[lounge music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [Narrator] On Story is brought to you in part by the Alice Kleberg Reynolds Foundation, a Texas family providing innovative funding since 1979.

"On Story" is also brought to you in part by the Bogle Family Vineyards, six generation farmers and third generation winemakers based in Clarksburg, California.

Makers of sustainably grown wines that are a reflection of the their family values since 1968.

[waves] [kids screaming] [wind] [witch cackling] [sirens wail] [gunshots] [dripping] [suspenseful music] [telegraph beeping, typing] [piano gliss] From Austin Film Festival, this is "On Story."

A look inside the creative process from today's leading writers, creators, and filmmakers.

This week on "On Story," writer Andy Siara discusses his breakout screenplay, "Palm Springs," the irreverent science fiction, romantic comedy, starring Andy Samberg.

- You just have to like allow your characters to make these major, major mistakes.

And then, that's something that they're actually like, "Oh, that was a symptom of her life before her doing that."

But it was like something she still is like, ultimately battling and grappling with.

The movie's a lot about acceptance of yourself and your flaws.

[paper crumples] [typing] [carriage returns, ding] [Narrator] Siara deep-dives into the story's time-bending structure, and discusses the art of combining genre in service of story.

[Andy] I went to AFI for film school.

On the first day there I met Max Barbakow, who directed "Palm Springs," but we just hit it off right away, the same taste in movies and music.

And so we made our first short together there.

We made a couple other shorts and while at school, and then when we finished, we're like, "Let's make our first movie together.

I'll write it, you direct it, we'll come up with the idea together, we'll figure out what it is."

And then, we went out to Palm Springs like, that weekend after we graduated just to like, figure out what we wanna do.

And then outta that weekend, we just had the simple idea of like, of the character of Nyles taking a character on a journey from caring about nothing, to fighting purpose and caring.

- I don't think that we met, I'm Sarah.

- Nyles.

♪ If you're lost you can look ♪ ♪ And you will find me ♪ - Nice.

[arrow thuds] [Sarah screams] [Nyles screams] - Five years later, "Palm Springs" came out, but it was like about two years of just us two, like, you know, getting in a room and just throwing every idea at the wall.

He initially kinda went out to Palm Springs on kind of a death-bender thing.

And then I realized like I was, hundreds and hundreds of pages and failed drafts.

Like, I didn't like him, 'cause I didn't...

He seemed just like a, kind of a cynical LA/New York hipster that was just, ah, I was like, cool man.

Like, for him to say a line like, "Life has meaning."

I was also reading a lot of like, Borges, and "Be Here Now" at the time.

And kind of like, started introducing some more of like, the metaphysical elements to it all at that point.

And then it was like a year-and-a-half out into it, and Max and I were just realizing, that same problem was like, there's something that's like, there's a disconnect between this character.

Like, 'cause I just don't buy that he could, he thinks life is meaningless.

But then that's when the time loop stuff came in.

It's like, "Well, let's make a world where we can actually believe his point of view."

Believe that like, he would like, how does one get to the point of saying life is meaningless?

Well, if they're stuck in a time-loop for thousands of years or whatever.

- But what is this?

When is this?

- Yeah, about that.

So, this is today.

Today is yesterday, and tomorrow is also today.

It's one of those infinite time-loop situations you might have heard about.

- That I might have heard about?

- Yeah.

- How do I stop it?

I don't want tomorrow to be today.

I want tomorrow to be tomorrow.

- Right, that's natural.

Unfortunately, that's never gonna happen.

Tomorrow will always and forever now be today, so... [Sarah sighs deeply] Oh, how about this?

Tomorrow Tala's teeth will be totally fine.

- Which way is that cave?

- It's difficult to talk about this movie without talking about a movie like "Groundhog Day," which was sort of the grandfather of these.

But you guys do something really interesting with it, is you sort of use that to your advantage.

It's almost like this is, it's not a sequel to "Groundhog Day" per se, but it's, you know, the audience at this point is kind of familiar enough with that concept that you start with Andy's character already in the loop.

