How ‘Country’ Came to the Small Screen

Stand-up comedian Rita Rudner and husband Martin Bergman scored a bull’s-eye with their first produced screenplay, “Peter’s Friends.” Their smart script caught the fancy of actor-director Kenneth Branagh, who not only starred in the 1992 ensemble comedy with then-wife Emma Thompson and Rudner, but also directed the Samuel Goldwyn production.

Rudner and Bergman’s latest collaboration, “A Weekend in the Country,” also attracted a stellar comedy cast: Oscar winners Jack Lemmon and Christine Lahti, Dudley Moore, Richard Lewis, Faith Ford, Betty White and John Shea. This time around, the couple raised the financing for the intimate comedy, which Bergman produced and directed.

But audiences won’t be seeing “Weekend in the Country” on the big screen this summer. The film’s distributor, Rysher Entertainment, sold it directly to cable’s USA Network.

“In the last couple of years, if we are going to go out theatrically with a film, we are really trying to go out with films that are competitive,” says executive producer Rob Kenneally, who is in charge of creative affairs for film and TV at Rysher. “The marketplace is rough these days, and we just feel these limited-release, Samuel Goldwyn-type of films are not necessarily working as well in this crowded marketplace. And it is nothing against the movie. We thought it was real sweet.”

If Rudner is upset that “Weekend” isn’t getting a theatrical release like “Peter’s Friends,” she is putting up a terrific front.

“You know, how disappointed can you be?” says Rudner, who acknowledges that she and Bergman were not consulted on the sale to USA. “We got to make our first movie and that’s just a valuable experience.

“I want the movie to be with people who love it. We were thrilled that USA wanted to buy it, because they love it,” she said. “That’s where you want to be because marketing an ensemble comedy today is so difficult in a crowded marketplace. I think more people will see it on USA than would ever see it in a movie theater because who knows what the marketing would have been.”

Premiering on USA at 9 tonight, “Weekend” is a far cry from the lurid thrillers and action-adventure fare that the basic cable channel usually airs.

*

Kenneally said that Rysher talked with HBO and Cinemax about airing “Weekend” but opted for USA because the network “was the most aggressive. USA will spend some real money to market it and then it will have a video life after that.”

“This is the kind of movie that USA can’t normally make,” acknowledges Ian Valentine, vice president of long-form programming for the cable channel. “It’s a fun entertainment picture. I think the film was very well produced in terms of getting the cast. One of the reasons we [bought it] was the cast is big. We couldn’t normally get a Jack Lemmon for a USA picture. So [the cast] allows us to cut promo pieces that are exciting.”

USA has also done a heavy media blitz in major magazines and TV guides. The film, Valentine says, is a bit of a risk for the network.

“It’s a comedy, and those aren’t films that have performed well on USA. We haven’t done one in years. It’s a little riskier, but we are trying to do different things across the board at the network.”

Set in the California wine country, “Weekend” finds Lahti playing a proprietor of an inn who was once married to Moore, a womanizing vineyard magnet. While on assignment to interview Moore, Rudner’s unmarried pregnant writer falls in love with a nervous, neurotic comedian (Lewis) who is in town to do a concert. Lemmon, who also is an executive producer, plays a former comic turned crooked concert promoter.

“We like to write comedy about relationships,” Rudner says. “We wanted to do something in a pretty place. We kind of wanted to make a modern-day fairy tale. That is the feeling we wanted this to have.”

She thinks the actors were drawn to the romantic comedy because it’s the type of film that “doesn’t get done very much anymore. It’s a verbal comedy. Independent films, to crash through the market, have to be very harsh, it seems lately, in their approach to what they are doing. We wanted to do something happy, pretty and friendly, and the cast responded to it.”

Shot in four weeks with a budget of just $2.5 million, “Weekend” was a “learning experience” for Rudner and Bergman. “We wanted to go step by step,” she says. “If it’s your first film, you don’t want to do ‘Jaws.’ You want to find out what’s going on. Martin would love to direct a studio film now.”

Because Rudner and Bergman couldn’t pay their actors their customary salaries, they accommodated everyone’s schedule and offered them perks. “Jack Lemmon loves to play golf and he had access to a golf course whenever he wanted it,” Rudner says. “Dudley Moore’s wife was pregnant, so he wanted a chauffeur on call so he could be driven home every night.”

And to save money in post-production, they turned the second floor of their Beverly Hills house into an editing suite.

“We have a separate entrance and we could come down and would have all of these people working in the house in the morning,” Rudner recalls. “It was great.”

Since completing “Weekend” last summer, Rudner and Bergman have sold a script to Universal that they believe is more commercially viable for today’s movie marketplace.

“It’s not an ensemble,” says Rudner, adding that she and Bergman are busy at work on another screenplay. “It’s straightforward concept. We like the challenge to write a different style of movie. Martin and I really like to learn.”

* “A Weekend in the Country” airs at 9 tonight on USA; it repeats June 23 at 6 p.m. and June 29 at 2 p.m.