Thomas Mann, Me And Earl And The Dying Girl

Thomas Mann Me And Earl And The Dying Girl

Cast: Olivia Cooke, Nick Offerman, Connie Britton
Director: Alfonso Gomez-Rejon
Genre: Drama
Rated: PG
Running Time: 105 minutes

Synopsis: Winner of the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, Me And Earl And The Dying Girl is the uniquely funny, moving story of Greg (Thomas Mann), a high school senior who is trying to blend in anonymously, avoiding deeper relationships as a survival strategy for navigating the social minefield that is teenage life. He even describes his constant companion Earl (RJ Cyler), with whom he makes short film parodies of classic movies, as more of a 'co-worker' than a best friend. But when Greg's mom (Connie Britton) insists he spend time with Rachel (Olivia Cooke) – a girl in his class who has just been diagnosed with cancer - he slowly discovers how worthwhile the true bonds of friendship can be.

Me And Earl And The Dying Girl
Release Date: September 3rd, 2015

About the Production

This Is The Part Where We Make A Movie

In 2013, Jesse Andrews' thought-provoking and moving young-adult novel Me and Earl and the Dying Girl took readers by surprise with a truly contemporary coming-of-age story, packed with smart original dialogue and fully realized teen characters. Now director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon has perfectly captured the book's offbeat humour, rare sensitivity and unique worldview in a feature film that chronicles a young man's journey into adulthood as he learns what it means to be truly selfless. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, the innovative film also includes sly nods to legendary movies and tracks by the incomparable Brian Eno, including several previously unheard of compositions.

Although Me And Earl And The Dying Girl is only the director's second feature film, Alfonso Gomez-Rejon brings an impressive pedigree to the project. 'He's wonderfully ambitious, which made him the perfect person to tell Greg Gaines' story, because Greg Gaines has wild and grand ambitions of his own. Alfonso Gomez-Rejon doesn't always do things the easy way, but he has a thumbprint that's different from anyone else's," says Nora Skinner, executive vice president of Indian Paintbrush and executive producer of Me And Earl And The Dying Girl.

Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, who had directed episodes of hit series 'Glee" and 'American Horror Story" and the horror re-boot The Town That Dreaded Sundown, says he wanted his next project to be something more personal. He found that in Me And Earl And The Dying Girl.

'The script was funny in an unusual and unpredictable way, as well as refreshingly honest," says Alfonso Gomez-Rejon. 'At first, it reminded me of the wonderful John Hughes movies I grew up on, but then it very gently took an unexpected turn and became so much more than just a comedy. I had just lost my father and I felt that if I could make this film, it would be a way for me to express my own personal losses and transform them through humor."

Greg Gaines, the film's hapless hero, aspires to be a filmmaker himself"although Andrews says there were no such ambitions when he wrote the book. 'I wanted to write a novel about teenagers that was funny, but also had some real seriousness to it," he says. 'I was hoping to create something that would defy attempts to make a clean, easy narrative."

When the book became a critical sensation, Andrews' agent, Anna DeRoy, approached Dan Fogelman, writer of such films as Crazy, Stupid, Love and Tangled, to see if he would be interested in adapting it for the screen. Instead, Fogelman came back with an intriguing offer for Andrews.

'When I read the book, I realised that I'd never heard this voice before," says Fogelman, who eventually became a producer on the project. 'It's young and self-aware and engaged and so touching. My instinct was that Jesse should write the script and I would help him do it. He just needed to understand how the form works. When we started, he didn't even know how to write -EXT' or -INT' on a screenplay, but he did a remarkable job. It evolved from this little novel into a film that got a standing ovation at the Sundance Film Festival."

'Dan is an incredible teacher, a really great artist and a great craftsman who thought I should write the script and offered to mentor me through it," says Andrews. 'He really took me under his wing because he really cared about this project."

The producing team at Indian Paintbrush, the company behind such auteur-driven prestige films including 2015 Best Picture Oscar®-nominee The Grand Budapest Hotel, Young Adult and Jeff, Who Lives At Home, was impressed by the finished script. 'Jesse has fresh and original writing style," says Steven Rales, the company's founder and a producer on the film. 'We responded to the sense of honesty and humility he instilled in this story. He did a great job of capturing the cacophony of emotions that most of us feel as we move through high school."

'We are always looking for work that is unique," adds Skinner. 'We like stories that will resonate and endure. Jesse has such an amazing, singular voice and this is a coming-of-age story unlike anything I've ever encountered: funny, dramatic, moving and really truthful. We knew it would attract a filmmaker who wanted to make a visually compelling movie that would stay with people."

In fact, a number of established film directors threw their hats in the ring, as did Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, who was best known at the time for his television work. Co-producer Jeff Somerville, an executive at Indian Paintbrush and Alfonso Gomez-Rejon's college roommate, advised his old friend and colleague to create a visual presentation that would set him apart from the crowd. 'The script clearly struck a chord with Alfonso Gomez-Rejon on many levels," he says. 'He recognised that the relationship between Greg and Rachel was the heart and soul of the film."

