Pygmalion was muse behind 'Ruby Sparks'

Krofft, who with his brother Marty created "Land of the Lost"and "H.R. Pufnstuf" in the 1970s, rarely allows filming on the property. But the vibe of "Ruby Sparks" — the second movie from the directors of the 2006 breakout "Little Miss Sunshine" — spoke to the octogenarian's penchant for the offbeat and sweetly psychedelic. And so amid the controlled chaos of the location, looniness reigned as the camera rolled on a family get-together scene.

A trim and tan Antonio Banderas, playing the man of the (quirky) house, prepared to cannonball off the roof into the pool, while Annette Bening in a Lauren Hutton-style wig and a paisley printed shirt, cooed over a baby, her purported grandchild. Chris Messina, playing Bening's character's loyal son, shot water guns in the pool, as Paul Dano, playing the film's protagonist, sulked in the guesthouse — a rickety structure perched in an adjacent tree.

Sunbathing in a orange-and-white-striped bikini on the brick patio was Dano's co-star, real-life girlfriend and unlikely puppetmaster of the zaniness: 28-year-old Zoe Kazan. The diminutive writer-actress not only plays the antagonist in "Ruby Sparks," she also penned the film, which Fox Searchlight is bringing to theaters July 25. The movie, centering on a novelist frustrated personally and professionally, is a meditation on love and control — and the lengths one will go to in the quest for an ideal(ized) mate.

"I was a big Greek myth nerd as a kid, and I always liked the story of Pygmalion and Galatea," Kazan, wrapped in a bathrobe and tucked into a nook behind Krofft's staircase, said later of her inspiration for the script. "I also feel like there are a lot of romantic comedies written by men for women:'Annie Hall,''(500) Days of Summer.' I was interested in exploring that romance impulse men have to idealize women."

Modern-day Pygmalion

Kazan had been ruminating on the idea for "Ruby Sparks" for years, but she didn't start writing this contemporary Pygmalion story until February 2010, when she was on Broadway, playing opposite Christopher Walken in "A Behanding in Spokane." Huddled backstage in her first official dressing room, Kazan banged out the first draft in a speedy two months. Instead of a sculptor carving a statue, her modern-day myth revolves around a tall, skinny, bespectacled novelist named Calvin (who looked an awful lot like Dano, the tall, skinny, bespectacled actor she had been sharing her life with for several years).

Calvin's debut novel turned him into a cultural superstar, but afterward he was stricken with a severe case of writer's block. Depressed and in therapy, he suddenly starts dreaming about a fantasy woman, Ruby, who inspires him to write again. One day, she shows up in his living room, and he discovers he can control her every move, every aspect of her personality.

It's a concept that could have been turned into a variety of films, everything from a micro-budget mumblecore piece to a big-budget, Adam Sandler studio laugher. Yet Kazan and Dano wanted to make a nuanced indie with themselves as the leads.

"We wanted it to be a cinematic experience," said Dano, who dutifully read Kazan's pages nightly before the cohabitating Brooklyn couple turned out the lights. "It has a magical realist element to it, and love is a super big thing. We wanted it to feel big."

To walk that tonal tightrope, Kazan and Dano — who served as executive producers on "Ruby Sparks" — turned to directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. Dano knew the married duo from "Little Miss Sunshine," a dysfunctional family comedy that they turned, improbably, into an Oscar-winning hit.

Themes of control and creativity in "Ruby Sparks" resonated strongly with the couple, who had spent the five years after "Little Miss Sunshine" developing many other film projects but were unable to get one off the ground. "I felt like this was the film for us. This was the story for us to tell," said Dayton. "There was an organic connection to the material," added Faris.

That four-way collaboration created a romantic comedy that seems sure to provoke conversation between the sexes.