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"Balls of Fury" "Balls Of Fury Trailer" - First Look "Balls Of Fury" - In Theaters August 29, 2007 
"Balls Of Fury" - In the unsanctioned, underground and unhinged world of extreme Ping-Pong, the competition is brutal and the stakes are deadly. Now, Rogue Pictures' outrageous new comedy "Balls of Fury" serves up this secret world for the first time on-screen. Written by Thomas Lennon & Robert Ben Garant (Night at the Museum, Reno 911!), the absolutely dreadful film is directed by Ben Garant. Down-and-out former professional Ping-Pong phenom Randy Daytona (Tony Award winner Dan Fogler) is sucked into this maelstrom when FBI Agent Rodriguez (George Lopez) recruits him for a secret mission. Randy is determined to bounce back and recapture his former glory, and to smoke out his father's (Robert Patrick) killer - one of the FBI's Most Wanted, arch-fiend Feng (Academy Award winner Christopher Walken). But, after two decades out of the game, Randy can't turn his life around and avenge his father's murder without a team of his own. He calls upon the spiritual guidance of blind Ping-Pong sage and restaurateur Wong (James Hong), and the training expertise of Master Wong's wildly sexy niece Maggie (Maggie Q), both of whom also have a dark history with Feng. All roads lead to Feng's mysterious jungle compound and the most unique Ping-Pong tournaments ever staged. There, Randy faces such formidable players as his long-ago Olympics opponent, the still-vicious Karl Wolfschtagg (Mr. Lennon). Can Randy keep his eye on the balls? Will he achieve the redemption he craves while wielding a paddle? Is his backhand strong enough to triumph over rampant wickedness?
Wild About Movies Grade: F- "Balls Of Fury" "Balls of Fury" is the outrageous new comedy from the team of Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon, screenwriters of the blockbuster movie Night at the Museum and creators of the hit television series Reno 911! Lennon notes, "We've been working together pretty much daily since we met at New York University in 1988 - so, half of our lives and counting. By now, we tend to be thinking the same thing most of the time; it's sort of like having two halves of the same mind." "We will come up with an idea together and write an outline. Then we split up parts of the script and write separately," reveals Garant. "Often, we'll work on a Hovercraft in the Amazon." One day, the duo saw a news item about a Ping-Pong (a.k.a. table tennis) champion who, says Lennon, "couldn't walk down the street without being mobbed, as if he were a rock star." Cross-breeding that concept with their penchant for martial arts, the pair wrote a screenplay to rectify the fact that one of the world's most popular sports hadn't yet been exploited in motion pictures. Garant elaborates, "We're big Bruce Lee fans, and we thought, what if you took all the kung fu out of a kung fu movie and replaced it with Ping-Pong? So we researched the game for a year; there's a training facility in Hong Kong that looks like something out of The Last Emperor." Lennon remarks, "We like to look at silly things in a serious way, and serious things in a silly way." Garant offers, "People in the world of Ping-Pong do take it seriously. There are legends in the sport, and bad guys and sexy girls. If you just walk into a Ping-Pong club, people really do stop playing and turn to stare at you. "Writing the Ping-Pong sequences was an interesting challenge; we had to keep the scenes dynamic and show the tide of a game turning and/or people cheating." Producers and Spyglass Entertainment Group co-chairmen and CEOs Roger Birnbaum and Gary Barber note, "As screenwriters, Tom and Ben had delivered a big hit movie for us with The Pacifier, and so we bought this project at the pitch stage - knowing they would deliver." "They have a unique sensibility," adds producer and Spyglass president Jonathan Glickman. "They delivered a hilarious - and emotional, even - script, and we realized they should direct and produce Balls of Fury as well." As the project began to come together, actors started hearing about the script, and responded to its uniqueness. Glickman notes, "Several actors were interested in playing Randy Daytona, but we had to find someone who was a terrific comic actor but who would also jell with an ensemble." Birnbaum and Barber add, "The actor playing Randy had to be highly physical, intelligent, and charming. It was Dan Fogler who best met all of those criteria." Fogler, who had recently won a Tony Award for his performance in the Broadway musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, gravitated towards the material instinctively - "once I realized that it wasn't a porno film," he clarifies. "I'm a big fan of Ben and Tom's work on The State and Reno 911! "Balls of Fury" has so many