5 Things We Just Learned About the Upcoming 'Entourage' Movie

Adrian Grenier, Kevin Connolly, Kevin Dillon and Jerry Ferrara (Photo: Variety)

Entourage, the big-screen spinoff of HBO’s long-running hit series, didn’t screen at last month’s SXSW Film Festival, but its cast and creator swung through Austin to host a party and set the film’s hype machine in motion. We grabbed coffee with writer-director Doug Ellin and stars Adrian Grenier, Kevin Connolly, Jerry Ferrara, and Jeremy Piven (Kevin Dillon was in town but fell sick) to talk about getting the gang back together and what we can expect from movie star Vincent Chase (Grenier) and company’s feature-length rendezvous. Here are five tidbits that emerged:

1. They’ll be happy to duplicate the success of the Sex and the City movies. Asked if they looked at what HBO’s first original series-turned-movie franchise might have done right or wrong, the guys see a perfect blueprint: “Not sure they did much wrong,” Connolly answered, to which Piven added, “$800 million at the box office.” Connolly continued: “When Sex and the City came out, and they were so successful, particularly in that opening weekend, I think the next tier of people that were happy was us. Because we thought, ‘Wow OK, maybe there is a market for a movie.” Ellin cautions, though, tongue likely in cheek: “Our expectations are closer to the Veronica Mars movie.” (The Kickstarter-funded Mars grossed a shade over $3 million at the box office.)

2. The movie was originally rated NC-17. Like the series, which ran eight seasons from 2004 to 2011, the movie will be rife with the type of debauchery that surrounds the exploits of four bachelors living out the Hollywood fantasy. While the TV show was always a solid R, Ellin said the movie is “racier”; in fact, he revealed that he had to tone down initial cuts after the MPAA slapped the film with an NC-17, a typically unacceptable rating for a major studio release. After joking it was matter of slashing “Kevin Connolly’s six or seven nude scenes,” Ellin spoke in broad strokes of what they edited out: “We fixed it quickly fortunately,” he said. “They [the MPAA] were great. They gave us a couple comments, we shortened a couple things, and got it down to an R.”

3. Doug Ellin was not happy about Jerry Ferrara’s weight loss. As the show was coming to a close in 2011, Ferrara, who played Vince’s hefty buddy-turned-driver Turtle, began to drop serious weight, shedding at least 55 pounds in all (clearly he must not indulging in too many plates of Buffalo chicken cheese fries at his L.A. restaurant chain, Fat Sal’s Deli). The shape-shift did not please Ellin. “Jerry and I butted heads for a minute,” he said. “Jerry’s one of my closest friends, but I was pissed. I was like, ‘You gotta put 100 pounds for the movie. Turtle’s a fat guy.’” The weight change is addressed in the movie, which you can see in the trailer (below). “When I think about it now, that was kind of messed up on my part,” Ferrara told Ellin laughing. “I forced your hand in a way.”

Watch the latest trailer for ‘Entourage’:

4. Kevin Connolly broke his leg filming a football scene with NFL stars (and Gronk was very concerned about him). In March, 2014 it was reported that Connolly, who plays Vince’s manager Eric (aka “E”) broke his leg while filming a scene in which the guys play football. “I thought they were pranking me,” Ellin admitted. “He did basically a nothing football play, came down, got up, said, ‘Oooh that felt weird,’ hobbled a little bit, but he walked off. And then everyone calls me.” The set was full of NFL stars that day, including Russell Wilson (who Connolly snapped a pic with from his injury bed), Clay Matthews, Julian Edelman, and Rob Gronkowski. And no one was as concerned as the Patriots start tight end known as Gronk: “These guys all went out of their way to come check on me,” Connolly said. “I was like the cousin nobody wanted you to know existed, they kept sending me further and further away. By the end of the day I was literally in the attic. And before he left, Rob Gronkowski came up to check on me. He didn’t have to do that.”

5. You might see a movie trilogy. “It’s up to these guys, but I’d like to do at least two more,” Ellin said when asked if the plan is to make multiple Entourage movies, before joking, “and maybe an opera.” (“Turn it into a musical!” proclaims Connolly.) Piven, though, who plays sharp-tongued mogul Ari Gold, isn’t putting the cart before the horse. “One of the things that I’ve learned is that you can’t get ahead of yourself,” he said. “You’ve gotta manage your expectations, as Doug wrote for Ari to say to E once. ‘Manage your client’s expectations.’ We would all love to take a ride for as long as people are curious about it. But we can’t get ahead of ourselves.”

You can read our full Q&A with the Entourage crew closer to the film’s release on June 5.