Hollywood evolves during pandemic with drive-in premiere

Dave Franco says drive-in premiere for his directorial debut was “perfect” but mittedly “a little weird.”

35-year-old actor found himself at center of Hollywood’s evolving response to coronavirus pandemic Thursday as he premiered his directorial debut “ Rental” to more than 1,300 people at Vineland drive-in atre in Sourn California.

Joined by stars including wife Alison Brie, Dan Stevens and Sheila Vand, he took off his mask to pose for photographers in center of a massive parking lot, n answered questions via Zoom from his car after film ended.

It beat a tritional, more buttoned-up red carpet event, Franco said.

“It didn’t feel like re was a spotlight on me or cast. It felt more like this communal experience where everyone was just excited to get out of ir homes and, you kw, let loose with a group of fellow movie lovers. It was perfect,” he said in an interview Friday.

Franco says Brie calmed him down about shortcomings of an outdoor screening: patchy audio over FM rio and ambient light drowning out darker sections of his horror thriller “ Rental.”

“Trust me, it is t what I do. I am a crazy perfectionist. I any everyone around me because I won’t stop until it’s perfect. And so it was hard for me to let go, but it was nice having Alison next to me — she forced me to let go,” he said.

His movie is set to be released via video-on-demand and at drive-ins and tritional aters on July 24. But nation's largest ater chains have been justing ir reopening plans regularly in response to health officials. Franco says that like many in Hollywood, he's tracking Christopher lan’s “Tenet,” scheduled for release July 31.

“Obviously that’s giant movie that everyone’s focused on and that all aters are really trying to open in time for that film. So we’ve just been kind of stepping back and monitoring ... If y’re t opening for ‘Tenet,’ y ain’t opening for us. ... I’m happy to creep behind Christopher lan all day.”

Franco is hoping to hold ar premiere event closer to film’s release — maybe even in a tritional ater. re’s something about big screen.

“Just seeing how many people are flocking to drive-ins around country, it just proves that movie-going experience is so special," Franco said. "re’s a lot of talk about future of film being mainly digital. But I think right w we’re really seeing how much people love going to movies.”