- And starting out, you know, with him in the loop was obviously, that's like, that's kind of the, that's the key thing there.

And we would kinda refer to this as a sequel to a movie that doesn't exist really.

But there's a whole other movie that could happen where it's like, when he first gets stuck in the loop, and then like, those first however many years when he like, just hits that, like, that plateau point.

[typewriter ding] - Let's dive into kind of the structure of this film, if you don't mind.

We start, Andy Sandberg's character, Nyles, is at a wedding.

It's clear that something's going on.

He's very disaffected.

And he kind of takes an interest in this woman, Sarah.

They, you know, they have a night together, which ends with him being shot in the arm with a crossbow, running to a cave.

She follows after him, and all of a sudden she's in the loop as well.

[dramatic music] - Nyles?

Nyles?

[Nyles] No, stop.

Don't come in here.

- Are you okay?

[Nyles] Don't come in here!

[whooshing sound] - Hello?

[eerie music] What the [bleep]?

[whooshing sound] - We wanted to make it feel like a horror movie in a way.

And have kind of like, that Cristin look like, I've mean, react in a way like as if this is really actually happening.

And then obviously like, you know, through many drafts and making it, it's still a comedy scene.

But starting out of that place of like, of this, I don't know, terrifying, confusing, the world has just been upended.

Mixed with like, you know, a lot of what Max and I initially like, bonded over when we were in film school, was like these kind of chaotic scenes that are...

I'm like, there's some really great ones.

And "I Heart Huckabees."

And some, you know, PT Anderson has like, like these just very fluid, like this...

It seems like everything's gonna just like, pop off.

So that was another big part of it.

I guess one thing that I was very, very proud of with this one is, it's one of my favorite lines that I've ever written in my entire life.

This dentist glues teeth, and Peter Gallagher just knocked it out of the park.

- What are you doing?

Whoa!

[face thuds] - Whoops.

[Sarah crying] - You're okay.

[Sarah sobs] - Jerry, gimme the teeth.

The three front teeth are pretty much broken off.

There's one full canine, and I guess- - This is like, a big day for everyone, this is a big day for me too.

- The wedding is today in six hours.

- Why are you standing there like a freak?

Why were you in the pool?

- This doesn't make any sense.

This doesn't make any [beep] sense!

- Don't let him in, he can't see me!

- What happened, is she okay?

[screaming] [Misty] Get out!

- She'll be okay, I'm taking Tala into town.

This dentist glues teeth.

- Yay!

- Her energy is such a contrast to Andy Samberg's energy, and it's a really kinetic scene.

There's a lot of stress, whereas he's just such a, you know, he's just sort of floating through life- - Yeah.

- at this point.

- I love a good, like, a good log flume ride.

Like, you know, you're floating- [John] Yeah.

- on a nice little lazy river kind of thing.

But then when there's like a story on top of that, that gives you like the laughs and thrills.

But on specifically this talk about Splash Mountain at Disneyland, like, move all the story stuff aside on that.

Simply just on like the ride mechanics of that, where you're pulled up, there's like this, you don't know what's gonna happen.

- So she figures out what's going on.

She kind of talks to Nyles, and she does a lot of the things that we've gathered that Nyles has tried to do to get out of the loop.

She's panicked.

- I remember sitting through many test screenings of this, and my least favorite part of movie is the part where we... After Andy explains to Cristin's character, like, you know, what's happening?

And then she goes, she starts trying things on her own, or starts trying to get out.

It's a part of the movie like, you have to do, because like, she's not gonna immediately go to the point where she's like, "Okay, yeah, you're right, life has meaning, let's go have some fun."

[lively music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [whoosh] [Howard] It's gonna be a beautiful wedding!

[Sarah screams] [typewriter ding] - Nyles and Sarah become friends, they're kind of enjoying this sort of carefree life together.

And basically at some point after they finally get together, we realize that she has been sleeping with the groom.

