(500) Days of Summer Screenwriters on Controversy, Pink Panther Sequels, and Girls

NEUSTADTER: There were these obstacles that kept people from wanting to buy it. It was a difficult sell for certain big studios, or so it was perceived. A lot of them wanted us to make it a happy ending [for the couple], a lot of them wanted us to make it a Matthew McConaughey vehicle, someone who would sell on the poster...somebody said to us, "We would totally buy this if it wasn't about a relationship." We were really scratching our heads on that one.

Does it freak you out when you've written this very personal script and you finally go out with it and no one will touch it?

NEUSTADTER: I personally was a little freaked out. Those six or seven months [of waiting] were like a haze to me. This script was what we kind of wanted to be known for, I suppose, to be writers of this kind of movie, but what happened was that no one bought it and it kind of sat around and we got hired to be the writers of the sequel to The Pink Panther. I was sort of terrified, because as much as we wanted to be professionals and be working writers, I know how easy it is to get pigeonholed. We really wanted [(500) Days of Summer] to go and represent us as writers, and it wasn't happening.

WEBER: I agree. It was good to be busy, but knowing that the best thing was sitting on the shelf was kind of frustrating.

So you guys got hired for Pink Panther off this sample? I wouldn't have necessarily drawn a straight line between the two.

NEUSTADTER: Really? The first draft of (500) Days had a lot of detective stuff.

WEBER: I also used to be a world-renowned cat burglar.

NEUSTADTER: That's probably a story for another time. Yeah, we had a meeting with an executive at Sony who was like, "Love the script, but I'm not gonna buy it. We have a couple open writing assignments. Actually, we have one, and it's the sequel to The Pink Panther. Would you be interested?" And we said no thank you, and that was that, but at the time, we hadn't really sold anything. Our representatives said, "Don't be a jackass -- come up with something!" And so we did, we came up with an idea and Sony said great and they hired us and greenlit our first draft.

It was the craziest thing ever. We knew they were going to make the movie, and that's really what you want. That's next-level stuff for a writer. Obviously, the finished product is not exactly the script we wrote, as often happens. But it was a really amazing experience for us, and I think very helpful in getting (500) to move forward.

How do the two of you work together as writers? What's the nature of your partnership?

NEUSTADTER: We never ever work in the same room. This is a rare situation where you're getting both of us in the same room, because he lives in New York and I live in California.

So you tend to email scripts back and forth?

NEUSTADTER: Yeah.

WEBER: When we're in the same room, we generally tend to talk about girls, or sports, or girls. Those are the only three things. We're playing cards, we're screwing around...sometimes good comedy comes from that, but generally not a lot of hard work. When we separate and go off and do our own thing, that's when the real work gets done.

NEUSTADTER: Exactly.

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