On the surface, weddings may be all about bringing together families and friends to celebrate a couple's love, but for most single attendees these often elaborate parties are equally notable for their open bar and the opportunity to meet a new love interest. It was this single guy's perspective on attending weddings that initially inspired Wedding Crashers.
"The idea for Wedding Crashers started with an invitation I received for one of my friend's weddings a few years ago," says producer Andrew Panay. "I began thinking back to my college days when I crashed a couple of weddings with a buddy of mine because it was an easy way to meet girls. I thought it could be a great backdrop for a film - two guys who crash weddings to meet girls until one of them breaks all the rules and falls for one of the bridesmaids, but has lied about who he is for an entire evening."
Panay developed the concept with Peter Abrams and Robert L. Levy, his partners at Tapestry Films, before eventually hiring the writing team of Steve Faber & Bob Fisher to bring the story to life.
"We felt within the concept of wedding crashing there was a lot of strong material which could be turned into a really funny story and script," says producer Peter Abrams. "We were looking for writers and Andrew Panay had met with Steve Faber & Bob Fisher on a script called We're the Millers which we all thought was incredibly funny, witty and smart. We told them about the basic storyline for Wedding Crashers and they immediately ran with the idea."

THE WRITERS
Steve Faber was born to a family of magicians who emigrated from Eastern Europe a long, long time ago. Grandson of Harry Faber, renowned sleight-of-hand artist, Faber attended UCLA where he earned degrees in both literature and history. Faber went on to graduate from law school. It was a tremendous mistake. He did, however and once and for all, learn the great life lesson that there is no money in poetry and no poetry in money. This lesson was learned at devastating psychological cost.
After a brief flirtation with magic (which failed when the bottom, simultaneously, fell out of both the rabbit and the hat market), and a novel (which he hopes to finally publish in 2006), Faber reestablished contact with his best friend from High School, Bob Fisher. A half dozen sitcoms later, Faber realized that situation comedy was making neither him nor Fisher happy. In short, the situations were not comedic. This lesson was learned at devastating psychological cost. Shortly thereafter, films were written, pitched and sold. Some are being made. Some will never see the light of day. Some haunt Faber's dream life.
Faber's hobbies include insomnia, taking meaningless drives through the canyons of Los Angeles, and gardening. Faber recently purchased a harmonica.
Bob Fisher grew up in various Mid-Atlantic suburbs (including his favorite: Middletown, New Jersey) before moving to California where he attended Chatsworth High School, played a lot of baseball and met his writing partner, Steve Faber. They began their partnership writing a series of inflammatory editorials for the high school newspaper.
Fisher then attended UCLA where he was mostly interested in history, politics, and literature. He then spent several years in the noble trade of bartending before finally turning to sitcom writing. Writing with Faber again, he wrote for many shows of varying quality, including "Married with Children" and "The Bonnie Hunt Show" before switching to film a few years ago. Wedding Crashers is their first produced feature.
After spending two years working on a movie about weddings, Fisher himself will be married this October to writer Karine Rosenthal. Faber will be his best man. And, as would only be fair, crashers are welcome.

WRITING THE FILM
Faber & Fisher instantly clicked with the concept, but quickly realized that they would need to expand the story beyond a tale of just a couple of guys on the make.
"After we were pitched the basis for the film, both Bob and I agreed that we needed to create a world that was funnier than simply a couple of young guys crashing weddings all the time," says Faber. "We thought, 'What if they were older and really shouldn't be doing these types of things?' Weddings are the ultimate in forced bliss and we came to the creative conclusion that these guys really needed to be experts in the art of wedding crashing, so we devised dozens of rules that they always adhere to."
Fisher adds, "We also knew we couldn't sustain an entire film with just wedding crashing, so we thought that it'd be a good idea if one of the guys were to fall for a woman at one of the weddings. We wanted the characters to be caught in a place where their lives could be really affected by the choices they made."
In the film, John Beckwith and Jeremy Gray are best friends and partners in a Washington, D.C. divorce mediation firm where they use their unique brand of negotiating to help couples realize that the end of their marriage is not to be blamed on each other, but should be blamed on the institution of marriage.