elements of the movies I love, like Rocky, The Karate Kid, and especially Enter the Dragon. My character is an underdog who goes on a heroic journey." "Dan, in his Broadway show, gave as funny a performance as we've ever seen, so we knew he'd be very funny in our movie," reports Garant. "He was also very accommodating, considering how many pairs of shorts we made him wear." Oscar winner Christopher Walken, who has become an icon to moviegoers because of his eclectic body of work, plays the film's ueber-villain, the notorious Feng. Walken remarks, "When I read the script, the first thing I noticed was how good Tom and Ben's dialogue was. I felt Feng would be an interesting character to play. And I can still play Ping-Pong pretty well; it was very popular when I was a kid." Garant reports, "He came to the set several days early, so he could watch everyone else and see the movie that was being made. One day, he also brought Tom and I into his trailer and acted out the entire movie - to see if we liked what he was doing. Amazing." George Lopez, the popular comedian and actor, plays FBI Agent Rodriguez, who - like Randy - needs redemption. In Rodriguez' case, he's been, as Lopez elaborates, "ostracized, and a desk jockey, for the last five years. All because he thought an airplane full of oregano was carrying marijuana. I myself play golf with a former FBI Agent, so I asked him if that would ever happen, and he said it would. He also gave me some tips on how to handle a weapon. "I also did some stunt work in Balls of Fury, which I could pull off because I've had to subdue many of my uncles at weddings and quinceaneras..." Lopez was particularly entertained by the script because "Chinese culture is so revered, and has been for centuries - and Balls of Fury turns all of that inside out. The respect that the culture deserves is still there, but we harvest laughs." Similarly, Garant and Lennon wrote the part of blind mentor, and Ping-Pong Master, Wong with veteran Asian-American actor James Hong in mind. "He is a hero of mine," states Garant. "We wrote Wong with James' distinctive cadences." Filmgoers will remember the actor from, among dozens of movies, Chinatown and Airplane! Hong recalls, "Ben and Tom and I had coffee together, and they told me their wonderful idea for this movie. The script was wacky enough for me." Quickly settling into character, Hong developed a fine ear for sensing the trajectory of the Ping-Pong ball. He intones, "If you can't see the ball, you can still hear it. A softer bounce off your opponent's paddle means that the ball is going to have more spin and a downdraft. If the ball sounds like it's been hit very hard, your opponent is going to slam it at you and it will have less spin. You must adjust accordingly..." Yet it's Maggie, Wong's niece, who is the real hands-on trainer; Fogler reveals, "She and Randy turn out to share a passion - two passions, in fact." Actress Maggie Q was looking "for a comedy - something that people wouldn't expect me to do. Oddly enough, in Balls of Fury I fight more than I did in Mission:Impossible III. "I liked the dynamic Maggie Wong has. It's every woman's; she's delicate and sweet - and in certain ways she can be a hard-ass." Lennon admits, "Basically, we wanted to see Maggie Q kick people in the face - a lot. We think many people will, actually." The duo also thought that many people would enjoy hearing songs from the rock group Def Leppard. Garant says, "There were a number of big-hair bands in the '80s, but Def Leppard was the real deal. We love how they epitomize that period, and we loved the idea of Randy unapologetically still loving the same music he rocked out to when he was 12." Garant and Lennon knew that the comedy they had scripted wouldn't work without at least some basis in reality - especially where the Ping-Pong action was concerned. Accordingly, Fogler and several other actors spent time training and trading serves with Wei Wang and Diego Schaaf. Wang is a former table tennis Olympian who had competed in the 1996 Atlanta games for the U.S. and earned a bronze medal. "Those were the most exciting moments of my life," she says. "I've been playing since I was 11 years old." Table tennis coordinator Schaaf adds, "If you want to be an Olympic player, you have to start at an early age - 9 to 11 years old, with 6-8 hours of coaching and training every day. In China, kids live in table tennis camps and get schooled there." Wang advises, "To play, you need to develop a stroke and a serve, and to learn how the ball spins. You also learn to create your own trajectory as you serve the ball - trying to make it a little difficult for your opponent to see clearly, while also getting the ball served fast." Maggie Q remembers, "We realized pretty quickly that they were serious about us looking good, so we had to get with the program. It's