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Accepted
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 Accepted Production NotesTagline: Reject rejection.
The comedy centers on a teenager who finds a unique way to outsmart his parents.
High school senior Bartleby "B" Gaines (Justin Long) is on his way to scoring eight out of eight rejection letters from colleges-which isn't going to go over big with Mom and Dad. At least he's not alone in the exclusion. Several of his crew of outcast friends are in the same, college-less boat. So…how does a guy facing a bleak career please his parents and get noticed by dream girl Monica (Blake Lively)?
Simple. Open his own university.
B and his band of misfit freshmen take "liberal" arts literally when they fool their parents and peers and create the esteemed South Harmon Institute of Technology. They clean up an abandoned psychiatric facility, employ a buddy's brilliant-but subversive-uncle (Lewis Black) as the dean and create a fake web site as their campus calling card. Bam! South Harmon, the alternative school of higher learning, is born.
Just as they are settling in, B and company realize they've done their jobs too well. Dozens of other college rejects show up for classes at this less-than-lofty institute. Under the scornful eyes of the privileged students from the neighboring college, B and his friends forge ahead with maintaining a fake, functioning university. Their efforts to explore alternative education result in a battle between the South Harmon co-eds and the "sister" school snobs.
With his future in the balance, it's going to take more than just sleight of hand to keep B out of jail as he strives to get the girl, impress his parents and just become… Accepted.
Production Information
Over the past 25 years, there have been many cinematic heroes who have bucked the system…refusing to play by anyone else's rules. Our favorites just happened to be the ones who were graduating high school. Sean Penn started off the pack as the philosophical king of “tasty waves” and “a cool buzz,” Jeff Spicoli of Fast Times at Ridgemont High; Tom Cruise introduced us to the hormonal entrepreneur Joel Goodsen of Risky Business; Alex Winter as Bill S. Preston and Keanu Reeves as Ted “Theodore” Logan rewrote history in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.
And, perhaps the master of all cons, Matthew Broderick will forever be synonymous with his title role in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Though from different backgrounds (and IQ scores), these brave young men had one thing in common-they took society's standards and expectations of how they were supposed to act and fit in and resoundingly chucked them out the window.
In 2006, we proudly introduce the most ingenious slacker-turned-entrepreneur to date, Bartleby “B” Gaines (Justin Long, Dodgeball, The Break-Up), in a socially subversive comedy for anyone who has ever felt the sting of rejection-Accepted. Blockbuster producers Tom Shadyac (Bruce Almighty, The Nutty Professor) and Michael Bostick (Bruce Almighty, Liar Liar) join first-time director Steve Pink (writer of Grosse Pointe Blank, High Fidelity) in a comedy that discards norms, dismisses the status quo and challenges us to take the road less traveled…even if we have to make it up as we go along.
The filmmakers have culled a talented young cast in Accepted to give a wake-up call to a generation trapped within America's stagnant school system, those Gen Y-ers deeply entrenched in unquestioning social standards of excellence. Speaking to the human need to fit in and find our niche, the film begs we ask ourselves one simple question: “What does it mean to become Accepted?”
After a lifetime of smooth-talking his way through the system and questioning societal restrictions, one graduating high school senior has found a quandary he can't charm his way out of: college admission. All eight universities to which B applied have rejected him, and dire consequences unfold for an 18-year-old with no foreseeable future. So what can a matriculating hopeful do when the admissions gods just don't have faith in him? Simple. Open his own university.
B decides the best way into college is to create his own, or at least produce enough of a façade to fool his parents. With the help of his nerve-wracked best pal Schrader (Jonah Hill, The 40-Year-Old Virgin) and a collection of his college-exempt friends-including bookworm Rory (Maria Thayer, Strangers With Candy), spaced-out foodie Glen (newcomer Adam Herschman) and jock Hands (Columbus Short, Save the Last Dance 2)-B and his pals found the “illustrious” South Harmon Institute of Technology out of an abandoned psychiatric facility.
Under their care, S.H.I.T. becomes a place where they can make their own rules, design curriculum and maintain complete control over their education. And they are not the only new students. The off-the-grid school appeals to scores of college cast-offs who gratefully (and unexpectedly) show up once they learn of the “we accept anyone” mentality of this new university.
To help manage the responsibilities of both running a university and keeping his parents in the dark, B hires Schrader's outspoken and politically disenchanted Uncle Ben (Lewis Black) to pose as the dean. To add to his stress, however, B must balance academia while trying to woo the girl next door, Monica (Blake Lively, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants), who barely knows he's alive.
