“Every once in a while over the years I would think about it,” Stiller said. “Probably whenever I showed my son Poseidon Adventure for the first time. ‘Oh, there’s that crazy movie we were going to do.’ And then, thinking about, ‘Oh, this would be funny now, still.’”
As Cohen recalled, it was Cross who pushed for the live-read to happen after he put together a similar reunion of Mr. Show. “David reached out to me a couple of months ago and just said, ‘Wouldn’t this be great?’” Cohen told me. In keeping with the ‘90s of it all, the script had been stored on a floppy disc. “He and I cleaned it up a bit, and then sent it to Ben—who immediately, and to our joy, was so into it. That’s how the train started to roll,” Cohen added.
By all accounts, the cast came together pretty quickly, especially once the live event was fitted with a charitable component: a ticket for the reading costs $12.50, with proceeds being split between the Equal Justice Initiative and Direct Relief, an organization focused on the coronavirus pandemic. After it initially streams at 8 p.m. ET on Saturday, a capture of the event will remain available for 48 hours. But what the future holds beyond that is unclear.
“I think it would be a great end of the story, but we’ve loosely joked about this maybe being a Netflix comedy feature or something. But one step at a time,” Cohen said. “I think that would be really the greatest thing ever.”
For his part, Stiller is simply hoping to do his younger self proud. As a kid, he saw The Poseidon Adventure 10 times in the movie theater; he credits it with sparking his interest in making films himself.
“I’ll tell you a little anecdote, because Poseidon Adventure is truly one of my favorite films of all time,” Stiller said as our interview was winding down. “When I had the opportunity to work with Gene Hackman in The Royal Tenenbaums, it was a dream come true for me. The whole shoot, I was waiting to get up the nerve—because he’s an intimidating guy—to tell him how much Poseidon Adventure meant to me. So, two days before the shoot was over, finally, there’s this quiet moment. I said, ‘Gene, I just want to say it’s just been amazing working with you—and I didn’t say this before, but really for me, Poseidon Adventure is probably one of the most important movies for me, ever, because it really made me want to be a filmmaker, to be in movies, and I saw it multiple times and it just really, really changed my life.’”
Hackman, Stiller recalled, took a moment, looked at him, and said, “Oh yeah. Money job.”
“Then he got up and he walked away,” Stiller said, as Cohen expressed delighted surprise at the story. “My world was shattered. So this is my chance to, somehow… I don’t know, I have to live it out somehow. I have to make it right. It’s not a money job for me.”
Besides, he concluded, “Even if it was a money job for Hackman, it was the most incredible money job performance I’ve ever seen.”
More Great Stories From Vanity Fair
— Cover Story: Viola Davis on Her Hollywood Triumphs, Her Journey out of Poverty, and Her Regrets About Making The Help
— Ziwe Fumudoh Has Mastered the Art of Putting White People on the Spot
— Netflix’s Unsolved Mysteries: Five Burning Questions Answered About Rey Rivera, Rob Endres, and More
— Watch the Celebrity-Filled Fan-Film Version of The Princess Bride
— Carl Reiner’s Fairy-Tale Ending
— The Secrets of Marianne and Connell’s First Sex Scene in Normal People
— From the Archive: Uncovering the Secret Snaps of Sammy Davis Jr.
Looking for more? Sign up for our daily Hollywood newsletter and never miss a story.