Many people were surprised back in 2005 when Zach Braff, star of the medical comedy “Scrubs,” showed up at the Sundance Film Festival with a movie he both wrote and directed, co-starring Natalie Portman. Garden State was an instant hit at the festival and was quite successful when released theatrically, and it has become quite a well-loved film since then.
With “Scrubs” having ended over a year ago, many have wondered what Braff has been up to since then.
Next month, he can be seen starring opposite French-Canadian actress Isabelle Blais in Deborah Chow’s debut drama The High Cost of Living, and when ComingSoon.net talked to him about the movie earlier today, we posed the question he probably still gets asked more than any, which is “When are you going to direct a follow-up to ‘Garden State'”?
“There’s two parts to it,” he answered us. “One I was able to make ‘Garden State’ miraculously with tremendous support while doing ‘Scrubs’ so then when I continued to do ‘Scrubs’… In hindsight, it was amazing how much lined up perfectly so I could squeeze that in while doing a TV show and then for the rest of the run of ‘Scrubs,’ I wasn’t able to get those wonderful things to line up again because it just didn’t work out. Now I’ve had two movies almost come together, both of which fell apart. I could have made a crap movie ten times over but I’m trying to make a really good movie that I stand by and that I believe in, so tell all of those people who are waiting, ‘I thank you so much and it’s coming.’ I’ve been trying to navigate the Hollywood system and make something really good that you’ll all like again and not make something that I don’t believe in.”
He told ComingSoon.net he’s still waiting to see if his previously-announced comedy Swingles (which was going to co-star Cameron Diaz) might come together to start shooting this summer, but in the meantime, Braff has been rediscovering his love for theater working with the Off-Broadway Second Stage Theatre who are putting on the play Braff wrote, “All New People,” starting June 28. He also told us he’s thinking about possibly making a small low-budget movie based on that play down the road or adapting another play into a movie.
As our interview wrapped, Zach handed us the scoop that Garden State is one of the first films selected to play at this year’s four-day Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival taking place in Tennessee from June 9 to 12, something new for the mostly music festival, and Braff will be on hand to answer questions after the movie.
Look for the rest of our interview with Zach Braff sometime before The High Cost of Living‘s theatrical release on May 13, but it will start on VOD tomorrow.