To show his strong interest in the material, Alfonso Gomez-Rejon put together a mood reel that provided the producers with a visual road map for his ideas. 'It was a montage that loosely followed the structure of the screenplay," he explains. 'I used music and images to convey how I saw the film and what it meant to me. It was loaded with references to movies and music I love, but in a seamless way. I presented it at every pitch meeting."

According to Sommerville, the short film 'spoke volumes about the human, timeless, funny and sad story we all hoped to tell. It also demonstrated that he could handle the visual flourishes of the material in a way that wouldn't interfere with the character's journeys."

'Alfonso Gomez-Rejon's ideas were extremely inventive and original," agrees Rales. 'He has a keen sense of music and a deep historical perspective on film in general. Just talking with him, I got excited to see how he would pull the material together."

Producer Jeremy Dawson was also impressed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon's insightful take on the subject matter, as well as the calm and confident way he expressed himself. 'Alfonso is an amazing director with a very specific style that makes everything look more expensive and bigger than it is," he says. 'Self-assured and gentle in the way he works, Alfonso Gomez-Rejon's love of cinema is contagious and shares it with everyone from the actors to the production assistants."

'He is a film scholar as well as a film fan," the producer adds. 'He knows more about movies than the rest of us. He always had a plan, but once we got on set he continued to shape his ideas. He really likes to keep things organic and intuitive. It's a delicate balance. I think of him almost like a sculptor."

While some of the details of the story come from Andrews' own experience, the writer says it is most certainly not autobiographical. 'You might say I was kind of Greg Gaines-like in high school," he says. 'My goal was to get along with all kinds of people. I was in the band, I was on the swim team, which gave me a jock connection, but doesn't have nearly as much cachet as the football team. You're shivering in your underwear in front of absolutely no one, since no one ever goes to a swim meet."

Greg, played by Thomas Mann, spends his life trying to present himself to the world as the person he wants people to see, rather than the person he actually is, according to Alfonso Gomez-Rejon. 'You can't sustain an act like that forever," the director points out. 'You'll have to eventually pull off that mask and deal with exposing yourself to rejection or, worse, indifference. Once you start to show who you really are, then the real world can react accordingly. Not everyone will like you and you'll say things that you'll regret. But you will grow from it."

The teenager's deepening friendship with cancer stricken classmate Rachel, played by Olivia Cooke, makes his posturing more difficult to maintain. 'Greg starts to face real-life challenges when he becomes close to Rachel," says Alfonso Gomez-Rejon. 'He's been living in a world of his own, walking around with an art-film score in his head. Now he is engaging with a world where reality isn't of his design."
Greg fights against his journey of self-discovery as long as he can, armed with subversive humor and a large dose of denial. 'As much he would like to hide from the eyes of the world, it's futile," says Andrews. 'It would result in a very limited, unfulfilling life, but that exposure is terrible to contemplate. When it happens, his life starts to become much richer and fuller, but not necessarily happier."

Even though Greg's story is set against the backdrop of his high-school senior year, the appeal goes far beyond a typical teen movie, as evidenced by the enthusiasm and commitment of the many adults involved in the production. 'The movie will be a little bit nostalgic for older audiences," says Rales. 'I think they will remember the challenges and complexities of what Greg is going through and the kinds of friendships that have a lasting influence on you. For younger audiences, it can be a reminder that there's hope in the midst of all the chaos. It's a time to make meaningful friendships that can be everlasting."

According to Dawson, everyone involved was aware that they had been given the opportunity to make a unique and meaningful film. 'No one does this kind of movie for the paycheck," he says. 'We all knew we'd never get a chance to make another movie like it. Jesse wrote a tremendous script that attracted all this great talent, both above and below the line. It's a heartwarming story that people identify with. It has characters that are individual and unique. It speaks to something important. Projects like this don't come along very often."

This Is The Part Where We Introduce You To Greg And Earl And The Dying Girl

Headlining the cast of Me And Earl And The Dying Girl are three young actors at the beginning of their careers: Thomas Mann as Greg, Olivia Cooke as Rachel, and RJ Cyler as Greg's best friend Earl.

'Like the characters they play, the actors are all funny and brutally honest as human beings," says Alfonso Gomez-Rejon. 'There was never a false note in their performances. The heavier scenes could have easily crossed into sentimentality, and I wanted to avoid it feeling manipulative. If that had happened, I felt I would have failed as a filmmaker."

As Greg, Mann balances conflicting emotions in a complex and nuanced performance that would be impressive from an actor with many times his experience. 'Greg wants to coast through high school," says Alfonso Gomez-Rejon. 'His priority is to go as unnoticed as possible and not offend anybody. He's afraid to call anyone a friend, even Earl, who he has been making secret films with since they were kids. He doesn't want to get close to anyone who might hurt him later."