- Hey, um, sorry, you should probably go.

You know, before somebody sees you.

- Can you talk a little bit about how you kind of decided on her story?

- It's kind of a wholesome movie that just, you know, says the F-word a lot.

[John] Yeah.

- And it's still like a very R-rated movie, but like the end, like by the end, it's like, it's not, like, a cynical movie at all.

And I think, I almost think that sometimes people forget that like, in the middle you have this, it's this back-to-back of that being revealed.

And then Andy's character saying that Keith slept with her 1,000 times.

And it's like these two things that are just so despicable, like in a way, like you can... And normally like, if we knew that at the top of the movie, we'd hate these people at the top of the movie, I think.

'Cause we'd just go in with those judgements.

And so we spend the first half-hour, or 45 minutes or whatever, like kind of hopefully like, kind of falling in love with them.

And then we see that, "Oh yeah, humans are capable of doing like, you know, just kind of really bad things."

But I think it's important, like, that's why we have movies and stories is to like, show characters that can, like, allowing the characters to like, do the worst thing possible.

And then try to think of like, one thing worse than that and have them do that.

And I think that's kind of just like, was at least the idea behind like, going into... um, like, thinking about that whole middle section, I guess, and where that's revealed, and where Andy's stuff is revealed too.

You just have to like, allow your characters to make these major, major mistakes.

'Cause that's something that they're actually like, that that was a symptom of her life before like, her doing that.

But it was like something she still is like, ultimately battling and grappling with.

This movie's a lot about acceptance of yourself and your flaws too.

[John] Yes.

- Like most of the most recent Disney movies too.

That's why those work as well.

- And it's one of the things that I really love about this movie.

There are moments that are so light, so like, comic and easygoing, but it's not afraid to go to these dark places, to these violent places even.

- Yeah.

- And it kind of keeps you on your toes.

Everyone, aside from our main two actors, kind of living the same day.

How do you keep all these timelines straight?

Did you guys have a system?

- That's where the wedding aspect of it helps a lot, because like, there's, you know, a wedding day.

Like a certain schedule to that.

There's, you know, the morning festivities, and then you have your ceremony and your kind of cocktail hour.

And the dances and then the speeches.

And so we, you know, we only see Andy's dance once throughout the whole movie.

We return to the speeches, but only because like, it opens with like, his speech.

And then gives Cristin the chance to come up and give hers, and then she declines it.

So we only returned to it because it's like, it was the payoff of that, I guess.

- Uh, you have this selflessness and this hopefulness that's really special.

It's really rare.

[Sarah chuckles] Big sisters are supposed to teach baby sisters.

But I will today and forever, and ever, ever, be learning from you.

- Otherwise, like we were trying not to do too much of like, repeating.

- Right.

- And so that helped in the timeline of it all, at a certain point.

Because it's however many years he's been in there.

- Having it all set at a wedding is also a great little detail, because, you know, everyone's been to a bunch of weddings, they're all kind of the same.

You may be, you know, at least I felt, as a younger person, like, you know, "I'm not connected to any of this at all.

It all seems like, you know, [bleep]."

[laughs] And from a cynical point of view.

And then they kind of, you know, it's about two people who are kind of falling in love, and it's ultimately, I think, a very romantic movie.

- Thank you, yeah, I love weddings, I love weddings so much.

My wedding with Amanda was the best, but I know what you mean.

- At the very least it's, you know, you feel like it's never gonna happen.

- I mean that, yeah, that's where, and I know that's where it was good to like, the team up of me and Max, is that like, Max actually filmed our wedding, he was the first one.

He was filming us as we like, had our first look and everything too.

So I know that like, some of this was like, his experience being, like, seeing that, and feeling like it wasn't gonna be possible for him.

And he's now married, and it is possible.

But I, you know, going to a wedding, like, there's nothing worse than going to a wedding where you feel that disconnect.

It's supposed to be, you know, one of the greatest days of your life.

And where you're an outpouring of emotion and love, and putting love on display in a way.

