To close out his popular live-reading program at LACMA Thursday night Jason Reitman selected a film that seemed to tie the series and the room together: The Coen brothers? 1998 noir-comedy opus The Big Lebowski. In the hot seat filling Jeff Bridges? slippers as The Dude sat Seth Rogen, whose own slacker charm proved oddly suitable, with folks like Hank Azaria (as Donny), Rainn Wilson (as Walter) and Christina Hendricks (as Maude) alongside him re-enacting one of the most quotable films of the past two decades. The cherry on top? Playing the role of The Stranger originated by Sam Elliott and written explicitly for an actor like Sam Elliott, perhaps? was none other than Sam Elliott.
Also onboard for the final night of the series?s first run? (According to Reitman, the live-reads will resume again in October ? blame the gap on his ?day job.?) Jason Alexander as Jeffrey Lebowski; Fred Savage replacing Patton Oswalt at the last minute as the Big Lebowski?s assistant, Brandt; Nick Kroll as Jesus; and Reitman?s sister, actress Catherine, as Bunny. And of course all the while there was Reitman himself, reading along all the stage directions and fantastically detailed scene descriptions, including both of the film?s trippy dream sequences. (But, strangely enough, not Jackie Treehorn?s mysterious moment of artistic inspiration, scribbled on a notepad, which was conspicuously skipped over.)
Elliott?s surprise appearance was the special casting move of the night, a fitting gesture following Reitman?s previous strokes of genius which included tapping original director Rob Reiner to narrate the excellent Princess Bride live-read and re-envisioning Quentin Tarantino?s Reservoir Dogs with an all-black cast. With his first line Elliott drew applause (and subsequently flubbed a few words, saying…
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