Greg's quick wit and self-deprecating humor endear him to Rachel, who insists on facing the seriousness of her illness without illusions. 'He has no idea how funny he is"which is always the funniest kind of person," says Alfonso Gomez-Rejon. 'He has a unique voice. There's something refreshing about his honesty. The first thing he says to Rachel is: -I'm here because my mom is making me.' Rachel has probably received a dozen calls that day from people who are feeling sorry for her. She needs what Greg brings her instead of the canned sympathy and platitudes she's getting from everyone else. He's the perfect distraction. Their friendship becomes unexpectedly effortless."

Thomas Mann says he responded to the character and the story immediately. 'It's a coming-of-age story, but in a really off-center way," he says. 'It's all about the crazy journey that Greg goes on to get to know himself and to stop being so self-centered. When I heard Alfonso Gomez-Rejon was a part of it, I knew it would be unlike anything that we'd seen before."

When he looks back at himself in high school, Thomas Mann recognises some similarities with Greg. 'He's a real teenager," the actor says. 'He's not perfectly charming. He doesn't always do the right thing and I love that about him. To see him grow as a person was a joy for me and I think it will be for the audience, too."

The film's head-on approach to the complex issues and emotions it tackles is not typical for teen movies, Thomas Mann says. 'This is not about first love or any of the usual things. It's about a young man realising what kind of person he wants to be and having to consider what could happen if you lose someone just as you're getting to know them."

'I feel like it's the best work I've ever done and I give most of the credit to Alfonso Gomez-Rejon," he continues. 'He loves actors and he wants to see our personalities shine through. He doesn't overload you with things to think about during a scene. And Jesse Andrews did such a fantastic job of writing the script. It's all there."

Alfonso Gomez-Rejon deliberately avoided even hinting at a conventional romantic attraction between Rachel and Greg. 'Maybe in 5 or 10 years, they could have the greatest love story of all time," he says. 'But at this point in their lives, I wanted to see a deeper, more unusual connection. It's not often you meet someone who accepts all of you."

Rachel is an unusual girl even before her illness, and her troubles merely accentuate her singularity. 'Rachel has never been focused on being popular," says Alfonso Gomez-Rejon. 'She is an artist and young artists are often outsiders, and now she's maturing quickly. When you that think your life is about to be cut short why not spend it with people as genuine as Greg and Earl?"

Olivia Cooke's innate ability to inspire compassion made her perfect for the role, says Thomas Mann. 'She just feels so right as Rachel. You automatically care about her as a person, which is what the character needs."

Olivia Cooke dismisses the notion that she chose to do this movie"the filmmakers chose her, she says, and she is grateful for the opportunity. 'I really had to work for this part," says Olivia Cooke. 'I put my heart and soul into the auditions. I wrote Alfonso Gomez-Rejon a letter telling him why I wanted to play Rachel. The night before we auditioned together, Thomas Mann and I had dinner, so I knew we both just really wanted this project. Thankfully, the chemistry was real."
Fogelman remembers seeing her first audition tape and thinking, 'We're done." 'I'd never seen an audition that good," he explains. 'Then I saw her paired with Thomas Mann and that was when the characters became real people."

Arriving on set, she was delighted to learn that the director was leaving many creative decisions about the character in her hands. 'Alfonso Gomez-Rejon gave us just the right amount of direction," says Olivia Cooke. 'It felt so free to know he trusted us, and we trusted him to create the world around us."

The young actress is best known to audiences for spooky thrillers like the recent movie Ouija and the television series 'Bates Motel." But while she acknowledges the visibility those roles have given her, she was glad for a chance to break the mold. 'This is a story about relationships and I've never done that before," she says. 'Rachel has a lot of dignity. She cares about how she is perceived by other people. You see it in the way she dresses and the way she holds herself. It's not just about looking pretty; it's about wearing her artistic self on her sleeve."

Rachel's pride underscores the difficulty she has dealing with the changes forced on her by her illness. The actress chose to shave her head for scenes when Rachel is undergoing chemotherapy, rather than wear a bald cap. 'Shaving my head was more personal and more real than anything I've ever experienced," she says. 'I felt stripped of my dignity. I did it with help from RJ Cyler and Thomas Mann. I had my hair in a bunch of pigtails and we each took turns cutting them until it was about two inches long all over. When we started shaving it, I was laughing at how ridiculous I looked, but as we finished, I started to sob. It made me feel very vulnerable and isolated. Women take a lot of their identity from their hair."

RJ Cyler makes an impressive big-screen debut as Earl, Greg's partner in cinematic crime. Until Greg connects with Rachel, Earl is his only confidant. The child of academics who are interested in ethnic art and esoteric films, Greg seems an unlikely companion for Earl, an African-American kid who lives on the tough side of town.

Casting Earl required a lengthy search, according to Dawson. 'We auditioned a lot of people, all kinds of kids, but we were about two and a half weeks out from production and didn't have a perfect choice. Then RJ Cyler walked in. He hadn't really acted before, but he was a natural performer. Olivia and Thomas took him under their wing and they were inseparable from the moment he showed up. RJ Cyler brought out the goofy side in everybody. They were skipping across Pittsburgh and doing crazy dances in the middle of the street."