"John is a man who's really had enough with the lifestyle he is leading and feels that he is not following his own bliss," says Faber. "He doesn't realize this, of course, until he meets the woman of his dreams. Jeremy, on the other hand, lives more in the moment, steamrolling from one wedding to the next, one sexual encounter to another, without ever really looking back."
The film's producers were thrilled with the layers that Faber & Fisher added to their original concept.
"Steve and Bob did a great job with the script," says Andrew Panay. "They created these incredible characters and a really funny story and were able to mix the wedding crashing concept with the dynamic of meeting girls who change their lives."
New Line Cinema also clicked with the Wedding Crashers pitch and quickly set up the project. Faber & Fisher then delivered a hilarious first draft of the script that landed on the radar of director David Dobkin. Once Dobkin was on board, he enlisted actors Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn, who he had directed before (Vaughn in Clay Pigeons and Wilson in Shanghai Knights).
"I had just finished working with Owen and did my first film with Vince, so I thought it would be amazing if I could find a script that would enable me to pair these two guys up together on screen," says Dobkin. "The Wedding Crashers script crossed my path and I could hear their voices in the screenplay. Luckily for me, both Owen and Vince were really into it and loved the characters in the film."
For Vince Vaughn, the script represented exactly the kind of comedic material he enjoys.
"I have always liked films that have a story within the comedy which is based in reality and human circumstances," says Vaughn. "I loved the concept - two guys going to weddings pretending to be people they are not in order to meet and hook up with girls. You're following these extreme characters through situations we've all thought about or have done on a smaller scale. It's an exaggerated circumstance, but one that is completely relatable - crashing a party that you're not necessarily invited to."
For Owen Wilson, Wedding Crashers offered the opportunity to reunite with director Dobkin and Vaughn.
"I liked the way David worked on Shanghai Nights and remembered how comfortable he made me feel creatively on set," says Wilson. "I worked with Vince on Starsky and Hutch, but we didn't have many scenes together, so it was a really enticing prospect to do a buddy comedy with him."
In approaching their roles, Vaughn and Wilson agreed with Dobkin that one of the keys to the film was ensuring that their characters be likable.
"John and Jeremy's fun-loving nature was an element of the characters that Owen, Vince and I talked about very early on," says Dobkin. "We all felt that it was very important for their characters to be sympathetic as opposed to dark and predatorial. Being the life of the party is what attracts the women, but these characters really do love the food, the bands, entertaining the kids and dressing up in their suits."
With Wilson and Vaughn signed on, the filmmakers turned their attention to casting the supporting roles in the film. First order of business was finding an actor to play the role of the powerful and prominent Treasury Secretary, William Cleary.
"Secretary Cleary is the linchpin of this movie," says Dobkin. "The way you cast the role dictates if the film is going to be a little bit of a classier comedy with some intelligence, or if it was going to be a very broad comedy with little intelligence. The film's basically about these two guys who go to the Treasury Secretary's mansion to scam on his daughters, so I felt the character better be somebody that John and Jeremy were scared of because it would raise the stakes of the comedy."
In Dobkin's eyes, there was only one perfect choice for the role.
"Christopher Walken was my first choice because he has a certain intimidation factor about him, but more importantly his performances in Catch Me If You Can and The Dead Zone have a certain warmth to them that I wanted to inject into the character. Chris also has an unbelievable sense of comedic timing and could create laughs out of a role where there wasn't necessarily a lot of comedy written on the page. Once we got him on board, it really galvanized the casting process."
For Walken, an Academy Award-winning actor whose film resume is as diverse as the many memorable characters he has portrayed, the role of Treasury Secretary was one that caught him a little off guard.
"I was really surprised when I got the call to see if I was interested in the film," admits Walken. "When you combine my own personality and background with the kinds of parts I've played in the past, it doesn't lead me to believe that I would be cast as a political figurehead who's entrusted to control and keep up with the country's money. I have always played characters a little bit on the outside, so it's a nice change of pace to play a family man with three daughters."