| How to Eat Fried Worms | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Bob Dolman |
| Produced by | Mark Johnson Philip Steuer |
| Screenplay by | Bob Dolman |
| Story by | Thomas Rockwell (book) |
| Starring | Luke Benward Hallie Kate Eisenberg Adam Hicks Austin Rogers Alexander Gould Andrew Gillingham Blake Garrett Philip Daniel Bolden Ty Panitz Tom Cavanagh Kimberly Williams-Paisley |
| Music by | Mark Mothersbaugh Robert Mothersbaugh |
| Cinematography | Richard Rutkowski |
| Editing by | Janice Hampton Frederick Wardell |
| Studio | Walden Media |
| Distributed by | New Line Cinema |
| Release date(s) | August 25, 2006 |
| Running time | 84 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
How to Eat Fried Worms is a 2006 American film based on the 1973 children's book of the same name by Thomas Rockwell. It was produced by New Line Cinema with Walden Media. Development began in 1998 and theatrical release for the U.S. and Canada was August 25, 2006. The DVD for the film was released on December 5, 2006. The film stars Luke Benward, Adam Hicks, Hallie Kate Eisenberg, Austin Rogers, Andrew Gillingham, Alexander Gould, Blake Garrett and Philip Daniel Bolden.
Contents |
A young, naive boy named Billy Forrester (Luke Benward) has a weak stomach and vomits easily. He and his parents, Mitch (Tom Cavanagh) and Helen (Kimberly Williams-Paisley), and his little brother, Woody (Ty Panitz), have just moved to a new town. After they settle into their new house, Billy tells his mother that he doesn't want to go to school, because he will be "the new kid". She assures him that he will make new friends and that everything will be okay. At school, however, he becomes the target of the school bully, Joe Guire (Adam Hicks), his two "toaders" named Plug (Blake Garrett) and Bradley (Philip Daniel Bolden), and the rest of his gang, Benjy (Ryan Malgarini), Techno-Mouth (Andrew Gillingham), Twitch (Alexander Gould), and Donny (Alexander Agate). They rudely stare at him and call him "Billy F." (which is how his name is written on his lunch box). Plug and Bradley eventually steal his lunch box. He sits behind Erika Tansy (Hallie Kate Eisenberg), an unusually tall girl whom people make fun of (calling her "Erk").
At lunch, Billy opens his thermos and pours out a pile of live earthworms. Sickened, he almost vomits before regaining strength. Then, confident, he throws one on Joe's face. The class starts laughing. Joe tells someone to get it off of him, and Bradley does so. A nerd named Adam Simms (Austin Rogers) was sure that Joe was going to smash Billy with his ring ("The Death Ring").
The next day, after school, Joe, Plug, and Benjy catch up with Billy on their bicycles, as he rides home on his. Infuriated, he gets angry at Joe. Joe shoots back, and they make a bet: he must eat all 10 worms in one day (this Saturday) without throwing up, and the loser has to come to school with some in his pants, and he has to walk down the hall past everybody. He, outraged, knows that he cannot squeeze out of the bet, so he accepts with a confident tone.
The next day, Billy is teamed up with Adam Simms. After eating the first worm, he slowly becomes more confident with each one that he swallows. After he eats the fourth one ("The Burning Fireball"), Twitch and Techno-Mouth quit Joe's team and become his new best friends.
The boys go to a bait shop to steal their next worm ("The Green Slusher"). But they have to avoid the owner (Jo Ann Farabee), who is trying to catch them for stealing. After Joe cheats in an attempt to keep Billy from eating the last worm in time, all of his gang, even Plug and Bradley, joins Billy's team. After eating it (two seconds before the deadline), he and his team shout in victory. Nigel Guire (Nick Krause), Joe's brother, Nigel, who has been watching, tries to bully and humiliate him for losing. Billy and the rest of the gang stand up for him, tell Nigel to leave him alone, and he leaves.
After thinking it over that night, Billy returns to school. He explains to Joe that the second worm was eaten by Burdock after it was accidentally put in his omelet at the Brown Toad. Since they both lost the bet, they both put worms in their pants. The film ends with (as shown in order in the film) Benjy, Techno-Mouth (named "Techno," instead), Bradley, Plug, Donny, Twitch, Adam, Erika, Joe, Woody, and Billy (named "Wormboy," instead) are shown in the outtakes, scenes from the film, and in colored pictures of them dancing and everyone in Billy's school start cheering and jumping with happiness.