After reading with RJ Cyler at his audition, Thomas Mann told the filmmakers that RJ was the one to play Earl. 'The first time I met him, I thought, how is he not already a movie star?" remembers Thomas Mann. 'I don't know what I would have done without him on this movie. There were so many heavy scenes and so much work packed into 24 days. Without his positive energy, it would have been much more difficult."

Earl is both Greg's alter ego and his moral compass, according to Alfonso Gomez-Rejon. 'Earl's had a rough time," says the director. 'Because of his family situation, he had to become an adult way too soon. But he has that confidence that Greg lacks, as well as a deep sense of right and wrong. They complement each other: Greg has someone that he can trust and Earl has someone to expose him to exotic food, foreign films, and, most importantly, the kind of family he wishes he had."

RJ Cyler's Earl is the deadpan observer of Greg's nervous commentary on life. 'RJ brings such levity to the whole situation," says Skinner. 'He's a great listener. As a beginning actor, he had to deal with so many things for the first time, not just in terms of performance but the technical side as well. He was always completely focused."

RJ Cyler can admit now that he was apprehensive about being the -new kid' amid so many seasoned professionals. 'Everybody was so cool," says RJ Cyler. 'But I was still nervous. I had seen Thomas Mann in Project X and I thought, it's going to be all business. Not friends. Co-workers. As Greg says in the film."

He soon found out differently though. 'First thing he does is give me a hug," RJ Cyler recalls. 'That is what made me realise I could enjoy myself. Then I met Olivia Cooke and it was the same thing. Working with the two of them was magical. We became like a big family."

RJ Cyler is well aware how fortunate he was to have this as his first professional acting experience. 'Everybody on this film had a passion for it. That made my job so much easier and more fun. I'm a different type of actor now thanks to Alfonso Gomez-Rejon and everyone involved."

This Is The Part Where We Cast Adults In The Movie

The three leads are supported by an adult cast that includes established stars Connie Britton, Nick Offerman, Jon Bernthal and Molly Shannon, who bring exceptional emotion and insight to their roles. 'The script is very actor friendly," says Fogelman. 'And the cast we got is very special. All of these actors were our top choices and they are all playing parts that are smaller than what they normally take, which is a testament to both the script and Alfonso Gomez-Rejon's ability to convince people to participate."

Greg's parents, as played by Connie Britton and Nick Offerman, have some resemblance to Andrews' own family, the writer admits. 'My dad's super weird," he notes. 'He never wore a sarong like Greg's dad, but he did spend a lot of time talking to the cat. My mom's pretty normal, but she was definitely willing to go along with the weirdness. She sees the value in it and was willing to cultivate that in her children, which I'm really grateful for."

Skinner says that anyone who has ever parented a teenager will recognise what the Gaineses are experiencing. 'You have to watch kids go through things that are very challenging and very painful," he says. 'And you have to step back and let it happen. But that's what parenting is all about. Connie Britton and Nick Offerman are so real that a lot people will identify with what they go through and the joy and the heartbreak of being a parent of a teenager."

Based on her positive experience working with Alfonso Gomez-Rejon on the first season of 'American Horror Story," Connie Britton reached out without even seeing a script when she heard he was directing a feature film. 'I'm such a huge fan of his," she says. 'Alfonso Gomez-Rejon is so collaborative and supportive that he empowers everyone to do their best. When I did get to read the script, I was blown away. It's so original"a coming-of-age comedy with cancer! And how awesome is it to have Nick Offerman play my amazing muumuu-wearing husband?"

'Greg's parents complement each other," she says. 'They have very broad visions of the world. My character loves her son and believes in him so fully. When Rachel gets sick, her thought is that this is a mitzvah for Greg. She 100-percent guilts him into befriending her. She knows that this is a great thing for him to be able to do. This will help him grow. This will help him learn. This will make him a better person. So she really pushes him to do it."

The difficult lessons Greg learns though his relationship with Rachel are things most of us experience at some point in life, she says. 'But Greg is having it all happen during his senior year of high school, which makes it even harder. It's impressive to be able to tell that story from a comedic, self-deprecating standpoint. Jesse found the humanity and the humor in it."

In addition to providing exotic sartorial influence, Greg's sociology professor father informally tutors the boys on film history and shares his taste for unusual foods with them. 'When I read the script I thought Nick Offerman would be perfect in this part," says Thomas Mann. 'He doesn't say too much but he makes a big impression. I got to know him and Connie quite well. They're both so talented and they really understood the movie we were making."

Nick Offerman claims he was offered the role primarily because he is known for 'speaking slowly and being strange." 'It seemed like a good fit," the actor says. 'The character reminded me of a theater history professor I studied with named Bernette M. Hobgood. We called him Hob. He was a stentorian, balding man with a beard who wore crazy '60s medallions in the late '80s. He taught us about Aeschylus while surrounded by smoke from his little brown cigars. I tried to channel my inner Hob."

