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Show Wed/Thurs/Fri, January 24-26, 2018 The Park Record C-3 ‘High & Mighty’ finds its strength in its script and cast Jorge Diaz plays Chelo, a lovable ‘stupor hero’ SCOTT IWASAKI The Park Record Riddle me this:. How would you describe a superhero whose powers only manifest when he’s drunk or stoned? The answer: “High & Mighty.” And that just happens to be the title of a new comedy series produced by Stage 13, Warner Bros. Digital Network’s new digital content brand, which made its Sundance Film Festival premiere in the new Episodic category on Tuesday at the Ray. The story follows a misfit stoner named Marcelo “Chelo” Chavez (Jorge Diaz) and his spirited little sister Luz (Chelsea Rendon) who tries to keep him in line. The script was written by newcomer Cesar Mazariegos, and the series’ director is Carlos Lpiez Estrada. The “High & Mighty” cast is mostly Latino, and they took care not to make the characters come off as stereotypes. “We did that in part by making the characters three-dimensional,” Diaz said. “We had to make sure we brought in some humanity.” Mazariegos gave props to Stage 13 for taking on a project with Latino representation. “They were looking specifically for minority content creators, and when I came on the project, they wanted me to be the executive producer because the script was in my voice,” he said. “They told me they didn’t want to buy the script and have somebody else direct, but I didn’t want to have a Latino director just to have a Latino director. I wanted a director that would work out the best. But I also knew Continued from C-1 Russo brothers honored tunity for the filmmaker to be mentored by the Russos. For all their works and support, Slamdance recognized the Russo brothers with its highest honor, the Founders Award, during a ceremony and panel discussion at the Treasure Mountain Inn on Saturday. The award was first presented in 2015 to Christopher Nolan, director of “Inception,” “Dunkirk” and the Dark Knight trilogy. Slamdance President and cofounder Peter Baxter said he appreciated Joe and Anthony Russo’s love and support for Slamdance. “They’ve always remembered the time and opportunities the festival and our filmmakers gave to them that they may not have otherwise had if they hadn’t been here a Latino person would get the nuances of the things I wrote about.” “High & Mighty’s” origin story begins with Mazariegos, who wanted to get notice in the Los Angeles filmmaking circles by writing about and unconventional superhero. “In L.A. you are told if you want to get an agent to notice your script you have to make it a little crazy, a little out there,” Mazariegos said during an interview with Diaz and Rendon at the Wasatch Brew Pub. “While the script would probably never get produced, people wouldn’t forget it.” The writer decided to write about the craziest pilot for a TV series he could think about, but do it in a way that he could shoot it if he felt inclined to do so, he said. “I had thought about the story for month before I started writing the script, and I knew someone who did special effects, and I thought about what I could do with special effects that isn’t outer space?” Mazariegos said. “I limited myself in that sandbox, and had to figure out when to color outside the lines.” The script caught the eye of Christopher Mack, senior vice president of Warner Brothers Television and head of scripted content for Stage 13. “Chris always said if a show was turned down somewhere else because it was too crazy, it’s the kind of show he would want to put on Stage 13,” Mazariegos said. Diaz, who is known for his work on Latino-centric projects such as the PBS web series “Noah Comprende,” as well as Christopher Landon’s 2014 supernatural thriller “Paranormal Activity: The Chosen Ones.” also enjoyed the script. “I got an audition from my agent, and I read the script and laughed out loud,” he said. “When I went in to the callback, I Skyped with the director who was in New York, and I met Cesar and felt great vibes from each person. They all seemed like smart and witty guys who knew what they were doing.” “High & Mighty” was Rendon’s first foray into comedy. “I have never done a comedy before,” said the actress, who has been seen in various TV series including “Criminal Minds,” “Code Black,” “Bright” and the upcoming “Vida.” “In everything I’ve done, I’m always crying or there are people dying,” Rendon said. Rendon originally auditioned for the part of Chelo’s sister Luz, but returned to audition for Angie, Chelo’s girlfriend. “They were trying to decide what I should do when I was called back again for Luz,” she said. “I originally saw Luz as a child who was 11, 12 or 13, and would cuss and give her brother a lot of grief,” Mazariegos said. “When we saw Chelsea, she was so good that we made her a junior in high school with a uniform and pony tails.” The chemistry between Ren- don and Diaz mixed well because they were friends. “I’ve known Jorge for years,” Rendon said. “But it went beyond that, the whole case and crew were like family.” Diaz agreed. “Honestly, it turned out to be the most fun I’ve ever had on the set,” he said. “We’re all about the same age and it felt like I was working on a badass student project that came out really great.” Mazariegos said the cast — which also includes Shakira Barrera as Angie and Frank Merino as the villain Rudy — brought depth to the characters. “It’s totally different to write and hear the voices and see the scenes in your head, because it will never become what you think it will be, but if you have really talented actors, it will be for the better,” he said. Mazariegos said Chelo is a complicated character. “The actor had to be able to play a drunk, stoned, coked out, likable and lovable character who can go too far and become a little unlikable,” he said. “When [Jorge} auditioned he nailed it.” The secret to the audition was to play the character as innocently as possible, Diaz said. “Chelo is a sweet guy and he’s genuinely trying to get his life together,” he explained. “He’s got a genuine love for his best friend, his family, his girlfriend and booze, but he’s at the point in life where he needs to become more responsible, even though his party phase is still going on.” In order to play Chelo on the screen, Diaz had to trust what Mazariegos wrote. “I actually based Chelo on my brother Oscar,” Diaz said. “And when he first saw what we were doing, he said, ‘That’s like — me.’ I think it helped provoke some sort of self-reflection in his life, which is beautiful.” Rendon also turned to her family for cues of how to portray Luz. “Everybody has that family member who gets drunk at Christmas and makes a scene,” she giggled. “In my real family, I’m the baby. I have an old- er brother and older sister. And all my life it was like I was the responsible one, and that’s the same situation as Luz and Chelo. Rendon is proud of the production because it finds the humor in Latino culture. “As minorities, we do have to write and tell our own stories, so these things can come across right and makes sense,” she said. “You look at Chelo and he’s not a gangbanger or a cholo. He’s just an idiot.” in Park City in 1997,” Baxter said. “But isn’t that what mentorship is really about? That’s what Anthony and Joe have done. The have been a founding cornerstone of Slamdance and we’re really grateful for the award they are giving.” “I think the world is kind of at war between a sense of community and individualism,” Joe said while he and his brother received the awards. “We support community and Slamdance has been an amazing community for us and we wouldn’t have been here without them.” Before the awards and panel discussion, Baxter addressed the audience and said he remembered when the Russos premiered “Pieces.” “Twenty years ago, two young brothers, Anthony and Joe Russo, walked down the hallway and into this room and I learned three things about them quite quickly,” he said. “The first one was the entire Russo family could fill this theater. The second is that marriages are really made at Slamdance.” Anthony met his wife Ann at Slamdance. “And the third one was, of course, Anthony and Joe were determined to succeed, Baxter said.” Filmmaker Stephen Soderbergh, known for his Sundance film “Sex, Lies and Videotape,” was also at the screening and became the brothers’ mentor. Joe told the story during a panel moderated by Sandra Bertalanffy. “We had applied to film school so we could use the equipment to finish the film,” he said. “So when Soderbergh called, I figured this has got to be one of the students in my class [messing] with me.” But it wasn’t, and after seeing the film, Soderbergh wanted to help the brothers distribute the film. “Even though the movie was very radically anti-commercial, it never occurred to us that it would never get distribution,” Anthony said. “Stephen initially wanted to help us with that, but we ran into some issues.” The Russos specifically cut “Pieces” to music. They had shot it for $37,000, but racked up “a million-dollar music budget,” Joe said. “We didn’t have enough money to develop the film, so it sat in our refrigerator in our garage undeveloped for months,” he said. “When we finally developed it, we screened it for the first time on our garage door.” Still, cutting the film taught the two how to make a movie, and for various reasons, Soderbergh told them to look forward to their next project. “Stephen said the best thing for us to do was write another script,” Anthony said. That script became 2002’s “Welcome to Collinwood,” which starred George Clooney. “We took three years writing scripts. At the end of those three years, Stephen formed a production company called Section Eight, with George Clooney, when they were making ‘Oceans 11,’” Joe said. “We were shocked that he was going to go the commercial route, but we learned that there was a way to do personal storytelling with commercial conscience. And that was part of the process we had to go through. We had to realign our brains to think commercially in order to forge a career in the business.” From there, Anthony and Joe turned to TV and became Emmy Award-winning directors for the critically acclaimed comedies, “Arrested Development,” “Community” and “Happy Endings.” But the transition wasn’t without its speed bumps. The first project they worked on was a pilot for a new series called “Lucky.” “‘Lucky’ is about a gambling addict and it’s a dark story,” Anthony said. “His wife committed suicide and he’s struggling to pay his in-laws back for the funeral, but it’s a comedy.” While the pilot never got picked up, it did lead the duo to Academy Award-winning filmmaker Ron Howard, the executive director of “Arrested Development.” Event though ‘Lucky’ didn’t work on the network, the pilot was much loved and “ “Ron said, ‘We need to reinvent television comedy,’ because reality TV was eating all the spots on primetime,” Joe said. “So, again, we brought [our] independent approach to it.” Their relentless work led the Russos to their Marvel Studios directorial debut with the 2014 blockbuster “Captain America: The Winter Soldier.” Their follow-up, “Captain America: Civil War” in 2016, was not only registered as the fifth-highest weekend gross in domestic box office history, but also had the highest worldwide gross of that year. “We found we do our best work when we’re emotionally invested in the project,” Joe said. “We grew up on comic books, so we had strong emotional connection to superheroes and the mythology behind them.” The success of those films solidified the deal for the brothers to direct the two upcoming “Avengers” films. “People ask us about the ‘Infinity War’ films if [they] were hard because they are big and very expensive,” Joe said. “But they are no different than shooting an episode of ‘Arrested Development’ or shooting ‘Pieces.’ There’s a camera, there are actors, lights and you have to cultivate an emotional truthful performance out of the actors.” Slamdance Film Festival will run through Thursday, Jan. 25. For information, visit www.slamdance.com. COURTESY OF SUNDANCE INSTITUTE | PHOTO BY MARTIM VIAN. From left: J.R. Villarreal, Jorge Diaz and Adam Zastrow appear in the comdey “High & Mighty” by filmmaker Carlos Lopez Estrada. “High & Mighty” is an official selection of the inaugural Indie Episodic program at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. 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