In a culture where Internet titans closely resemble junior high school students in look and manner, and teenyboppers hold sway over mainstream entertainment, Chuck & Buck takes the idea of hanging onto childhood to its logical, and often hilarious, extreme. As it chronicles the two erstwhile friends' conjoined journey towards understanding and rapprochement, the film posits a hopeful vision of adulthood that reconciles the children we once were with the grown-ups we must become.

Shot on digital video, Chuck & Buck achieves an intimacy and immediacy that complement the strong emotions of its memorable protagonist.

Screenwriter Mike White's experience as a writer for film and television informed the script for Chuck & Buck in numerous ways, beginning with the story's inspired - rendering of Buck's childlike attitude and mannerisms. White, who also stars as Buck, is a former producer and writer for 'Dawson's Creek" and NBC's critically acclaimed series "Freaks and Geeks. " Firmly established as a writer whose voice captures the cadence, concerns and complexity of today's youth culture, White's reputation as a creator of edgy material has grown. Riskier episodes of his television work have drawn controversy or been kept in the network vaults.

Frustration with the creative restrictions of mainstream Hollywood spurred White to create a story depicting multi-dimensional characters who are less than perfect. I was tired of writing about people who are too wonderful to exist," he explained. In addition, the social skills required to navigate Hollywood's professional waters fuelled a desire to explore a basic human dichotomy. I think there's this constant inner struggle between the person we would like to be - handsome, heroic, capable - and the person that deep down we are afraid we really are needy, vulnerable, lost. The conflict between Chuck and Buck is really the external dramatisation of that inner battle. Chuck is the face we want to show to the world. Buck is his shadow that won't go away, that is insistently rapping at the window and saying, Remember me?"'

White chose Los Angeles as the setting for this battle of selves. "There is a high premium placed on appearance in Los Angeles. But underneath the beauty and money and glamour, there are a lot of insecure souls in deep denial. Chuck is living the L.A. life, embracing the values of power and success. Buck, on the other hand, is the ultimate outsider, and because of that, I thought it would be interesting to tell the story from his point of view."

White gave the screenplay to director Miguel Arteta shortly after he and producer Matthew Greenfield completed their acclaimed feature debut, Star Maps. I read the script for Chuck & Buck in one sitting," recalled Arteta, "and it blew me away. It is a beautiful story about a man who is totally trapped in his own childhood and is suddenly forced to consider the possibility of growing up. But before he can do that he needs to go back to his childhood friend and try to rekindle what must have been a very powerful romance."

He added, "I'm always interested in movies that explore the contradictions of relationships. Relationships aren't just abusive or bad; there's always an element of love and an element of abuse. The toughest part of making a movie like this is that you can't talk about all this stuff unless you're entertaining. The beauty of this script was Mike covered this very interesting discourse on relationships with incredible humour. It's a great ride. You don't really have to take the movie as saying all that much - you can emotionally feel his journey and it's extremely fun because he's so quirky and wonderful and funny."

Matthew Greenfield noted that Chuck & Buck and Star Maps are similar in tone. "Both films deal with very serious subject matter in a caring, heartfelt and often comic way," he observed. 'There are rarely situations without humour, but the humour never belittles the situation, it just makes it more authentic. It's one of Miguel's great strengths to combine drama and humour and to make movies that walk the line between the two."

Arteta described his response to the character as immediate and empathetic. "The fact that the script was about somebody who was holding onto his childish nature was extremely appealing to me. I'm an 8-year-old in a 35-year-old body and I am not quite willing to accept the fact that I have to grow up." Nor is he alone in this, he believes; he has detected a particular reluctance on the part of people who grew up in the 1970s to give up their youthful signifiers.

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