The piece has unusual heart and humor, in Nick Offerman's opinion. 'I was quite taken with it," he says. 'It captures so many uncomfortable things very well. I'm green with envy at these three gorgeous young people and their seeming ability to responsibly handle these massive roles."

'Of course, being cast as someone Connie Britton would ever consider a relationship with was a generous compliment," he adds. 'When she said, -Your father and I have to talk to you about something,' for a moment I felt like Coach Taylor from 'Friday Night Lights" and that made me feel two times taller than I actually am."

In the role of Rachel's mother Denise, Molly Shannon is both touching and hilarious as a single parent facing the possibility of losing her only child with courage"fortified by several glasses of wine. 'Molly is a force to be reckoned with," says Olivia Cooke. 'She's so funny. She changes it up every single time so not one take is ever the same as the last. Off screen, she's gorgeous and chatty and very girly. When I meet someone like her on a set, it's such a gift."

'I can't think of anyone who can better skirt the line between comedy and tragedy than Molly Shannon," adds Skinner. 'As Denise, she is funny, but also a tough woman in impossible circumstances. She just has to do so much. We're tremendously lucky to have had Molly Shannon in this linchpin role."

Jon Bernthal, familiar to fans of television's 'Mob City" and 'The Walking Dead," is virtually unrecognisable as Mr. McCarthy, the uber-cool, heavily tattooed history teacher who offers Greg unexpected solace. 'It's a great role and Jon is wonderful in it," says Skinner. 'Everybody wishes they'd had a Mr. McCarthy in high school, someone who both understands who you are and also allows you the space to make mistakes. He watches Greg tumble down a rabbit hole of grief and anxiety that keeps him from doing the things he needs to do. Instead of making Greg feel guilty, Mr. McCarthy just says, you're going to get through this and you're going to be okay. And you're a good kid."

Steven Rales is delighted the project attracted such a stellar cast. 'Both the adults and the younger actors were able to capture what is special in Jesse's writing," he notes. 'Each of them in their own way brings the same kind of humility to their work. I think it shows how you can achieve success in filmmaking when you bring that kind of ethos to a project."

This Is The Part Where We Film In Pittsburgh

Me And Earl And The Dying Girl was shot entirely on location in Pittsburgh, hometown of both novelist and screenwriter Jesse Andrews, and producer Steven Rales. The filmmakers created an authentic backdrop for their story by using many sites familiar to Jesse Andrews, including his high school alma mater and even the house he grew up in. After scouting scores of locations for Greg's home, they realised that the perfect setting for the story was the one that in many ways inspired it.

'It's kind of weird, but also kind of wonderful," says Jesse Andrews. 'Those are the rooms that I inhabited in my imagination when I was creating a house in my head for Greg."

The house had the right flow for the story, according to Alfonso Gomez-Rejon. 'Even more than that, there was so much love in there already that it just felt right," he says. 'We scouted dozens of other homes, but we were always comparing them to Jesse's house and chasing that look and feel. Finally we decided to at least ask and we were very lucky that they said yes."

The shoot became a festive occasion for the entire Squirrel Hill neighborhood. 'They made us feel so welcome," says Dawson. 'The set was like a block party with everyone setting up chairs on the sidewalk. It was a celebration of this little family neighborhood in Pittsburgh."

For the high school, Alfonso Gomez-Rejon was looking for a building with what he calls 'an aggressive, institutional feel." The stone-and-concrete neoclassical building used in the film reminded him of a prison, which was perfect for his purposes. 'Jesse Andrew's old school, Schenley High, had been closed for years," he says. 'It looked like Chernobyl with ceiling tiles falling from the ceiling, but the size and scope of that beautiful 1916 triangular structure was just what I had in mind."

Schenley High, whose famous alumni include visual artist Andy Warhol, professional wrestler Bruno Sammartino and jazz musician Ray Brown, was slated for conversion into condominiums, but the filmmakers worked out a deal with the developers to take the building over for the duration of the shoot. 'It's a high school that doesn't look like a high school," says Dawson. 'The ceilings are 20-feet high. It has these enormous windows and curved classrooms that were like nothing I've ever seen in a school. We brought back all the lockers and furniture and turned hundreds of teenagers loose in the halls to return it to what it was."

The production received an unanticipated boost in authenticity when they were contacted by a young man who said he was the unofficial manager of the Schenley High School archives. 'He was a graduate who collected Schenley memorabilia after the school closed," says Dawson. 'He loaned us all the paraphernalia he had accumulated and we put him in the movie as an extra."

Pittsburgh, located in southwestern Pennsylvania at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers, has a rich history that dates back to pre-Revolutionary War times. 'Once we started scouting around, Pittsburgh became a major character in the film," says Dawson. 'It's a combination of historic and modern with brilliant architecture. There are amazing bridges, rivers and tree-lined streets. There are over 700 beautiful outdoor staircases that go up and down the hills there. There's the children's hospital, which is an iconic modern building at the top of Lawrenceville. We just fell in love with the city. And everybody in Pittsburgh is such a fan of Pittsburgh. I hadn't experienced that kind of civic pride before."

