‘Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain’ Director Paul Briganti on Directing Conan, That Soulja Boy Dance and Why Comedies Have Struggled in Theaters
variety.comEthan Shanfeld Paul Briganti describes the first week of filming “Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain” as “a miserable nightmare.” The movie, which follows the “Saturday Night Live” comedy trio John Higgins, Ben Marshall and Martin Herlihy as they hunt for hidden treasure, was shot primarily in North Carolina state parks — in the sweltering summer. “There were ticks and snakes, and it was over 100 degrees and very humid.
It thunderstormed a lot,” Briganti, who joined “SNL” as a director in 2016, tells Variety. In one scene, the Please Don’t Destroy boys are chased by a hawk while traversing rocks.
But there was a more pressing danger on set: “No one realized the entire ground was filled with underground hornet nests.” Still, Briganti wouldn’t have made the buddy comedy, produced by Judd Apatow and now streaming on Peacock, any other way. “There is something to shooting in the elements that gets you into the mindset and pushes you,” he says. “Especially now, it feels like people are turning on things that are clearly shot on a soundstage because it feels a little dead.” Briganti called up Variety to discuss the film’s most absurd moments, directing Conan O’Brien and why theatrical comedy movies might soon experience a “new boom.” The film was written by the Please Don’t Destroy guys, who also obviously star in it.
How much room did they leave themselves to improvise? There was a lot of that, especially if you ask the handheld camera operators.
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