People shouldn’t expect to follow a plot when they go to see "jackass the movie." What they can expect is the same format as the half-hour television series with back-to-back, totally unrelated sketches that run approximately 90 minutes. This makes it especially easy on those in the audience who need to go pee or feed their hungry stomachs, as they can simply get up and leave, come back minutes later and not feel they’ve missed a thing -- even though they will probably have missed a good three or four things, since most of the segments are no more than a minute or two in length.
"Think 'Jackass’ the television series times ten," says executive producer John Miller. "It’s been a blast expanding upon the sick and twisted minds of guys who don’t take anything seriously, and I have no doubt that people who loved the series will hip over the film. In fact, I’m sure that word of mouth, alone, will have people standing around the block."
I can’t decide if this movie or 'The Brothers Grunt’ animated series is the low point of my career," says Van Toftier, President. MTV Films. "I’ve basically given money to a bunch of idiots saddled with enough dimwitted ignorance to try one bad idea after another, with the sole purpose of making moviegoers laugh."
David Gale, senior vice president of MTV Films, expressed the sentiment of numerous executives when, after viewing the preliminary screening for "jackass the movie," he uttered: "We’re all going to hell."
Running the gamut from hair-brained stunts to troubling shots of Preston Lacy’s misshapen ass, the skits are all pretty ridiculous, and coming up with lots of dumb ideas has not been a problem.
"Ideas come from everywhere," says director Jeff Tremaine. "Sometimes the cast will come up with the idea - like Bam Margera called me with an idea to have Raab Himself jump out of a tree with bungee cords attached to his underwear. Or someone will have the start of an idea and we’ll discuss it to figure out how to step it up. Lots of times the ideas just take off in an altogether different direction, but if they involve Pontius or Steve-O, there’s probably going to be some nudity involved."
Due to the limited attention span of the "actors" and general irreverence on the set, directing "jackass the movie" was certainly no easy feat.
"The hardest thing about shooting with these guys is getting them to settle down long enough to set up cameras," says director Jeff Tremaine. "Sometimes when you get them all together, it’s impossible to get anything done. You just need to start rolling because they’re simply in their own world."
"When Francis Ford Coppola was directing 'Apocalypse Now,’ I don’t think he had to deal with any of the actors actually crapping in their pants," says Johnny Knoxville. "So there are certain things that Jeff has to deal with that other directors don’t have to deal with and just couldn’t handle."
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