Exploring the comedic twists and emotional turns in one couple's journey across contemporary America, Away We Go is the new movie from Academy Award-winning director Sam Mendes, from the first original screenplay by novelists Dave Eggers & Vendela Vida, and featuring music by singer/songwriter Alexi Murdoch.
Longtime (and now thirtysomething) couple Burt (John Krasinski) and Verona (Maya Rudolph) are going to have a baby. The pregnancy progresses smoothly, but six months in, the pair is put off and put out by the cavalierly delivered news from Burt's parents Jerry and Gloria (Jeff Daniels and Catherine O'Hara) that the eccentric elder Farlanders are moving out of Colorado - thereby eliminating the expectant couple's main reason for living there.
So, where, and among whom of those closest to them, might Burt and Verona best put down roots to raise their impending bundle of joy? The couple embarks on an ambitious itinerary to visit friends and family, and to evaluate cities. The first stop on the grand tour is Phoenix, where the duo spends a day at the (dog) races with Verona's irrepressible (and frequently inappropriate) former colleague Lily (Allison Janney) and her repressible family, including husband Lowell (Jim Gaffigan); then it's Tucson, and a visit to the lovely Grace (Carmen Ejogo), Verona's sister.
An intimate conversation with her sister, who is her lone living relative, gives Verona a refreshed perspective - which she will sorely need in Wisconsin, where Burt's childhood "cousin" Ellen, now known as LN (Maggie Gyllenhaal), and her partner Roderick (Josh Hamilton) have Burt and Verona over to their home. After LN and Roderick elaborate on their intractable ideas for raising children and running a household, Burt and Verona bolt for Montreal and a warmer welcome from their former college classmates Tom (Chris Messina) and Munch (Melanie Lynskey).
Even though the latter's house is full of children, comfort and joy, a night out for the four old friends provides a bracing reminder of how much it takes to sustain a relationship and a family. When an emergency phone call forces Burt and Verona into an unanticipated Miami detour to visit Burt's brother Courtney (Paul Schneider), they realize that they must define home on their own terms.

About the Production
Away We Go marks the first movie that director Sam Mendes has helmed from an original screenplay since the Academy Award-winning American Beauty. He remarks, "I was feeling the need to do something writer-led. Dave Eggers & Vendela Vida's script was delightful, and had a lightness of spirit even when dealing with serious issues. Most of all it made me laugh."
In another first, Mendes prepared to make - and ultimately filmed - Away We Go while still in post-production on another movie, Revolutionary Road. "I committed to making Away We Go faster than I've ever made another movie. It was a way of letting off steam after the intensity of filming and editing" the latter, he muses. "It is kind of a companion piece in that there's also a couple who want to escape and find themselves -only this time, they do.
"In their screenplay, Dave and Vendela wrote about what happens to a couple on the brink of starting the next phase of their life, with a newborn, and the hope, fear, and excitement of that time. As a parent myself, I recognized it all."
Academy Award-winning producer Edward Saxon says, "When writers of Dave and Vendela's talent send you their original screenplay, it's an incredible gift. I was pulled in by its humor, its relevance, and its incredibly vivid characters."
Academy Award-nominated producers Peter Saraf and Marc Turtletaub's independent production and finance company Big Beach joined forces with Saxon. Saraf notes, "I had previously worked with Ed on several projects and know that he has excellent taste, and an uncommon understanding of material.
"When he brought us Dave and Vendela's script, we knew immediately that it would be a great opportunity to reunite. This script is truly unique, and has that rare combination of being immensely entertaining and having emotionally satisfying storytelling. It doesn't get any better, and it doesn't happen often."
Comparably, Saxon found that "offering the chance to work with Sam Mendes and to work from a terrific script by Dave Eggers & Vendela Vida" had actors lining up to participate.
He adds, "The kinds of questions that Burt and Verona are asking themselves are ones that all of us explore in our own lives; 'How and where are we going to put down roots?' or 'What does it mean to have a family these days?' So we had no shortage of interested actors, even some who might not ordinarily play smaller parts where they were only going to work a week or so."

