Bottle Shock Too? Sequel to Controversial Movie in the Works; Screenwriter Breaks Out the Whoop-Ass!

Wed April 1 2009 2:44:00 ET

The success of the 2008 indie film Bottle Shock laid bare an apparent divide between the sensibilities of filmmakers and the (over)sensitivity of winemakers.

Rex Reed gave Bottle Shock four stars. Hollywood.com compared it to Sideways and Little Miss Sunshine. Rolling Stone called it “hugely entertaining.” Didn’t matter much to those staunchly territorial Napans. The film, based on the famous 1976 blind tasting in which Napa Valley’s Chateau Montelena and Stag’s Leap Winery bested French competitors in Paris—met with dismissive criticism from Napa’s old guard, who failed to “get” the simple fact that adjusting history for pure entertainment is a classic means toward the end of cinematic entertainment.

Napa denizens—most of whom never actually watched Bottle Shock—pooh-poohed the film’s massaging of factual details, the surprising (even sexual) plot twists, the overt if charming buffonery of Alan Rickman’s Steven Spurrier, the virtual disappearance of Montelena winemaker Mike Grgich, and just about everything else from the opening montage through the final credits.

Alas, the holier-than-Hollywood critics in Napa Valley may someday think of the original Bottle Shock as a veritable Bambi compared to the sequel screenwriter Ross Schwartz is reportedly penning. Dregs Report caught up with Ross on the other side of the Mayacamas mountains, in the town of Sonoma, where he had just come from meeting with producers of the original film. It didn’t take much to get him talking; all we did was comment aloud about his crossed fingers….

“Oh, the fingers? That’s just for hoping that Danny DeVito accepts the lead role in Bottle Shock Too: Magnum Vice. See, the plot centers on the big brouhaha a few years back when the Napa Valley Vintners took Fred Franzia to court over him using the Napa Ridge label to bottle California-sourced wine. It’s a ‘Two-Buck Chuck takes on the $200 Cabernet’ kind of thing. We think Danny would be perfect to play Fred Franzia.

“We are committed to keeping this film as close to reality as possible,” he continued. “It’s a relief for me as a screenwriter, actually, as I don’t have to come up with dramatic devices…like Bo and Jim Barrett slugging each other silly in a makeshift boxing ring, for example. No, we are playing this one by the book. You might even say it will be so realistic that it’s a documentary.

“Of course, unfortunately Fred Franzia lost the court battle. And a film based on lawyers and courtrooms is probably not enough eye candy or action to sustain audience interest for 90 minutes, so we’re going to tap into the rest of Napa Valley reality.”

Well, what does that mean?, we naturally inquired.

Schwartz responded by rubbing his hands together gleefully before unleashing a veritable litany of dramatic targets: “Bottle Shock Too will be a quilt of backstabbing and backscratching, of sibling rivalries and intergenerational conflict, of haughty old-timers and new neighbors behaving badly. We’ll film clashes between marketers and vineyard managers, lavish meals hosted by sappy PR reps for freebie-dependent writers. And, in the spirit of keepin’ it real, we’ll shine light on the tireless efforts of migrant workers who make all that jazzy wine possible, and visit local dives where olive-oil wrestling is a weekly ritual.

“The film will be about Napa’s little guys—the postage-stamp wineries propped up by ego-driven interlopers. And the big guys, namely the wineries that put up a handcrafted façade while their towering steel storage tanks lurk out of sight. We’ll visit snobby tasting rooms and hoist overweight bottles of overwrought wine. And we’ll talk to score-whore collectors, starry-eyed tourists and insane auction bidders.

“We’ll also go undercover at some top wineries, searching for oak chips and Mega Purple, testing for residual sugar, and generally exposing the cottage industry of laboratories that prescribe techniques to help wineries achieve higher ratings. Finally, we’ll demonsrate how the only ‘green’ Napa Valley cares about is the color of money.

“Yeah, I may never eat lunch in Napa again after Bottle Shock Too comes out,” Schwartz concluded. “But that’s okay. The food is much better here in Sonoma anyway.”

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