Battle-tested Will Speck and Josh Gordon, Furlined: Blades of Glory

• Published in: Boards 2007-05, p.13
• Main Author: Fera, Rae Ann
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Canadian movies; Canadian television; Comedies; Commercials; Figure skating; Gordon, Josh; Motion picture directors & producers; Skating; Speck, Will; Television production industry
• ISSN: 1488-6286

Will Speck and Josh Gordon (Furlined) are known for their great performance direction and slightly oddball comedy. So taking to the ice with Will Ferrell and Jon [John Heder] in what they call a "sports comedy about men's figure skating" wasn't a big stretch for the pair's first feature, Blades of Glory. While doing wardrobe fittings for their sitcom pilot revolving around Geico's Cavemen characters, the pair took a few moments to tell tales about men in tights. Josh: The hard thing is, when you're a commercial director, you're shielded because you always have the agency there to fight battles with the clients - especially when it comes to money. In the film business you're on the front line, and that gave us a huge amount of respect for all the producers we've worked with. It's really hard going in to ask people for more money. Will: Obviously with commercials you have such an unbelievable amount of control and so much is put into polishing such a short amount of time. What you have to learn in features is when to fight your battles and when to give over, because you can't possibly control every element to the same level that you're used to. You just have to figure out what's important to the movie. In a way it's liberating because you go more with the flow.