Marc Webb, ‘The Only Living Boy In New York’ Director, On Callum Turner, Jeff Bridges & Pierce Brosnan

The Only Living Boy in New York, the newest film from director Marc Webb (500 Days of Summer, The Amazing Spider-Man) is a wild coming-of-age story about a recent college grad who pursues a relationship with his father’s mistress.

Packed with established stars – the film features Jeff Bridges, Pierce Brosnan, Kate Beckinsale, and Cynthia Nixon – it also features a pair of relative newcomers, Callum Turner and Kiersey Clemons.

Webb recently sat down with uInterview to discuss makingThe Only LIving Boy in New York and its stars.

While The Only Living Boy in New York isn’t necessarily as romantic of a film as the wildly successful 500 Days of Summer was, Webb couldn’t help but acknowledge the two have something in common.

Despite having first read the script nearly 10 years ago, Webb told uInterview exclusively, “I think this movie really came together recently but is a vestige of a pervious phase in my life.” The script had been on the Black List of the best un-produced scripts in Hollywood for years.

“I don’t know how to explain that really, but it is something that is kind of interesting… It’s a phase of life that always peaks my curiosity.”

The Only Living Boy in New York was a long-time project of Webb’s which took a backseat at times to some of his other films, including those in The Amazing Spider-Man series. But after revisiting the script some time later, things began to come together.

“I was doing Spider-Man and looking through some old emails and I came across the script again,” Webb recalled. “It was no longer called The Only Living Boy in New York, it was called The Only Living Boy and it was set in Chicago, and it had been kind of developed to death.”

After reverting the script to its original draft and working from the beginning, one of the film’s stars came on board and expedited the whole process.

“Eventually Jeff [Bridges] came on board. And when Jeff comes on board, you’re very close to having a movie.”

But Bridges wasn’t the only big-time actor to come on board. Eventually, Webb was faced with a large cast of well respected actors. But working with them, Webb says, didn’t turn out to be the ego-fueled chaos one might expect.

“It was great group of people,” Webb said. “I mean, for that level of talent and the caliber of talent, people were incredibly friendly, incredibly warm – we had lots of dinners together.”

Webb added, “Everybody came to the table because they loved the project. It wasn’t about making money. It was a script that everybody loved and roles that people could really chew on and I thought that made it really fun. We were lucky to have old pros like Pierce, and Cynthia, and Jeff, and Callum and Kiersey as well. It was a great intersection of talents.”

The Only Living Boy in New York hits theaters Friday, August 11. Watch the trailer below.