more physical and specific than people know. I think there's just as much discipline involved as in kung fu. "We also had pro Ping-Pong players on the set as extras, and I would get coached by them as well; 'Oh, Maggie, you should do it like this...'" One of the [fictional] pros opposing Randy is his once and future bete noire, East German table tennis player Karl Wolfschtagg - played by Lennon. He notes, "The leotard and hairdo were perfectly formed in my mind already. That was my preparation; it helps to have a specific outfit. On the set, playing a furious and possibly sinister type was easy because the dance belt on the leotard really hurt." As to his Ping-Pong preparation, he reports, "I'd work on my form and ask Diego, 'How did that look?' I'd mostly get a blank stare, or maybe, 'It's okay. Can they fix that in post-production?' Truthfully, though, I am way better than I used to be, thanks to Wei and Diego." Schaaf emphasizes, "Hand-eye coordination is very important, and so is the mental aspect, because there is very little time for your strategic decisions; you hit the ball and you have about a third of a second until the other player hits the ball. "You have to decide where and how you're going to play it back, while also evaluating what your opponent did with it and what he is expecting you to do. It has been compared to playing chess while running a 100-meter dash." Ultimately, Wang says, "We only trained these actors for a few weeks, but they were very enthusiastic, so I gave them more and more to do. Dan Fogler loved it; after learning a stroke, he would say 'Let's play more!'" Fogler remembers, "At first, they put me up against a Ping-Pong ball-spitting machine, which was both ridiculous and intense. I hadn't played Ping-Pong since I was 11 or so, in my parents' basement. But now, I can beat some of my friends." The increased Ping-Pong skills of the cast were not lost on Garant, who "did not once play the game during production. I had read an interview with [NBA Coach] Phil Jackson where he said, 'Never try to shoot a basket in front of your players.'" Further to that end, Garant remembers, "For some scenes, Dan Fogler and Christopher Walken would take their cues as to the right tone and pace from actors we cast who have starred in actual kung fu movies, like James Hong, Jason Scott Lee [Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story], and Cary Hiroyuki-Tagawa [Mortal Kombat]. "It was a treat to watch those guys work. We hardly had to tell Cary a thing, for instance, and Jason is even cooler in person." With production underway, the location and art departments for Balls of Fury took full advantage of Los Angeles locales. Locations in the Chinatown district were actively utilized. The exterior of Feng's palatial jungle estate was shot at the Arboretum, while his mansion was fashioned from a former Chinese restaurant located next to Universal City Walk. Walken reflects, "Years ago, when I first came to Hollywood, there was a great restaurant on Sunset called the Imperial Gardens. The mansion set reminded me of that place; they should re-open it..." Production designer Jeff Knipp says, "Ben and Tom wanted a very realistic approach to the settings. They had written certain colors and textures into the script. Even though this movie is a comedy, they didn't want the over-the-top cheesy factor." The biggest challenge for Knipp's department was constructing a 150-foot suspension bridge over water. He reports, "We had to make sure that we could build something safe and secure. It doesn't have to last 20 years, but it had to be stable." Knipp also worked on establishing a color pattern. He notes, "The script makes clear that Randy Daytona's life pretty much sucks in Reno, where he has been working. So we render that flat and nearly colorless. As Randy journeys into Chinatown, it's the Westernized version of China, far more urban with a lot of color and activity. "Then there's Feng's world, which, like the man himself, is flamboyant. He's pretty out there, so everything has more gold, more texture, and more layering. Once the action gets going, everything else gets much busier." Knipp imported some of the pieces used in Feng's tournament room from China. He explains, "It was a lot more cost-effective than producing it here. Plus, we wanted an authentic Chinese flavor and feel." Garant notes, "I think all the actors took a cue from Jeff's sets and MaryAnn Bozek's wardrobe." As costume designer, Bozek had the enviable challenge of dressing Feng. Garant and Lennon wanted their villain - "who is mostly out of Tom's brain," confides Garant - to look grand and ostentatious, so Bozek did considerable research on Japanese emperors and empresses. Bozek also found that the actor and the filmmakers particularly sparked to "a Ming the Merciless look," referencing the villain from