw spot directing as offering a more stable livelihood. He helmed a bunch of spec spots, including MTV’s porn film spoof “Pizza Guy,” which helped him earn inclusion into SHOOT’s 2004 New Directors Showcase. His commercial directing career took hold and his credits now span more than 100 ads for the likes of FedEx, McDonald’s and Slimfast, among assorted other bands. Melfi’s “Playground” promo for the L.A. Film Festival garnered Silver at the London International Advertising & Design Awards.
Upon firmly establishing himself as a commercial director, Melfi again started to again get more actively involved in long-form script writing, among the dividends being St. Vincent. In addition to writing the screenplay and directing St. Vincent, Melfi served as a producer on the film.
New chapter
While St. Vincent marks a new chapter in Melfi’s filmmaking career, it’s not the only new door opening up for him. In fact Melfi and executive producer Rich Carter recently opened the doors to brother, their own commercial and branded content production company. Plans call for the Los Angeles-based shop to also be active in features and TV.
Prior to forming brother, Melfi and Carter were together at production house GARTNER where the latter served as co-owner and exec producer. Carter related that Melfi is not just a director with a stake in a production company but rather will serve as an architect of brother, helping fellow feature filmmakers to make a smooth transition to commercialmaking. Conversely when brother brings in established spot directors, Melfi could prove instrumental in helping them diversify meaningfully into features and other longer form fare.
Production house brother opens with a directorial roster consisting of Melfi, Maurice Marable (who had been with Believe Media) and filmmakers Ben Falcone (the recently released comedy Tammy which starred Melissa McCarthy in the title role) and Shana Feste (Country Strong, Endless Love, The Greatest). Melfi recently wrapped the first two jobs under the brother banner, commercials for McDonald’s out of H&L Partners, and Domino’s via Crispin Porter+Bogusky (CP+B). Both Falcone and Feste are making their initial forays into spots and branded entertainment.
From working with McCarthy on St. Vincent, Melfi met her husband, director Falcone. As they got to know each other, Falcone expressed an interest in extending his directorial reach into commercials, prompting Melfi to afford him that opportunity via brother.
Jenno Topping, a producer on St. Vincent, also produced Country Strong which was directed by Feste. “Jenno introduced me to Shana,” said Melfi. “I’m a huge fan of her work. It’s an awful travesty that there aren’t enough female voices in this business. We love her work.”
Carter and Melfi plan to add established commercial talent to complement the feature filmmakers already on the brother roster. “The idea of our company is for talent to cross-pollinate,” said Carter. “And Ted [Melfi] can help directors diversify. He’s a director who’s supportive of other directors and he could easily be an executive producer when it comes to building a company and helping to develop other directors’ careers.”
Melfi affirmed that’s what the company name brother means–”helping one another, all being part of the same organization and supporting ways for talent to grow and take on new challenges and opportunities.”
Regarding his next long-form opportunity, Melfi has several irons in the fire, including a remake of Going In Style which he wrote for New Line Cinema, a project in development which has him attached to direct. Slated to star are Dustin Hoffman, Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine.
Fall 2014 Directors Intro
Lance Acord
Debra Granik
Rory Kennedy
Theodore Melfi
Bennett Miller