When Andy's character and Cristin's character are eating tacos and talking about like, love, and weddings, and they both have like, these opposing views on it.

One, she's the more cynical side.

He's the more like, "Eh, it's nice, love, like let's bask in the love."

Like that was how I was feeling.

And we'd kind of, Max and I would kind of like, act out these like, little debates about it too.

- Yeah.

- And then that's what kind of became like, what was in the movie.

- Anyways, I think the party's gonna start pretty soon.

You wanna head back?

- Is that a joke?

No, why would I do that?

- I don't know, eat, drink, dance, bask in love.

- That is not love.

- Of course it is.

Tala's in love.

- No, you don't actually know what you're talking about.

We, you, me, everyone, everyone we know, nobody can stand the idea of being alone.

So we buy into this pageantry, celebrate, it's [bleep].

- All right, so no wedding then.

- You guys must have had a good time coming up with all those different gags and things.

- I remember very clearly when Max and I were like, "Let's just, we gotta do a big montage in the middle."

[John] Yeah.

- At that point it was like, it was gonna be a one-song montage.

But we had a case of Tecate, like, let's just, and turn the song on that we're like, there was this Alex Cameron song.

Be like, for this, you know, finding that arc that is within that arc, that's within the montage, where it's like, it starts out in this like, nothing matters.

[John] Yeah.

[Andy] But let's go have some fun, to by the end we're like, "Oh, but they're actually, like, becoming really good friends, and there is a connection there."

And they're waking up and smiling, like in the first, like where there's a smile the first thing when they wake up, that's like, that's what you hope for in life when you're with a partner.

Is like, you're excited to see them every day.

And so using that as our kind of like spine, we're just like, "How far can we take this in a ridiculous world, where you can die, and then wake up the next day?"

And there were a couple things that were like, cut out of the script.

But then once we started working with Andy, like, this was his favorite part of the movie.

And we just, that's when it became a three-song montage.

[John] Yeah.

- Which is like, you're not supposed to do.

And even our editor was like, "Yeah, it's not gonna work."

And then he realized, no, it actually works.

And I'd say like, the tattoos, that was like, that's when I feel like we knew when things were working, was when everybody is like, even when we're filming the thing, people are coming up with ideas.

And I think that was like, one that came up like, "Oh, the sun's going down in an hour.

What else can we do, to just like, just anything we can grab quickly?"

So cue our DP, just grabbed the camera, and then Andy and Cristin just, like, "Wait, what about tattoos?"

And that was like, that was like, one of the, you know, a very, a very last minute addition.

- ...and everything?

- Oh yeah, it's such an awesome crack.

- How close are you sticking to my sketch?

- I stuck to it exactly.

You're gonna love it.

- Awesome.

[Sarah] It looks really cool.

[tropical music] [typewriter ding] - One of the reasons I think the movie works so well, is even though there's this kind of fantastical stuff happening, at the end of the day, it's about these two people and they're bonding.

- And that's really all we wanted to, ultimately wanted to show with this whole section.

And just like, I mean, what it feels like to fall in love with somebody.

[John] Yeah.

- And it's like, and it's like, I think one of the most important things, is you can be like, your, your stupidest self with that person.

[John] Totally.

- And like, that's why so much of that montage is like, it makes me smile, 'cause it makes me feel like, "Oh this is, I'm buying them falling in love."

Or buying them like, having these feelings starting to bubble up, because like, it just gets progressively sillier and sillier.

- Stop!

There's a bomb in the cake.

Don't worry, I used to be a bomb guy.

Everyone stand back.

[loud explosion] [people scream] - Oh my god!

- Tryon, you son of a [bleep]!

You ruined my plan.

- Sarah, the sister of the bride.

And based on her accent, from origins unknown.

I'll take her dead or alive.

- Put the weapon down.

- Fine, then it's to be hand-to-hand combat then.

[Nyles grunts] [guests gasp] - Oh my god, Nyles!