The director selected a top-flight crew to back him up on the visual elements of the movie. As director of photography he chose South Korean cinematographer Chung-hoon Chung, best known for his dynamic camera work for director Chan-wook Park on thrillers including Oldboy, Sympathy For Lady Vengeance and Stoker.

'We knew we wanted a cinematographer who would make this film look different," says Dawson. 'Chung-hoon Chung might be the last guy you would imagine working on a movie set in an American high school, so he created a really interesting look that avoids any clichés."

'Like Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, Chung-hoon Chung is a very open, creative and spontaneous thinker," Skinner says. 'It was truly a marriage of equals. Together, they put a unique spin on this that doesn't look like any other high-school movie."

Although Chung-hoon Chung's body of work has been on darker themed movies, Alfonso Gomez-Rejon says the cinematographer was the funniest person on the set. 'He understood and loved the characters so much. There was a lot of talking in the film, but we wanted to make it fresh and new by not covering dialogue in a way that felt traditional. We also wanted to constantly challenge ourselves, so even though we storyboarded everything beforehand, we were open to finding a scene on set. For instance, we shot a few long takes without coverage, where the audience will be the editor and choose who they want to look at."

The film is set in a series of what Chung-hoon Chung refers to as 'micro worlds," which were each treated differently in terms of how they were lit and shot. 'We had Greg's house, Rachel's bedroom, Earl's home, the school," he says. 'Each one is different. The school is chaotic and we used lots of old fluorescent lights to emphasise that. The kids' homes needed a warmer and more beautiful light."

Collaborating with Alfonso Gomez-Rejon on this film was an artistic high point for Chung 'At our very first meeting, we didn't talk about the visuals at all. We discussed the drama and the humor. I believe that if you know the drama, the visual comes naturally. I always want to help create emotion throughout the film," he says.

Production designer Gerald Sullivan had the same priority when he created a warm, lived-in look for the film. 'It's been a great collaborative process," says Geradl Sullivan. 'Alfonso Gomez-Rejon has a wonderful eye. And Pittsburgh has a lot of great looks. It gave us a fantastic foundation for the character-based designs we came up with. For example, Greg is a young cineaste with a singular sense of humor. His bedroom is his refuge as well as his brainstorming area. Rachel's room reflects her creative spirit, as opposed to the rest of her house which her mother has decorated in a way that is somewhat devoid of character."

Alfonso Gomez-Rejon enjoyed paying sly tribute to his filmmaking heroes in some of the small touches on the set, like the photograph of Academy Award®-winning film editor Thelma Schoonmaker used as the screensaver on Greg's desktop computer. Greg wears a Last Waltz T-shirt and his bedroom sports a Mean Streets poster (both in honor of Scorsese), as well as one for the Truffaut masterpiece, The 400 Blows. In homage to the late Nora Ephron, the script for Heartburn sits on Greg's desk, next to her husband Nick Pileggi's script for Casino.

'There are also posters in a DVD shop, Saul and Elaine Bass references, a Film Forum T-shirt, the list is endless," says Alfonso Gomez-Rejon. 'But it all had to be easily identifiable, funny and comment on some level on the movie we were making."

Jennifer Eve's costume designs took on a similarly personalised spin. Greg's wardrobe echoes his bedroom and contains subtle hints to his love for film. 'Alfonso Gomez-Rejon wanted to make sure he had a particular look so he didn't become just that iconic indie guy you see in so many movies," Jennifer Eve explains. 'To me, his room is his refuge. The walls are a light celery color with baseboards and a door in British racing green. I worked that into a jacket for Greg, so when he leaves the safety of his bedroom, he is wearing that color palette. It also has some obscure patches referencing vintage films. In that way, his room travels with him like armor."

Her designs for Rachel and Earl also contain important information about the characters. 'Rachel mixes patterns all the time," Jennifer Eve says. 'She's very much in control of the way she presents herself. She's a powerful character. Her body is failing her, but she doesn't lose her spirit. For Earl, the proportions of his clothes are always slightly askew. He doesn't have much money, but he does have style, which we see in things like the way he rolls his pants really high. His shirts are oversized, because they are hand-me-downs or from thrift stores."

Nick Offerman's costumes were pure fun to assemble, says the designer. 'Greg's dad loves to travel and is interested in world culture. Every outfit he has is unique and full of global ethnic touches. The challenge was to take a caftan that he got in Morocco and pair it with his comfy old bathrobe and clogs and not have it look spoofy."

Music plays a critical role in any picture, Steven Rales notes, but it is particularly central to the emotional core of Me And Earl And The Dying Girl. 'Alfonso found music that matched up beautifully with the storyline and did a wonderful job of balancing the tone of the film with the music."

