Written by Ed Roe (Teachers) and Stefan Schwartz, who also directs,  UNHITCHED shot for seven weeks in London and Budapest in Autumn 2004.  The film follows Olly (Townsend) - a luckless author with writer's block who is stuck in a dead-end job.  Asked to be best man by an old college friend, Olly falls in love at first sight with a gorgeous woman at the engagement party - who unfortunately turns out to be the beautiful wife-to-be (Smart).  But he tries to resist his urges, and do the right thing, doing his utmost to keep his crazy flatmate (Green), an old adversary of the groom, away from sabotaging the wedding. But Olly discovers that the prospective bridegroom may not be worthy of her love - and that he might actually be the best man after all.
UNHITCHED is co-produced by Insider Films Ltd, Hungarian Film Connection Ltd, Best Man Film Produktions GmbH for SureFire Films in association with The Film Consortium in association with Endgame Funding LLC and in association with Redbus Pictures.

THE BEST MAN'S DUTIES
According to online encyclopaedia Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org):
"The best man is the name given to the male assistant to the bridegroom at a wedding or marriage ceremony.  Usually, the groom gives this honour to someone who is close to him, either a brother or his closest male friend."
In the context of a traditional American/British white wedding, the best man's duties typically include:
* helping the groom select and rent tuxedos and other normal wear
* planning the bachelor party
* getting the groom to the wedding on time
* supervising the groomsmen
* holding the bride's ring at the altar
* acting as a witness to the signing of the marriage license or register
* ensuring that the officiant of the wedding ceremony is paid giving a speech at the wedding, usually at the expense of the bride and groom, and thanking the bridesmaids

THE PRODUCTION STORY

STEFAN AND NEIL: THE COURTSHIP
UNHITCHED director Stefan Schwarz and producer Neil Peplow have known each other for nearly ten years.  Stefan says: "It's really odd that when we first met Neil was working for me.  Then it all turned around suddenly and I was working for Neil!"  Neil explains the turnaround by stating: "I just basically changed the desk position around one morning.  Stef didn't notice, and the next thing I knew he was making coffee for me!" 
They first worked together on Shooting Fish, which Stefan directed (with UNHITCHED star Stuart Townsend in a leading role) and Neil co-produced.  The couple both went on to work on the production side of Kirk Jones' Waking Ned.  When Neil needed a director urgently for The Abduction Club (the original director left the production in the first few days of the shoot) he instantly turned again to Stefan. 

CHOOSING "THE BEST MAN"
Neil Peplow first encountered the project three years ago.  He says: "The script was sent to The Film Consortium, where I now work, written by Ed Roe, who wrote many of the episodes for Teachers (successful British TV series for Channel 4).  I loved the core idea of the best man unwittingly falling in love with the bride-to-be and simultaneously, because he hasn't seen the groom for five years, trying to get under the skin of the best man speech.  It was also the fact that it was very funny.  After a number of re-drafts I brought Stefan on board to do a rewrite and also to direct."
Stefan shared the same opinion of the project:  "I think that's the key thing: it was really funny.  I loved that very early on you set up a character who wants to be a writer.  He writes the best two chapters ever written.  A publisher sees it, gives him a huge advance, and then he gets writer's block.  Throughout the movie he cannot write, and in falling in love his writer's block is cleared and he moves on."
Neil continues: "It's also the depth of the writing.  It was consistently good throughout, and it's very rare to get a British comedy script that's so well written.  That was the spark for us to option the film.  Having then worked with Stef on The Abduction Club and Shooting Fish, which were great experiences, it was an obvious match to get him on this."

RE-WRITING THE VOWS
Once on board Stefan started to work on the script with Ed Roe.  He says:  "It's always tricky because writing is such an organic process.  I wanted to pull a sort of Cyrano-type middle section and came up with the idea of the best friend of the best man; someone who would try to split the bride and the groom apart.  Then we could have Ollie get them back together again, even though he was in love with the bride.  I basically wanted more conflict within the middle act - so I took it and totally reshaped that act to bring those elements into it."

