Remember the 2003 film "The Real Cancun"? No? Oh, c'mon, admit it. You still remember the coed shower scene like it was yesterday.
Heralded as the first foray into "reality features," "Cancun" played off the proven "Real World"/"Road Rules" formula by sticking a bunch of inebriated teen and twentysomething strangers together in an unsupervised Spring Break scenario. There they could drink and carouse their way to international stardom in front of cameras 24/7. (In truth, "Jackass: The Movie" had already deflowered the reality-feature genre the previous fall when it grossed $64 million.)
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Thursday, December 13, 2007 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 21 words Type of Material: Correction
Scriptland: In the Scriptland column that appeared in Wednesday's Calendar section, screenwriter Beau Willimon was identified as British. He is American.
Cut into a feature-length narrative instead of 15 grueling weeks of must-avoid TV, the resulting movie took advantage of that medium's uncensored format. Although "Cancun" didn't achieve any artistic milestones, it did set a record for turnaround time. Shot over 10 days in March 2003, "Cancun" was in theaters just five weeks later, on April 25.
As an extra bonus -- and here was the real payoff -- it required no pesky writers (unless you count the savvy editors who fashioned a geek-triumphant narrative out of all the tawdry off-the-cuff footage). With TV and film writers now in their sixth week of striking, this type of material would suddenly seem much more viable again as a cheap and quick way to fill in a hole or two on a studio slate.
Problem is "Cancun" tanked. Developed by the mad geniuses of the form, Bunim-Murray Productions ("The Real World," "The Simple Life"), and distributed by New Line Cinema, "Cancun" was their rare flop. It grossed less than $5 million theatrically on an $8-million budget, most of which was apparently spent on tequila and infrared cameras. As it happened, the new mini-genre couldn't even support a second effort, Universal's "The Quest," which totally disappeared a few months later.
And yet there are rumblings that several production companies are trying to revive and fast-track reality features in the vacuum left by the strike's shut-off of new screenplays. A survey of producers and agents found that several had heard of reality feature ideas being floated in recent months, though they doubted that any would actually come to fruition for reasons beyond the flagship "Cancun's" unceremonious dumping. (Bunim-Murray declined to discuss its plans.)
