00:00www.mesmerism.info
00:05We had talked about transposing the story
00:07and using a different
00:11kind of
00:11backdrop to explore the same
00:13themes and we toyed with the idea
00:15of a mining
00:17versus salmon
00:21issue that John had heard about in Alaska
00:24and we did some research on that
00:25and talked about
00:28setting the whole thing there
00:30and then
00:33John
00:35researched and came
00:36upon natural gas as a
00:39great way
00:40to kind of explore
00:42American identity because the
00:44stakes are so unbelievably huge
00:49I just emailed Gus Van Sant
00:52and I told him
00:54that
00:55that I'd co-written something
00:57and that I thought it was really great
00:59and that I was going to direct it but I couldn't
01:01for logistical reasons and he emailed
01:04me back like about a minute later
01:05and before the before they told us to
01:08turn off our phones and
01:10and he said oh I'd love to
01:12read what you're writing and so
01:13I sent him the whole document
01:15just right there on the runway
01:17and we flew down to Florida
01:19and landed two hours later
01:21two and a half hours later maybe
01:22and
01:24when I turned my phone back on there was a message from Gus
01:27saying he wanted to direct the movie
01:32the story is about a pair of salesmen who go into a town
01:37and
01:38and how they're changed by the town
01:40and how the town is changed by them
01:43and
01:44and basically in a nutshell
01:46that's kind of what it is
01:48it's a pretty simple story
01:49but hopefully with
01:52characters that we all can recognize
01:54as people we know
02:00I hope people who go see Promised Land
02:02um
02:04you know are moved by it
02:06and and and recognize the people
02:09and and
02:11and
02:12you know come out thinking about
02:14thinking about it's not meant
02:16to give you any answers it's actually just
02:18meant to
02:19to catalyze some conversation
02:22and
02:22and
02:25and reflection
02:26um
02:28because it you know it really asks more questions
02:31you know
02:32than it answers
02:33but they're important questions I think that
02:35that we're all
02:36that we all need to be asking right now
02:38um
02:39and uh
02:40and so you know but I hope it's entertaining
02:42I hope people
02:43people laugh
02:44I hope people get choked up
02:45I hope people
02:46uh
02:47love these characters as much as we do
02:49you
02:51you