NOT A WORKING TITLE
During the development of the project both director and producer were very much aware of the influence production company Working Title have had on British romantic comedies.  Stefan says "I think they're one of the few British companies that's out there making commercially minded films.  So I'd like to think that we're working shoulder to shoulder with them. There's no doubt that they created an appetite for the British romantic comedy, and an audience for the genre - and I feel we're making a film for that audience.  But UNHITCHED is different to their type of comedies, and it will live or die on whether it's good or not."
Neil Peplow goes on to say: "We're not just competing with Working Title, we're competing with the slew of good American rom-coms being produced.  For preparation on this we obviously looked at films like Four Weddings ….  But we also looked at all the other romantic comedies that we love like When Harry Met Sally, and also just pure comedies like The Producers.  We tried to analyse not just what was funny and what wasn't, but how the dramatic elements were important to the structure and the story.  If you start saying to yourself "how can we compete with Working Title and their product?" then you're completely missing the point.  You have to make the best film that you can, as funny as you can, and as moving as you can." 

A FINE ROMANCE
One of the problems with creating a romantic comedy is achieving the balance between the romantic and the comedic elements.  Director and co-writer Stefan Schwartz says: "All you can do is watch a scene and say 'does it touch me romantically, and does it make me laugh?'  That's the best you can do.  You try to get a consistency for all of the scenes and you hope that they're both funny and romantic.  I've done a few romantic comedies now, and you do sort of learn by your mistakes.  You watch your past efforts and know that maybe a scene could have played longer, or the timing was out somewhere.  On set it seems like a scene is lasting forever.  But when music is put on and other elements are added suddenly it can bring it to life.  So you have to bear that in mind and not rush it too much."
Neil Peplow agrees that experience helps:  "It's never easy because you're always trying to second guess as to whether it's funny enough, and whether it's romantic enough.  The only time you can really tell is when you see the final cut.  This is our third film together.  I don't think necessarily it gets any easier, but I do think you get more comfortable with the process because you know how the other works."

INVITING THE CAST
Once they had fixed on the script, the production team looked at the casting.  Stefan Schwartz says:  "We wanted to aim as high as we could with the casting.  British romantic comedies can often get lost in the crowded marketplace so, crassly, we wanted people who the audience might have heard of." 
Stefan continues: "I'd worked with Stuart Townsend before on Shooting Fish.  And when his name was first mentioned I thought he was totally wrong.  But then I hadn't seen him for seven years.  And it was like he'd got younger.  I worried about how he'd aged, but found that he hadn't!  He had also got more charming and better looking strangely enough.  Really relaxed in himself.  He completely understood Olly, and how the character progressed through the film.  After just one lunch I was phoning up Neil saying 'he's fantastic, I think he'll be really really good'".
Neil Peplow knew that Sarah really had to be played by a recognisable American actress.  He says: "The story was always that the groom went to New York to make his fortune, and met his bride out there.  We needed to get proper distance between him and Olly to understand why they hadn't spoken for five years.  So it made sense that his bride was going to be American.  We met Amy Smart in Los Angeles and she really got a handle on the character, and brought a simplicity and a romance to Sarah.  She was really brilliant and always our first choice."
Seth Green was another actor on their "wanted list", but events did not turn out entirely as they expected. Neil explains: "Seth actually came in to read for a different part.  But he was so funny, and so keen, and loved the role of Murray.  We hadn't thought of him for that part, but once he said it we could see him as Murray immediately.  He's the perfect comic foil to Stuart." 
Stefan follows on: "What was brilliant was that once we got those three leads we then came to England and managed to get the cream of casting here too.  Steve John Shepherd, Kate Ashfield, Jodhi May, Anna Chancellor, Phillip Jackson - a bunch of fantastic people to add to the stellar cast.  It was really exciting to not feel that the supporting roles were just played by anyone.  They were brilliant actors who just brought so much to the whole film, so it doesn't feel that they're secondary roles at all; it feels like a real ensemble cast.