The soundtrack creates a unique and affecting sonic landscape for the story, according to music supervisor Randall Poster. 'Alfonso Gomez-Rejon approached that element of the film like a master watchmaker, making sure that all the moving parts worked in synch," he says. 'We needed to succeed in joining Swiss accuracy to the arrhythmic ticking of adolescence with the hope of creating a genuine and reliable emotional chronometer. That set us on a on a musical journey that led us to the incomparable Brian Eno."

The work of the acclaimed recording artist and producer provided Alfonso Gomez-Rejon with inspiration during the postproduction process. After he chose Eno's song 'The Big Ship" as a temp track for the film Greg and Earl make for Rachel, editor David Trachtenberg inserted excerpts of a half-dozen other songs from Eno's iconic 'Another Green World" album into the film's audio track, planning to replace them later with original music.

'But once we shot the scene in the hospital," says Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, 'I realised that -Big Ship' was absolutely necessary. It has a very handmade quality, as well as tremendous emotion that is never forced. That became the sound of my film, so when we started talking about composers, I knew it had to be Eno."

'The music had started to take on a personality of its own, one that we were falling in love with," adds Poster.

Although Eno had never scored a film before, the filmmakers were eventually able to persuade him to watch the movie. 'He loved it, and he loved the way his music was used in it," says Alfonso Gomez-Rejon. 'It reminded him of what he strives for in his own music"nothing is too sappy or sentimental; there are always contradictory emotional currents. He went back to his vault and sent me some material that had never been released, and eventually he started writing original music for us. So we have about 18 or 19 cues that are a combination of preexisting and new Eno music, in addition to the beautiful music that opens the film, which is written by Nico Muhly."

Seeing the first cut of the film with the music literally moved Fogelman to tears, much to his surprise. 'I really had never been affected by a movie like that," he says. 'The music and the storytelling move you in a good way. It's not just sad, or saccharine or sweet; it's rich and unique."

'Alfonso Gomez-Rejon has been mentored by some of the greatest filmmakers of our times, including Martin Scorsese, Alejandro González Iñárritu and Nora Ephron," says Skinner. 'That's been very important in making him the filmmaker he is."

Looking back, Alfonso Gomez-Rejon says working with his early mentors taught him how to make a movie, but this experience has taught him why he makes movies. 'During production, I didn't know if it was going to work or not, but I knew that by the end of the shoot I would be transformed by it. That brought me closer to understanding the work of the people I admire. Now I know what it is to show a part of myself in a movie. It's a high I've never felt before and one I'm going to be chasing for a very long time. It was quite invigorating for me as a filmmaker to be able to shoot the film the way I wanted"without a safety net. I'm very grateful to the producers for having the confidence in me to let me do that."

According to Dawson, the film contains profound messages about friendship, life and love. 'It reminds you that there's more to people than you see," says the producer. 'You may have to really engage to learn about them, but if you do they'll become a part of your life forever. There's a lovely moment when Greg discovers that Rachel has made all these beautiful, hand-carved tableaus out of books. He realises that even after everything they have been through together, there's still more for him to learn about her."

The exquisite sculptures, which Rachel has been keeping a secret from the world, were an original idea that came from Luci Leary, the film's property master. The filmmakers loved the concept and put the art department to work creating amazingly intricate miniature sculptures concealed inside books.

'As Mr. McCarthy says in the movie, you have to keep your eyes open," Dawson says. 'Things will continually unfold about the people you love. Since making this movie, I'm realising how true that lesson is."

'People who have lived a bit of a life will relate to so many notes in this film," Olivia Cooke adds. 'It's based on a book that's classified as -young adult' but it cuts so much deeper. There are no falsities, no clichés. It's a story about human interactions as well how we treat mortality."

This Is The Part Where We Make Parodies Of Cinematic Greats

Greg and Earl have been secretly making short films since elementary school, when Greg's father introduced them to the cinematic greats. The collaboration produced 42 punny parodies of classic art-house films, from A Sockwork Orange and Senior Citizen Cane to MY Dinner With André The Giant and The 400 Bros. Seizing the unparalleled opportunity to reimagine some of their favorite motion pictures through the eyes of a pair of adolescent outsiders, Alfonso Gomez-Rejon and his fellow filmmakers used a variety of imaginative techniques to create an array of hilarious mini-movies.

'The films are a graphic glimpse of Greg's inner life," says producer Jeremy Dawson. 'Alfonso Gomez-Rejon and I thought it would add a lot if we could make some of those homage movies."

Jeremy Dawson had previously worked with Pittsburgh-based filmmakers Edward Bursch and Nathan O. Marsh on projects for Wes Anderson, and they immediately sprang to mind as the perfect duo to help realize Greg and Earl's quirky short films. 'Nate and Ed have the same kind of anarchic creative energy as Greg and Earl. Alfonso responds to things that are handcrafted with texture and personality to them. I knew they would be a good fit."

