American Wedding (2003)

To the many fans of American Pie, a third installment was highly anticipated— the moviegoers who had taken to the “AP” gang wanted to continue to see where the characters’ lives would lead. But for Adam Herz (the creator of the successful series’ characters and writer/producer of American Wedding) and his team, steps needed to be taken to ensure that they were not rushing into the project simply to satisfy the market. Like anyone guiding the progress of a beloved child, the filmmakers were committed to approaching the next sequel with care and thoughtful planning.

“I wasn’t so much afraid of ‘topping’ the first two, because I didn’t think of it that way,” says Herz. “I just came at it asking, ‘Is what follows a natural progression in the lives of these characters? Is it real?’ And obviously and all-importantly, ‘Is it funny?’”

Producer Chris Moore states, “We were all very proud of what we were able to do with American Pie and American Pie 2, and we didn’t want to look like those cheesy old guys who were just remaking the movie over and over again to try and make money. Then, Adam Herz came to everybody and said, ‘I could see how funny these characters would be in a wedding.’ And that started it all.”

Producer Craig Perry remembers, “There was a moment on the set of American Pie 2 when Adam and Chris were talking and I said, ‘Please, don’t tell me you’ve got an idea for another one of these things.’ Then Adam mentioned his idea about a wedding, complete with a bachelor party and everything, and I thought, ‘Damn, that’s good.’”

Like their counterparts in the first movie, the filmmakers made their own pact before proceeding on with their “next step.”

Herz explains, “This trilogy is about the rites of passage in these characters’ lives. The first one was about losing your virginity. The second one is about that strange transition into the beginnings of adulthood, like ‘Who am I, who are my friends and what’s going on?’ The third—well, a wedding, naturally, what else?”

Producer Chris Bender says, “Everyone can relate to the Pie characters. I mean, everyone has a Stifler friend, a Finch friend. And everyone has a little Jim in them. You can relate to having sex for the first time…or getting married. Everyone is going to go through this at some point in their lives and most likely, something embarrassing is going to happen.”

Moore continues, “We had made a pact of our own on American Pie 2—that if we were going to do it, we needed to get it right—and I think we honored that agreement in the third installment.”

For the filmmakers, the biggest challenge in “getting it right” was designing a story that would be fresh, funny and fast-paced—while including as much of the original cast as the story could follow. To that end, they made some difficult choices on which characters to focus on for American Wedding and then faced the challenge of getting those actors to return.

“It’s really a testament to Adam’s script,” says Moore, “that we were able to get everyone back that we wanted. There are a couple of characters that don’t return, but it’s not because we didn’t want them. The story, unfortunately, isn’t about their characters anymore. So the actors were cool about it and said that they understood.”

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