CHOOSING THE VENUE
UNHITCHED shot most of its exteriors in London, but then went to Budapest in Hungary for the interior shots.  Producer Neil Peplow explains: "Stefan wanted the freedom to work on a studio set rather than on location.  We had two big sets that we needed to build, and at that time the UK was basically crammed with US studio movies.  And, it has to be said, as an independent producer it made sense to come to Hungary.  The crews are a lot cheaper and they have a 20% tax rebate credit, which does help enormously.  Also, the food is very good!"
Director Stefan Schwartz does admit to being slightly worried about moving the production though: "I did think it would be much harder to shoot in another country.  We had a wholly British crew in London, and when that side ended it did sort of feel like the end of the film.  But then we were going on to this new adventure, and there was the worry of how it would work out.  But we integrated well with the local crew, who were really hard working and had a great attitude to filming.  In fact the workmanship on the sets was fabulous, I could not have wished for better."

KEEPING THE CONGREGATION HAPPY
Most visitors to UNHITCHED set remarked upon what a happy workplace it was.  Neil Peplow explains: "We put drugs in their tea in the morning and then just let it roll!  I think, because Stef and I are more comfortable with what we're doing, our stress levels weren't as high.  People around you then feel much more relaxed.  So I think that because of our long-standing relationship there was no tension between us, and that hopefully flowed down the set.  But the crew were fantastic, which then just gives everyone confidence anyway."
Stefan Schwartz concurs: "It was a very collaborative process.  I had a lovely team who were behind the project and I encouraged them to share their ideas with me. I then would cherry pick the good ones, knowing that if the film was a success, I'd get all the credit!".

PAYING FOR THE RECEPTION
Sadly this was not one tab that the bride's father would simply pick up.  Producer Neil Peplow says: "UNHITCHED was one of the hardest films I've had to finance so far.  We hit the market at completely the wrong moment.  The tax credit system had changed and there weren't as many financiers around.  Perversely, one of the reasons why it was so difficult to get the money together was that the movie was so commercial.  It stops you getting the "worthy money".  It wasn't art-house, so it meant that we didn't have someone who just wanted to back the talent.  But we were also just below the studios' radar, so it was in a kind of no-man's land.  And the landscape at that point was barren - a real desert - so it was incredibly difficult. 
"We've always had a fan of this film in Redbus Film Distribution.  They've been involved in the script for a very long time. They helped with the development along with Media 2, Surefire and the Film Council through The Film Consortium. They helped raise the finance and they've put in money for the UK rights. I've known the guys who run the company since they first started and admired the way they have built the company. It just seemed like a very natural fit.
"The other investor is a German co-producer who's also a distributor, Piktorian Pictures.  They read the script, saw the cast, and immediately wanted to get involved.  End Game are an LA-based financing company who have been involved in a number of British pictures.  Based on the script and the cast they really wanted to get involved.  It has no public money in it at all, which is quite rare these days."

THE ORDER OF EVENTS
For Stefan Schwartz the biggest challenge during the shoot was the filming schedule: "Obviously everyone always complains about not having enough time.  But we had to get a lot of shots in during the day, and some complicated set-ups.  We're very ambitious for the film; we want it to look interesting as well as be funny and emotional.  So it's trying to squeeze all of that into a very tight schedule.  We had one day where we were shooting in Trafalgar Square, and then had to move to another location at Lincoln's Inn, and then we had to move to a third location at The Strand - all in a single day.  And still get the drama with pigeons pecking Stuart … and him running for a bus … and snogging people on campus.  It can stretch you, but I think we've achieved everything we wanted to

Copyright © Insider Films Ltd, Hungarian Film Connection Ltd, Best Man Film Produktions GmbH for SureFire Films in association with The Film Consortium in association with Endgame Funding LLC and in association with Redbus Pictures.

STUART TOWNSEND TALKS ABOUT HIS CHARACTER

SETH GREEN TALKS ABOUT HIS CHARACTER

STEVE JOHN SHEPHERD TALKS ABOUT HIS CHARACTER

AMY SMART TALKS ABOUT HER CHARACTER