Manny here. We at VeryAware were lucky enough to have a fan of the site, Grant Toneck, attend the recent 10th Anniversary Screening of BRING IT ON at the New Beverly Cinemas in Los Angeles, which was co-presented by Ain’t It Cool News.
Read about Grant’s experience seeing what was one of my favorite movies in middle school and is a movie that still holds a special place on the tips of my spirit fingers.
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A decade after it was released to a worldwide audience, people are still cheering for Bring It On. The acclaimed movie about two rival cheer squads turned 10 years old and the New Beverly Cinema in Hollywood did its part to bring fans back into the seats to see this witty high school comedy. Adding to the evening was the presence of two of the actors, Clare Kramer and Nicole Bilderback, as well as producer Max Wong and writer Jessica Bendinger. Before the anniversary screening took place the group took photos with fans and some time to answer questions from Ain’t It Cool News, who hosted the event, as well as from the audience, who seemed to thoroughly enjoy every minute.
Most of the questions asked to the group were benign, however, brought up some interesting answers such as who was Bendinger’s first choice to play Torrence, played by Kirsten Dunst in the film, to which she replied, laughing “Gwen Stefani”. Bendinger recalled pitching the story twenty-seven times to executives before finally getting the green light from Beacon Communications for a film called Cheer Fever, which was ultimately changed to Bring It On. The two actors present spent most of the discussion recalling what it was like to be on such a good natured set with so many fun people and just how much hard work cheerleading really was. One thing brought up, on several occasions, was that the only times the group saw the films executives was when the cast was wearing as little clothes as possible and that a request came in to reshoot the carwash scene again after a reel was already in the can. The largely male audience at the theater understood why, yet laughed along with everyone else at the absurdity of it all.
While the interesting, albeit blasé, questioning went on, it was an audience member in the front row that changed the tone for a bit when she brought up the number of straight to DVD sequels that have come in the wake of the original film. While the topic seemed to catch the group off guard, Jessica stated simply that none of them saw any money from those films, showing that they had zero collaboration on the sequels to the film that brought them into the limelight. The discussion ended with a reading of a letter written by the movie’s director Peyton Reed, who was unable to attend due to a family wedding on the east coast. The letter was overall lighthearted, even poking fun at the many straight to DVD sequels, and in the end, had us all send our good vibes in the form of spirit fingers, to which the audience gleefully agreed.
As the film began to roll, most, like myself, were taken back ten years to when we first saw the film in theaters, and a few, like my friend Will, were seeing the film for the first time. Either way, it was enjoyed by all in attendance, who clapped as though they were in the stands with everyone else watching the cheer take place on a field in front of them. When the credits finally rolled around 2am, the audience stood and cheered once more for Bring It On.
Much thanks to Grant for writing about this experience and sharing it with us!
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[...] night Ain’t It Cool News programmed a special 10th Anniversary screening of one of my films at The New Beverly Cinema, which was super fun and super [...]