Hollywood tries another tennis movie, and this time it's going to be raunchy.
Just when you thought it couldn’t—or shouldn’t—be done, another tennis movie, Gary the Tennis Coach, is in the works. Perhaps a more appropriate title would be Not Another Tennis Movie, but this project, directed by Danny Leiner (Dude, Where’s My Car?; Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle), seeks to bring an unconventional approach to the sport and may, indeed, be a hit with audiences. Adolescent audiences, that is. Starring Seann William Scott, of the American Pie series, and veteran actor Randy Quaid, Gary sets out to be a raunchier version of the famed Pie movies—if that’s possible.
The story, filmed in Austin, Texas, follows the journey of Gary (played by Scott), a tennis pro on the Mexican Satellite circuit who bombs out, moves to Omaha, Neb., and becomes a high school janitor. When the school’s tennis coach (played by Quaid) suddenly dies, Gary is thrust into the position of taking a struggling team and turning it into a state champion. Frivolity ensues. With previous tennis movies drawing criticism and poor box-office sales, it begs the question: Why make another? “I’ve never seen a really good [tennis movie] that I can remember,” Leiner says, “so it seemed like an opportunity to do a sport that hasn’t been done in a great way.”
Wary of his predecessor’s faults, Leiner aims to avoid the same shortcomings. “It looked like people were acting and couldn’t play tennis,” he says. To avoid this pitfall, he held a casting session at John Newcombe’s academy in nearby New Braunfels, Texas, to scout talent that could act and play tennis. If they couldn’t cut it on the court, they were put through a training camp. Brando Eaton, an actor by trade, spent seven hours a day for three weeks preparing for his role as the hero of the fi lm. Joseph Dwyer, who plays his nemesis, was actually a nationally ranked junior who used to train in Georgia under John Roddick.
For action sequences, Leiner took another novel approach. “We [story]boarded out every single shot of tennis in the movie or certain sequences in the movie,” he says, “so we could shoot them in a way that looks great and dynamic.”
A visit to the set this past December confirmed Leiner’s assertions, where his attention to detail was on display through endless takes. In windy conditions, which added to the difficulty of shooting, the scenes of the state championship match took hours to capture.
As far as the tennis is concerned, it appeared believable. But what about the story line? Gary is more a crude comedy than a tennis flick, relying on its humor to drive the story. The production is operating without a studio’s support—to avoid financial burdens as well as creative differences—and is yet to be picked up for distribution.
For Scott, who co-produced the fi lm, that’s the price you pay to make a movie the way you want. “They wouldn’t let us do the stuff we’re doing. The movie is so rowdy and crazy, [but] I think it’s smart in a weird way,” he says.