the Flash Gordon comics and serials. The compromise, she notes, was that "my favorite look for him was the hat and the wine-colored outfit. It's all very similar to Ming, but the hat is comparable to an emperor's hat. I feel that the hat made him look taller, more statuesque, and that much more domineering." "Feng is obviously a show-off," laughs Walken. "But he has to be, doesn't he; he's a villain! So I wore different wigs, different colors of kimonos...it's the kind of guy Feng is." Maggie Q notes, "Living in Hong Kong for years, I've met a few Fengs. There are these guys who dress very ornately and decadently." The costuming further enhanced Walken's already heightened presence on the set. Fogler admits, "I was intimidated and excited. Thank God I only had two lines to say for the first couple of days with him. I stood back and watched Chris work, but my anxiety went away as soon as I talked with him. He's really cool and very open." Bozek also had to design a special costume for Maggie Q, one that would allow Ping-Pong balls to bounce off different parts of the actress' body and help the visual effects department hit their targets just so. All the actors on the Balls of Fury shoot found the Lennon/Garant partnership to be comparable to working with a single person. But, as Lennon remarks, "Balls of Fury was a little strange for us only because we so often work on completely improvised projects like Reno 911! But this, we had scripted." Garant adds, "We did a lot of rewriting during pre-production; so, not too much on the set, but we'd mix it up a little. For example, some of the Reno 911! people came in and shot little parts, and almost every word out of their mouths was improv. We were reluctant to even show them the script." Additionally, Garant and Lennon both encouraged the main actors to come up with bits of business and/or lines. Lopez offers, "First of all, both of these guys are very funny, so that makes you want to make them laugh." Garant says, "We figure, why hire people if you're not going to let them do what they do best? We shot scenes that were suggested. George's improvs - especially with Dan - really added a lot to the movie. A lot of the actors put in stuff." One of the few actors who didn't was Walken, who states, "On Balls of Fury, I said the words as written; I didn't need to improvise, unlike on so many other films I've done where I'd occasionally throw in a little zinger." Garant marvels, "He loved the script and he listened to my direction - not that I gave him much; what am I gonna do, tell Christopher Walken how to act? He is meticulous with his takes and line readings. Watching him work was like movie boot camp." Walken comments, "I was very impressed with Ben as a director. He has real confidence, makes a nice atmosphere on a set, and he's quick; everything happens when it's supposed to. He makes it seem effortless." The cast's other screen stalwart concurs; Hong adds, "I found that I could work with Ben better than any other comedy director I'd ever worked with. Why? Because he's still very humble. Maybe two films later, he won't talk to me... "I haven't seen Dan on stage, but he's multi-talented; he can sing, he can moonwalk - and he can do pratfalls. He reminds me of Red Skelton." As an actor who is successfully making the transition from starring on stage to starring on film, Fogler comments, "In theater, there's a little bit of a wait, then you're thrust out of a cannon - and you're done. In film, there's a lot of a wait, then you're thrust out of a cannon but only for a few moments - and then you're waiting again, another thrust out of a cannon for a few moments - and then waiting again. "But I've always wanted to be in movies, and fortunately I was in good hands; Tom and Ben know comedy. Balls of Fury is funny precisely because they take it so seriously." Fogler further clarifies, "I'd often go for the joke, but Ben would come up to me and whisper, 'Pull it back a little.' He and Tom are really good like that, and they taught me so much. They were also incredibly open to our insanity on the set, so we had a hell of a lot of fun making Balls of Fury." Maggie Q adds, "Tom and Ben are so funny, and so intelligent in their humor. On the set, you can feel this chemistry between the two of them, in that they care about their material and also respect each other's opinions." Garant notes, "The funniest - and most fun - days on the set were when Tom was directing scenes on second unit at the same time I was directing a scene, and right nearby too. I think the actors got a kick out of it, because we would Ping-Pong them from one end of the set to another, back and forth, back and forth... "We did have some ball-related accidents on-set, but, happily, none of them had anything to do with Ping-Pong balls."
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