How to Eat Fried Worms had a long filmmaking history,[1] from before 1998 through 2006. Initially, Universal Pictures selected Thomas Schlamme to direct the film based on a screenplay by John August.[1] The rights to the film were sold in exchange for the cost of development and the rights ended up at Nickelodeon Films in 1998.[1] In November 1998, the film was in development.[2] Three months later, in February 1999, Schlamme indicated that a film version of the children's story How to Eat Fried Worms still was in development.[3] In April 1999, August indicated that he still was working on adapting the books How to Eat Fried Worms for Nickelodeon.[4] By June 2000, Nickelodeon had selected Joe Nussbaum to direct How to Eat Fried Worms, which would have made Worms Nussbaum's feature directorial debut.[1] At this same time in 2000, Bob Dolman had taken over rewriting the screenplay.[1] Five years later, in May 2005, casting began for the film and Dolman was noted as being the writer and director of How to Eat Fried Worms.[5] Dolman officially was announced as the director on June 1, 2005.[6]
Shooting for the film started late July 2005 in Texas.[6][7] In August 2005, the offices of Eat a Worm Prods., the producers of How to Eat Fried Worms, were located at 400 Nueces St. in Austin, Texas.[8]
The film was shot in a variety of locations in and around Austin: Zilker Elementary School, the Travis Heights neighborhood and Stacy Park, the Northwest Hills neighborhood, Austin Studios, Blue Hole swimming hole in Wimberley and the Austin Diner. The 1st Unitarian Church, which played Woody's pre-school; the Onion Creek Country Club, where the parents played tennis; and Highway 21 in Bastrop County (Billy's queasy stomach).
A recurring question regarding the production of the film is whether any of the actors in fact ate real worms. Kimberly Williams-Paisley (Mrs. Forrester) indicates that the worms eaten in the film were not in fact real worms: "I had a great time making 'How to Eat Fried Worms.'... The movie's got a lot of messiness in it. One of the kids had to put a real worm in his mouth. And one of the other kids actually threw up from all of it."[9] Luke Benward (Billy "Wormboy" Forrester) later indicated that he put a live worm in his mouth for about 10 seconds for one scene.[10] A press release subsequently was issued to indicate that no worms were harmed in the filming.[10] The film did use real worms that were kept in temperature-controlled containers, but used gummy worms and other gelatin forms as fake edible worms.[10] The real worms were considered stunt worms who had rubber worms as stand-ins in those situations where it was important to "keep the (worm) stars out of the heat for as long as possible to preserve the energy of their performances."[10]
The film opened in the U.S. and Canada to 1,870 screens on August 25, 2006.[11] The DVD was released four months later, on December 5, 2006.[12]
The film debuted at number 11 with $4 million in U.S and Canada. It closed seven weeks later with a total of $13 million in U.S. and Canada. The film was banned in Malaysia for unknown reasons.[13]
The film mostly received mixed reviews.
ReelViews' James Berardinelli gave a mildly positive review (2½ stars out of 4) but thought the potential audience too narrow: "It's aimed at pre-teen males and doesn't make many concessions to members of other demographics." and went on to say:
How to Eat Fried Worms belongs to a vanishing breed – live action family films. Even the best of the genre (like Holes and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants) don't draw large audiences, so mediocre productions like this one face an uphill struggle.[14]
The Boston Globe's reviewer – Ty Burr – gave it a 2 stars out of 4 and said when comparing the book to the film:
There's a kid named Billy, and he eats worms on a dare, and that's about all the movie has in common with its source. Truth to tell, that's all the movie needs to have in common with its source. "This is really disgusting," my 9-year-old's friend whispered to her during the screening. Then he added , "But I like it."
From a parent's viewpoint, two feet higher off the ground, How to Eat Fried Worms is lackadaisical stuff, easily the least of the unpretentious children's book adaptations produced by family-oriented Walden Media (Because of Winn-Dixie, Hoot, Holes).[15]
Though the film and the book share the conceit about a bet between boys to eat earthworms, the nature of the situation differs significantly. In the book, the characters consist of four boys who are friends hanging around during the summertime. Billy has to eat fifteen worms in fifteen days, and the terms of the bet are fifty dollars, which he intends to use to buy a dirt bike. Many of the film's subplots, that he is new in school, that Joe is a bully, that Billy has a weak stomach, and that Joe threatens him with a Death Ring, do not appear in the book. Unlike in the film, his parents eventually find out about the bet, which he ultimately wins instead of tying. All the worms he eats in the book are Nightcrawlers, and Erika, the girl who helps him in the film, is not introduced until the book's sequel, How to Fight a Girl.