“BALLS OF FURY”
By : Suzanne Philips
By Suzanne Philips
Prepare yourself for some heavy-duty ping-pong. The guys behind the
successful Comedy Central show “Reno 911!” and the blockbuster film “NIGHT AT THE
MUSEUM” are bringing you a hilarious look into the world of competitive
ping-pong.
Former professional Randy Daytona (Dan Fogler) is asked by the FBI to help
them apprehend their most wanted criminal, Feng (Christopher Walken). Feng
just happens to be the man who killed Daytona’s father, and Randy must train and
fight against formidable ping- pong players to help capture Feng and avenge
his father.
At
the recent Comic Con convention in San Diego, Writers Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant sat down with star Dan Fogler to talk about this unique
film.
What makes ping-pong funny? Writer and star Thomas Lennon replies, “There is
no way to play ping-pong or to dress to play ping-pong and look cool. The
way you have to stand to be able to play the game looks kind of silly.”
Director and writer Robert Ben Garant adds, “In Basketball you can jump and slam
the ball, not in Ping Pong”. Lennon added, “In ping-pong, the best and worst
players really look the same when playing. Ping-pong is a sport that
everyone thinks they are pretty good at. Everyone in America has pretty much played
ping-pong at some point in their lives, so everyone is at least somewhat
familiar with the game.”
The cast trained for two weeks in four-hour daily sessions with the best
players. However, a lot of the ping-pong balls you will actually see in the film
are CGI. The reason? “It’s hard to have dialogue and the noise of the
balls at the same time. You would have to ADR all the dialogue like Andi
McDowell in GREYSTOKE”, jokes Lennon.
Dan Fogler, a Tony award winner for his work on the Broadway show “The 25th
Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, says this is sort of a “KARATE KID – type
film set in the world of ping-pong. My character was a child prodigy and has
to return after 20 years and re-train and put together a team to be Feng.”
Of the training he added, “It’s not Ballet, it’s more like Donkey Kong.”
Thomas Lennon says that Christopher Walken, who plays the evil lord Feng, “
loved how he looked in the costume and played it very straight. He loved
playing a funny character.”
Lennon and Garant are currently working on the 5th season of “Reno 911!”
which will air on Comedy Central this fall or spring and are writing NIGHT AT
THE MUSEUM 2.
Check out the hilarious BALLS OF FURY when it opens Nationwide on August
31st.