RSVIP: Brad Pitt and Tina Fey At "Megamind 3-D" Premiere

by Jeffrey Slonim (RSS feed)
Nov 4th 2010 at 7:01PM

For children who have everything, presumably not unlike the Brangelina progeny, Maddox and Pax Pitt, and Tina Fey's daughter, Alice, all of whom attended the New York premiere, may we recommend "Megamind 3-D"?

The pitch: It's a spin on the old Superman story, executive-produced by Ben Stiller, far right, who also turned up at the three-story AMC IMAX 13 Lincoln Square Theater on Wednesday. But what if not one, but two superheroes arrive on Earth from faraway worlds? One, Metro Man (Brad Pitt), is taken in by a well-heeled family and ends up working for good. The other, Megamind (Will Ferrell), lands in a maximum-security penitentiary, where his brilliant mind and powers are focused on evil. When Megamind, in blue, an inept villain, wipes out his nemesis, he ends the comfortable historic standoff.

Boredom sets in for Megamind. While attempting to create yet another superhero to fight, Megamind accidentally creates an evil superjerk known as Titan (Jonah Hill).

Tina Fey, above, meanwhile, plays a kind of Lois Lane figure, Roxanne Richi, a possible love interest of all three main characters.

According to DreamWorks head Jeffrey Katzenberg, also at the theater, the "Megamind" script arrived at his office before they decided to transform it into an animated 3-D project peopled with megastars. "It was a really great screenplay," he mentioned before the film rolled. And Katzenberg said he believed that it "might make a really great animated movie." Terrific call.

Four employees from Tina Fey's hit TV series, "30 Rock," also attended the screening, including Jack McBrayer and Rachel Dratch. "There is a beautiful lady in this film named Tina Fey," said Keith Powell, Toofer on "30 Rock," when asked what brought him to the theater. "She happens to be my boss. So I wanted to come and see what she's been talking about all season. I wonder if her daughter will recognize her mother's voice yet or not. But I also think the character does looks a bit like Tina."

"I love 3-D movies," claimed Katrina Bowden, also on "30 Rock." "The lineup of the stars in the movie is great--Tina, Will Ferrell, Brad Pitt." Referring to Tina's daughter seeing the film for the first time, Bowden added, "It's really exciting. She's here with her little [Megamind] mask on."

"Yeah. I think she'll like it," Tina Fey, above, told RSVIP on the red carpet. "She loves movies. . . . all of a sudden I'll be a big deal at home."

And is Alice into Brad Pitt? "She doesn't know who Brad is," said Fey. "She's the last remaining human who doesn't know who Brad Pitt is. I mean, what am I going to do, show her 'Benjamin Button' . . . 'Thelma and Louise'?" [laughs].

That said, an excited Fey, who ended up standing beside Pitt on the red carpet, pointed an index finger at her co-star through the palm of her other hand and gritted her teeth.

Fey's favorite aspects of an animated project? "I don't have to get into makeup," she said, and worry about "how the lighting is."

With a patch of gray fuzz on his chin and some lines showing on his face, Brad Pitt, far left, looks as if he might have aged a bit from all the travel involved with a robust film career and being the father of, count 'em, six kids. He had on a dark cap, a scarf around his neck, and a woolly coat. After playing Benjamin Button, he said that "No makeup, no wardrobe" also ranks high on his list of what made the project fun.

"Brad is a great physical comedian, too," mentioned director Tom McGrath. See 'Burn After Reading.' "Nearly every scene is touched by actor improvisation," McGrath continued. "You could give Jonah Hill a line, and he would run with it for ten minutes. He could order a pizza, and it's hilarious."

Pitt, far left, also mentioned that he had a built-in audience. "The boys are going to see it tonight [Maddox and Pax]," he told Luxist. "We'll see what they think."

And while McGrath noted that the actors were videotaped when they recorded the voices to borrow their facial expressions for their characters, Pitt, told RSVIP, "I've seen chunks [of the film]. But I don't know. [Metro Man, above right] looks strangely like George Clooney, if you ask me." With Jay Leno's chin?

"It's such a fantastic, talented group," insisted Katzenberg, who claimed that it takes an army of 500 to create an animated project on this scale. Before the film started, he thanked Tina Fey and, in particular, Brad Pitt, "who flew all the way from Europe to be here tonight," he said.

Adults, including director Sam Mendes, who attended the screening received popcorn and bottled soft drinks, while the Mendes kids were offered cotton candy and artificial tattoos.

After the show, a black SUV waited out in front for supermodel Helena Christensen, while she snapped pictures of her son Mingus Reedus and his young friends in front of a film poster in the theater lobby.

Note to Reedus: No need to brag, but sight unseen, your mom's definitely sexier than their moms.

Tags: brad pitt, Megamind, rsvip, tina fey