Slowly, incredibly, the experiment begins to work. Kids freed from the shackles of locked curriculum blossom under S.H.I.T's “design your destiny” tutelage. Unfortunately, they are quickly gaining unwanted attention and threats from “sister school” Harmon University, led by Dean Van Horne (Anthony Heald, The Silence of the Lambs) and the state school board. Now, B and his fellow freshmen must overturn the classical notion of what a college experience consists of and reassert that it is their right to pursue their own dreams…all while trying to stay out of jail.
The Pursuit of Acceptance: Getting Into a Fake School
“Let's start this fake college. Then, we'll go start a meth lab somewhere. It's a gateway crime. That's how these things start.” - Schrader
Accepted's life began at Shady Acres, the Universal Pictures-based production company formed by producer Tom Shadyac and home to producer Michael Bostick. The partners-who have collaborated on such films as Liar Liar, Bruce Almighty and the upcoming Evan Almighty-were given the script by their representatives at United Talent Agency, who also introduced them to the spec screenwriter, Mark Perez. Shadyac and Bostick loved that Accepted was a comedy that has so much heart.
Shadyac relates that what spoke to him about the concept was that “the story is all about the flaws in the educational system and how they stifle creativity and, ultimately, learning.”
“I think what Tom and I do best is concept comedy, specifically concept comedy that can speak to the human condition. We responded immediately to the script,” notes Bostick. “We thought it was a great premise. Accepted has this sense of optimism, and it's a comedy with a heart.”
Several well-known filmmakers familiar with the script sought out Team Shady Acres for the chance to direct Accepted. The producers interviewed over 30 directors who had expressed interest in the material, but it soon became clear that well-regarded writer/producer Steve Pink was the ideal choice. Pink had served as the screenwriter on two successful John Cusack comedies, 1997's Grosse Pointe Blank and 2000's High Fidelity.
For Shadyac, Pink's grasp of the story's underlying message about questioning the status quo and carving your own path assured him he had found the right director for the job. “Steve took us to the roots of why he wanted to do this, believing that you are your best teacher,” the producer commends.
Though this would be Pink's first time in the director's chair, the filmmaker had proved his comedic sensibilities as both a writer and producer. “We uniformly felt-the studio and the producers-that Steve was the right guy,” continues Shadyac. “We were huge fans of his writing. Both Grosse Point Blank and High Fidelity are two of our favorites, and we knew he would bring an intelligence and an integrity to it…as well as thematic resonance.”
“Although Pink had not directed a movie, he had previously acted and directed theater,” Shadyac adds. “We knew he could speak the actors' language and would have confidence directing them, which was key since the cast is largely composed of newcomers.” He laughs, “All those aspects were more important than someone sitting on my couch telling me how they were going to shoot a scene.”
Pink recalls that in his initial meetings with Shadyac and Bostick, he passionately connected to the script's themes and the characters' various struggles to deal with acceptance and rejection…and the comedy that arose from that, rather than just blatant puerile humor.
The director shares the producers' “questioning a system that wrongly insists that the surest way to guarantee success as an individual in society is to adhere to an obligatory college experience-a college experience that, in many ways, has itself become more of an industry than a value, churning out college graduates rather than inspired and imaginative people.” He chose the project because he feels “there's always a great deal of comedy to mine in an idea that champions outcasts and misfits-and anyone trying to do something different-while having a bit more fun doing it.”
Pink loved that the script told a story of “students who determine their path, their major and their goals. There's no required reading or classes. It's all self-motivating and self-generating.”
Already familiar with writing to capture edgy and generation-defining themes in films, Pink comfortably slid into the director's role. With the help of an experienced crew, he looked to resources around him as he transitioned into the role of film director.
His humility was very welcome on set. “Even though he wasn't an experienced director, he had the respect of all the crew immediately,” Bostick shares. “The crew was quick to recognize that Steve wasn't afraid to ask for help.”
“I'm a first-time director, and I had a very particular vision about how I wanted to do certain things,” Pink relates. “Sometimes I was wrong, and the crew would help me out. And sometimes I was right, and they would still help me.”
Specifically, he found a welcome tutor in producer Shadyac, noting, “Tom's patience, wisdom and advice were key to my success as a director, on virtually every level. He's a brilliant director, and I'm incredibly lucky that he had my back for my first directing gig. Whenever I got knocked off the proverbial bow, Tom-along with Michael Bostick and Amanda Palmer-were always there to haul me back into the boat.”
Producers, director and working script at the ready, it was time to enroll a number of freshmen into their first year of a fake college.
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Justin Long as Bartleby and Blake Lively as Monica in Accepted.
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