Casting
In terms of casting the leads, Saxon notes, "When we met Maya Rudolph, we were knocked out by her depth and humanity. We already knew about her amazing sense of humor from her chameleon-like work on Saturday Night Live. Essentially, she was Verona in real life."
The actress confirms, "This character is so close to me in real life; it felt like fate. I don't see anyone like Verona in movies, or in scripts. I loved what Dave and Vendela wrote, I loved the characters of Verona and Burt. Certainly, some of what happens to her happened to me while I was pregnant. Perhaps the coolest thing was that she is [of] mixed [race] and her partner is somebody who doesn't look like her; that this is never an issue in Away We Go spoke to my own personal experience."
Of her leading man, Saxon remarks, "John Krasinksi had a small part in [the Mendes-directed] Jarhead and has since become more well-known because of his television series The Office, so Sam knew how talented he was. I hope I get to work with him again when he becomes a big honking movie star!"  Read more

Going Green
While viewers of Away We Go will take note of the actors, the music, the direction and the writing, what will not be readily apparent is that it was made as a "green" production.
What this entailed during filming was that alternative fuels were used; 49% of waste from landfills was redirected into recycling and composting; and carbon emissions were substantially reduced. These guidelines were upheld during a location shoot that spanned three American states (Connecticut, Arizona, and Florida) through the spring of 2008. Read more

SAM MENDES (Director) won the Best Director Academy Award for American Beauty, which also won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actor (Kevin Spacey), Best Original Screenplay (Alan Ball), and Best Cinematography (Conrad L. Hall) and was nominated for 3 more. Mr. Mendes also won the Directors Guild of America and Golden Globe Awards, among other honors, for his work on the film.
His other films as director are Road to Perdition, which also earned Mr. Hall an Academy Award, and which was nominated for 5 more Oscars; Jarhead, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Jamie Foxx; and Revolutionary Road, for which Kate Winslet won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress [Drama] and for which Mr. Mendes was again a Golden Globe Award nominee. The latter was also nominated for 3 Academy Awards.
As producer, Mr. Mendes' credits include Susanne Bier's Things We Lost in the Fire, starring Halle Berry and Benicio Del Toro; and Marc Forster's The Kite Runner, based on Khaled Hosseini's best-selling novel.
Noted for his work in the theatre, Mr. Mendes founded the Donmar Warehouse in London, running it from 1992-2002. During this decade, the Donmar's productions included Assassins, Translations, Cabaret, Glengarry Glen Ross, The Glass Menagerie, Company, Habeas Corpus, The Front Page, The Blue Room, To the Green Fields Beyond, Uncle Vanya and Twelfth Night. The latter staging transferred to the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) in 2004. He has also produced - in tandem with his associate Caro Newling - over 60 plays, many of which have transferred to New York, including Electra, True West, Juno and the Paycock, and the Tony Award-winning revival of The Real Thing. Also on Broadway, through his Neal Street Productions, he most recently produced Shrek the Musical, and last directed Gypsy with Bernadette Peters; most recently, Mr. Mendes directed The Cherry Orchard and The Winter's Tale, in repertory at both BAM and London's Old Vic, as the inaugural shows of the Bridge Project. The latter is a three-year partnership between Neal Street, BAM, and the Old Vic that will stage pairs of classic plays in, and with actors from, both the U.S. and the U.K.
His work for the Royal Shakespeare Company includes stagings of Troilus and Cressida, The Alchemist, The Tempest, and Richard III.  For The National Theatre, he has directed The Sea, The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, The Birthday Party, and Othello. In London's West End, he has staged The Cherry Orchard, The Plough and the Stars, Kean, London Assurance, and Oliver! He has also directed the Broadway transfers of the Donmar's productions of Cabaret, which received four Tony Awards including Best Revival of Musical, and David Hare's The Blue Room, starring Nicole Kidman and Iain Glen.
In 2002, Mr. Mendes won the London Evening Standard Award for Best Director.  He is a three-time winner and five-time nominee for the Olivier Award for Best Direction, as well as a three-time winner of the London Critics Awards.

DAVE EGGERS & VENDELA VIDA (Screenplay) are making their screenwriting debut with Away We Go.
Dave Eggers is the author of six books, including What is the What and the upcoming nonfiction work Zeitoun. He is the founder and editor of McSweeney's and the co-founder of 826 National, a network of tutoring and writing labs for youth.
Vendela Vida is the author of three books, including the novels And Now You Can Go and Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name - both of which were New York Times Notable Books of the Year. She is a founding co-editor of The Believer magazine, and the editor of The Believer Book of Writers Talking to Writers. Her new novel, The Lovers, will be published in 2010.

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