This Christmas, stepping into middle age isn't going to go smoothly, at least not for Pete and Debbie in Judd Apatow's "This Is 40." The quasi-semi-sidequel-spinoff to "Knocked Up" reunites Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann in their roles, but fast fowards to find them both approaching the big four oh. And as usual, Apatow's loose, collaborative and improvisational style, helped him piece together the film.
Recently chatting with THR, Apatow shared his process, one that sees him doing what to many writers would be unthinkable — sending a work-in-progress script to Universal honchos Adam Fogelson and Donna Langley. "I do something that most people won't. I send them the first 30 rough pages and then send them the next 30 pages," he reveals, adding. "I always feel, if I'm on page 60, I can finish a script in a week. And it may be terrible, but then I can figure out what it means. With this type of writing, it's so personal — if you thought too much, you might be embarrassed."
Once he had a "terrible, vomit draft" completed in 2010, that's when he started early rehearsals, nearly four months before shooting started, to start adding more ideas from the actors into the screenplay before cameras finally rolled, with Apatow admitting, "I never finish a script; I just start."
The results will be seen in theaters on December 21st and below you can see three more clips and three TV spot style featurettes as well.
