Author Ned Vizzini has announced on his blog the completion of principal photography on Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden’s adaptation of his novel “It’s Kind Of A Funny Story,” starring the likes of Keir Gilchrist, Zach Galifianakis, Emma Roberts, Zoe Kravitz, Viola Davis and Lauren Graham.
Interestingly though, Vizzini also recounts the filming of a “a fantasy sequence, with Craig (Gilchrist) and the other patients dressed up in some very outrageous glam rock gear, stomping through “Under Pressure” in front of flashing lights and letting out their individual demons.”
The scene is inspired by Vizzini’s own experiences in a psych hospital where a music therapist started playing Bob Dylan’s ‘Like A Rolling Stone.’ What transpired was “as the guitarist started playing and people next to me, some of whom had never said a word in the days since [he] entered the hospital, started singing.”
Originally scripted with ‘Like A Rolling Stone,’ the song was soon replaced by Queen and David Bowie’s ‘Under Pressure’ at the suggestion of Fleck and Boden and was filmed at a sound stage with “drums, keyboards, a grand piano, a mic stand, a bass, some guitars, and thousands of light bulbs screwed into the wall behind it all.”
By Vizzini’s account, actors dressed up in “major-league eyeliner, big hair, sparkles, and outfits that resembled everything from a human cannonball to Tim Allen in ‘Galaxy Quest'” with Galifianakis notably rocking “a pompadour and stars in his beard.”
“Everything started black, but then Keir’s face got illuminated, and when the vocals kicked in — ‘Pressure!'” Vizzini explains. “[Galifianakis] started behind the piano, but when the Bowie part of the song started (“It’s the terror of knowing what this world is about / Watching some good friends scream, ‘Let me out!'”) he jumped up and jabbed his own mic into the air — WHILE WEARING A CAPE WITH A LIGHTNING BOLT ON IT.”
Other actors on stage included an unknown ‘Becca’ who “took the mic for a star turn” and Emma Roberts who “stummed her guitar” and “in a nice touch, the scars on her face were encased with glitter.” The sequence then concludes as “the song built, climaxed, released, and faded to black.”
As if we needed any more reason to get excited for this. And with this and Sofia Coppola’s “Somewhere,” Focus Features should be in for a killing this year, at least in our books. ‘Funny Story’ is currently slated for a fall release.
Queen & David Bowie – Under Pressure