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"Dan in Real Life" is a real find — hilarious, intelligent, and touching. Explains the film's director/co-writer Peter Hedges, "I wanted to make an adult film you could take your wife and kids to — a movie that was as funny as possible, but not at the expense of believability.

"I was told I could cast whoever I wanted. I'm a theatre person. There are so many good [stage] actors; I'm glad to have been able to hire just a few. I've had a long association with [theatre casting director] Bernie Telsey. I think everyone's perfect for their parts.

"It's a Tony-drenched cast. We have Tony winners John Mahoney [The House of Blue Leaves; "I'll never forget his performance," states Hedges], Norbert Leo Butz [Dirty Rotten Scoundrels], and Frank Wood [Side Man]. There are Tony nominees Amy Ryan [Uncle Vanya, A Streetcar Named Desire], Matthew Morrison [A Light in the Piazza], and Alison Pill [The Lieutenant of Inishmore]. Alison's been in both my films [his first directorial credit was 2003's "Pieces of April," for which he also wrote the screenplay]. She's one of the finest actors I will ever get to work with."

The story revolves around Dan Burns (Carell), who writes a family-advice newspaper column called "Dan in Real Life." He's a widower and father of three: teens Jane (Alison Pill), who just got a driver's license, and Cara (Brittany Robertson), who's just found the love of her life, and fourth-grader Lilly (Marlene Lawston), who's just adorable. "Again, Alison is ridiculously talented," says Hedges, "and Brittany and Marlene are incapable of a false moment."

	Steve Carell and Alison Pill in "Dan in Real Life."
	photo by Touchstone Pictures

Dad Dan drives his daughters to the Rhode Island summer home of his parents (Dianne Wiest, John Mahoney) for the annual Burns family gathering. While in the "Ocean State," Dan (who's not dated in the four years since his wife died) meets Marie (Juliette Binoche) at a bookstore and is instantly attracted. Though the attraction seems mutual, Marie admits that she's just beginning a new relationship with another man.

Also in the Burns clan are Dan's brothers, Mitch (Dane Cook) and Clay (Norbert Leo Butz), sister Amy (Jessica Hecht), her husband Howard (Frank Wood), Clay's wife Eileen (Amy Ryan), and various offspring, some of whom were "Little Rhody" residents. "We auditioned over a thousand kids." As if it weren't crowded enough, Cara's boyfriend, Marty (Felipe Dieppa), arrives on the scene, and Dan is set up for a blind date with Ruthie "Pig Face" Draper (Emily Blunt).

"In the original script, the gathering occurs between Christmas and New Year's, but I wanted to shoot in the fall; I wanted to be outdoors, instead of in. We shot the film in Rhode Island, a nine-week shoot, 45 days. I didn't want to build a house and shoot it on a sound stage. We found an exquisite location. The house becomes a character. It's not necessarily something the audience is aware of, but I think an audience feels when you're in someplace real." The DVD will contain 15 minutes of deleted scenes. "I cut a number of scenes at the beginning, because I overwrote the opening. It took a little too long to get to the house."

	Steve Carell, Norbert Leo Butz and Jessica Hecht in "Dan in Real Life."
	photo by Touchstone Pictures

Besides directing, Hedges is a former actor (he studied with Sanford Meisner and co-founded the original Edge Theatre with Mary-Louise Parker and Joe Mantello), playwright (productions include Imagining Brad, Good as New and Baby Anger), author (his first book, "What's Eating Gilbert Grape," he notes "began as a play, but I kept writing"), teacher (at Yale, Bennington and his alma mater, the North Carolina School of the Arts), and scenarist (he adapted "Gilbert Grape," penned "A Map of the World" and "Pieces of April", and received an Oscar nomination for "About a Boy").

He hopes never to have to choose just one talent: "They all bring a high level of happiness and a moderate amount of despair." Born in Des Moines, Hedges grew up in West Des Moines ("a key distinction for an Iowan") and now lives in Brooklyn with wife Susan Bruce and their two children.

Hedges's favorite play experience "was a workshop of Imagining Brad that we did at the old Circle Rep Lab. We had no money, just good intentions. It was a special moment at the theatre of our hero, Lanford Wilson, and was Joe Mantello's first New York production. He directed in college, and had acted in all my plays until I finally wrote one with a female cast — which he directed.

"My favorite theatre experience will always be the work I did with Joe and Mary-Louise Parker and a handful of other college friends [with the Edge Company]. For two or three years, I wrote a series of plays that we performed any place that would have us. They were my favorite and purest days; we had nothing but each other. I've tried to model my filmmaking experiences after that time. Even though we're older — and get paid — I want to do work that's joy-based in the process."

Director Lasse Hallstrom promised that if Hedges adapted "Gilbert Grape" for the screen, he'd teach him to be a filmmaker. Recalls Hedges, "He gave me a unique education. I was involved in the auditions, scouting locations, and watching dailies. I was on the set and occasionally in the editing room. He was a great teacher."

Upcoming for the multitasking Hedges is "finishing my new novel [his third], which I've been finishing for nearly a decade. Then I have plans for a new film, and I'm hoping to sneak in a new play, which has been a longtime coming." If there's a secret to his success, claims Hedges, "it's that I look for stories that not only I can't wait to tell, but also that I have to tell. Then everything kind of follows from there."

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Speaking of Peter Hedges, Alison Pill declares, "We're huge fans of each other. He's a delightful human being to be around, a talented writer and great about allowing actors freedom on the set. He has such a heart to all of his characters; they're so honest and moving." Pill pledges Hedges allegiance: "I want to be in every movie he ever makes!"

	Alison Pill

Adds Pill, "The only difficulty [with "Dan"] was trying to put 18 people in scenes, which is very tricky. But it was all part of the fun of the shoot." Previously, Pill had worked with Amy Ryan "in a Christopher Shinn play, On the Mountain. I'd known Jessica Hecht a little bit, and I knew Frank Wood's work and Norbert's work. It was a joy being around [the cast members], and exciting to hear all their theatrical stories." Continued...