- You have an amazing cast of really great comic actors, even in some of the smaller roles.

Did the script change at all when you brought the cast on?

I mean, I guess you mentioned the tattoo scene.

Does the tone, or do you make any little adjustments and shifts once you've cast?

- I mean, this is why I love, I mean, I really love working closely with actors and directors and stuff.

But that like, really embracing that side of the collaboration.

But like, when we started working with Andy, like what we did was, it was me, and Max, and Andy, and Akiva, and Becky, who just went page-by-page in their office.

And Andy's just like, saying these lines out loud, and pitching other like, jokes to go on top of it.

And that's where things like, started to shift.

And just like, the tone became like, even more specific than I was, because you know, it's nothing...

There's nothing more, in my mind, more useful and helpful than like, working one-on-one with the actor, or I guess, as a group with the actor, who's gonna actually be saying these lines.

And so once we got that kind of like, honed in, you know, we would kind of have like our, like, who we're thinking of for certain, certain parts.

But it was soon after that first meeting that Andy and Becky had just had like, a general meeting with Cristin.

And I remember after they had that, they're like, "Cristin's incredible, she's gonna be the one."

We didn't like, offer it to her, like, for nine months later, because we didn't have the money to make the movie at that point, and it wasn't like, a real movie yet.

But at from that point on, as I was going through these other, you know, rewrites, I was like, "I'm writing it for Cristin."

And also it was a very like, improv-friendly set too, because as long as we're hitting, like, the story points we had hit, I'm usually of the mindset that like, hopefully the actors like, know these characters better than I do by the time we're filming it.

So if something were to feel unnatural for them, I'd rather them just say it in their own way.

And some of my favorite improv moments were like, letting Conner, who plays Randy, just go.

- Seriously, did she tell you guys to do this?

- Okay, maybe she didn't go in the cave, but she told you to do this, right?

- I don't feel safe with him in the hou-- I feel like we should call the cops.

That's like, honestly, I don't feel safe anymore.

[John] He the best.

- Yeah, he's a wild comedian.

And then same thing for Meredith, who plays Misty in it, yeah.

- We've gotten to the point in the script where we have that real serious kind of reckoning with the two characters.

They split for a while.

Can you talk about sort of the ending, and how you kind of came up with the solution to this loop?

- If it's a solution.

- If there is one?

- Yeah.

- I know there are differing theories about what happened.

- I think the third act is where things mostly kind of shifted around a little bit.

And it was, like, in that very first meeting I had with Andy, he pitched Sarah walking into the cave strapped with C4.

And I was like, it was just a fun image.

And I kind of took that and was like, thinking more about that.

And over the next, whatever month, talking to them, we kind of realized they should, they at least have to try, like, try a new way to break out.

And it's like, like presenting the choice to them both.

That's really how we were trying to focus in that that last bit with speech and all that.

- It's a little bit like their kind of wedding, if you will.

They're kind of taking- - Oh totally, yeah.

- taking that leap.

- Yeah, it's about, you know, making the decision to like... [John] Go for it.

- Yeah.

Spend the rest of your life, or at least spend a portion of your life, with somebody, partner up with somebody.

'Cause I am of the mindset it's more fun to go through this existence with somebody else.

[John] Absolutely.

- And I might be wrong too, it might be better to go alone, but I'm a fan of having a partner in life.

- Ready?

- Yeah.

[tropical music] - Ta da!

- Wow, thank you.

That's beautiful.

I'm not that old though, am I?

[loud pop] [tropical music] [typewriter ding] [Narrator] You've been watching Reliving "Palm Springs" with Andy Siara on "On Story."

On Story is part of a growing number of programs in Austin Film Festival's On Story project that also includes the "On Story" radio program, podcast, book series, and the "On Story" archive accessible through the Wittliff Collections at Texas State University.

To find out more about On Story and Austin Film Festival, visit onstory.tv or austinfilmfestival.com.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [projector clicking] [typing] [typewriter ding] [projector dies]