Greg and Earl star in many of their own creations, playing all of the roles, while others feature sock puppets and papier-mâché figures, as well as stop-motion and other animation techniques. 'All of them had to look like something Greg and Earl could have made within their budgetary and technical limitations," says Alfonso Gomez-Rejon. 'Ed, Nate and I talked about what we wanted to accomplish with each short and all the technical departments participated in them. Sets and models were constructed. Jennifer Eve, our amazing costume designer, had to find clothes that Greg and Earl could have pulled out of Greg's parents' closets. A lot of thought went into every detail."

Some of the titles used in the film come directly from Andrews' book, while others were invented specifically for the movie. 'It was more of a group process, a lot of times figured out over dinner or drinks after work in pre-production," says Jeremy Dawson. 'Somebody would come up with a silly title and we'd say, -We have to do that one!' Alfonso Gomez-Rejon would pick the ones he wanted to include, then Nate and Ed came back with their ideas."

Bursch served as director of photography, while Marsh created the drawings, puppets and other handcrafted items used in the films, as well as illustrating the DVD covers. 'Our prompts were the original films, a lot of them Alfonso's favorites," says Marsh. 'We put a pretty juvenile but funny spin on them and tried to turn everything into a punch line."

'It was very highbrow," jokes Bursch. 'Peeping Tom became Pooping Tom. Jesse Andrews came up with a lot of nonsensical puns: The Seventh Seal became THE Seven Seals. It's about seven aquatic mammals, in case you couldn't tell."

Harking back to their own early filmmaking attempts, Bursch and Marsh used the kind of makeshift technology that would be available to a couple of kids, like an old skateboard-dolly Bursch fabricated years before. 'We focused on how high-school students could make these films," he says. 'Neither of us had much experience with stop-motion, so we were learning just as Greg and Earl would have. Nate made some great puppets that he operated in a kind of -Jim Henson-as-a-five-year-old' way. We also printed out photographs, cut them up and filmed with them which lent a really beautiful quality."

'We filmed on different formats, including 16mm film, mini DV cams, HD cameras and even iPhones, based on what would have been available to Greg and Earl at any given time," adds Marsh. 'Deciding what to shoot on was a long process. We had to figure out how the films were made chronologically and then match that to the camera."

The films they use as inspiration originally came from Andrews' own varied cultural diet. 'I love big-budget mainstream movies," he says, 'but my parents dragged me to all kinds of things at the Regent Square Theater in Pittsburgh, which specialises in more esoteric fare, so I pulled some ideas from that. Other ideas came from a film class I took in college and we did some research as well to come up with the final list."

Alfonso Gomez-Rejon's deep knowledge of and love for film came into play as he selected the titles that would be given the full treatment. 'I had the opportunity to pay homage to my favorite movies, to the masters who inspired me and to my mentors," the director says. 'But how do you choose? Every day our production designer Gerald Sullivan would ask, -How's that list coming?' They needed to build puppets and sets and find the right clothes. I would make the lists, I would change them and tweak them and change them again. I finally whittled it down to a realistic and affordable list."

Jeremy Andrews says that the director's cinematic passion brought life to what had simply been clever ideas on his part. 'Alfonso Gomez-Rejon brought so much more to it than I ever imagined," the writer says. 'He had a complete sense of what the original films were and knew far more about what the parodies should look like than I ever did."

The 43rd and final Gaines-Jackson collaboration in the movie is a celebration of Rachel. It has three acts: The first is a deconstruction of the testimonials Earl and Greg filmed with Rachel's classmates in the style of Andy Warhol's Screen Tests, a style the director chose because Warhol is a native of Pittsburgh. The second is an homage to Charles and Ray Eames' iconic stop-motion films. The last part consists of pure shapes and colors.

'We did a lot of research into abstract films," says Jeremey Dawson. 'We not only looked at the films of the Eameses and Andy Warhol, but also Oskar Fischinger, who pioneered abstract animation, and the groundbreaking non-narrative work of Stan Brakhage."

Edward Bursch, Nathan Marsh and Alfonso Gomez-Rejon spent many evenings after the filming wrapped for the day discussing how they would express emotions through images. 'It was the first time I was forced to put into words why I was making the film," says the director. 'I wanted this journey to go from the literal to the abstract and finally into something that transcended words.

'One of the most significant moments in Greg's coming-of-age story is when he learns to make a film for someone else," he explains. 'He finally uses his skills to convey his confusion and fear, as well as his great love, deep appreciation and admiration for Rachel. He has always hidden behind his words, so to finally express himself through shapes and color is a great achievement. With this film, he's not only matured as an artist, he has soaked up one of Rachel's great lessons: that it's OK to be quiet for a while."

Greg and Earl's final film for Rachel was in flux until the day the scene it appears in was shot. 'It never fully came together until the day we used it on set," says Alfonso Gomez-Rejon. 'When I saw the finished cut, I cried my eyes out. It was so honest, so beautiful and it expressed everything I was feeling in a five-minute short."

Me And Earl And The Dying Girl
Release Date: September 3rd, 2015