After 25 television episodes and two successful films, “Jackass” is returning to the big screen, this time in 3-D.
“Jackass 3-D” — the third flick in the hit MTV television and film franchise — hits theaters Friday. The Lantern was among a select group of college newspapers to attend a press screening and junket, all expenses paid, with the cast of the film Friday and Saturday in Los Angeles.
The press junket included director Jeff Tremaine, as well as cast members Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, Stephen “Steve-O” Glover, Chris Pontius, Dave England, Jason “Wee-Man” Acuña, Ryan Dunn, “Danger” Ehren McGhehey and Preston Lacy.
Following up “Jackass: The Movie” and “Jackass: No. 2,” “Jackass 3-D” reunites the zany cast members four years after their last film and eight years after the television show ended its run on MTV.
So how did the cast and crew know it was time for a new ‘Jackass?’
“Public demand,” Pontius said, as he strummed on a ukulele.
“I think most of us were always ready,” Tremaine said. “I think it takes about four years to recover from the ‘Jackass’ movies. We’ve sort of proven that.”
The film, the first in the series to employ 3-D, was actually shot with 3-D cameras, as opposed to being shot in 2-D and converted to 3-D after filming.
However, the decision to shoot in 3-D was not an easy one.
Because the 3-D cameras used in “Jackass 3-D” use two lenses to film — one to capture the perspective of each eye — the cameras are larger than standard cameras.
“Paramount suggested we shoot it in 3-D, and we were hesitant at first because of the way we do things,” Tremaine said. “We’re a real run-and-gun crew, and to get these big 3-D cameras and the extra people that come with all that just scared us.”
Knoxville, one of the stars of the franchise, said he was wary of shooting in 3-D until the last minute.
“I was the last person to be converted,” he said. “I thought it would take a long time, and we wouldn’t be able to run-and-gun, and it would just change the movie, and I’m not up for that.”
Three-D aside, the rest of the cast was still iffy on resurrecting the series for a third go, even after a four-year hiatus.
“I hadn’t been around these guys in a long time,” Dunn said. “I didn’t know if we’d mix together. But as soon as we started filming, I was way wrong. I had more fun on this movie than any of the other ones.”
Other cast members had more pressing issues.
Between “Jackass 2” and “Jackass 3-D,” Steve-O made a complete recovery from drug addiction, He is now going on three years sober.
“It was important to me to prove to myself and everyone else that sobriety hasn’t turned me into a lame, boring wimp,” Steve-O said. “Being present and clear-headed, I was dreading doing the stuff so much more than ever before, but at the same time, I was more eager than ever before to do it.”
Before sobriety, Margera said Steve-O’s addiction had become so bad that one night he took out $1,000 in one-dollar bills, threw them down on the streets of New York City, and yelled, “People who think they’re rich think they walk on rose pedals? Well I walk on money!”
But the pay-off came with “Jackass 3-D,” with Steve-O turning in the best performance the series has seen, Knoxville said.
“He’s a little more scared this time to do things, which was great on camera,” he said. “He got the best footage of any movie.”
“Jackass 3-D” features a variety of stunts and sketches, involving footballs, jet engines, a “dildo bazooka” and one with a bull that nearly broke Knoxville’s neck.
In the stunt, Knoxville takes a bull’s hoof to the head, knocking him down and causing him to land awkwardly on his head and neck.
“The bull did me a favor,” Knoxville said. “The bull saved my life.”
That wasn’t the only injury in the film.
Steve-O broke his nose during one of the film’s “Rocky” pieces and McGhehey lost a tooth.
The film’s marquee piece, however, as seen in the trailers and commercials, involves a port-o-potty on a bungee cord. The stunt has been dubbed the “poop cocktail supreme” by the film’s cast and crew.
Though Steve-O, who was in the port-o-potty during the stunt, said he was reluctant to do it, the motivation to do the stunt came from nothing more than “footage envy.”
“One of the guys will get something really awesome, some great footage, and then that will give the rest of us footage envy,” he said. “We’ll be jealous of some awesome stunt that someone else did.”
Now, with “Jackass 3-D” in the can and set to hit theaters Friday, production on a fourth film has not been totally ruled out, though any decision to go ahead with it is not immediately in the works.
However, Knoxville said they had no immediate plans for sequels after the first and second films, but an eventual piling of ideas led to the follow-ups.
In the meantime, with “Jackass 3-D” set for release, the cast members explained why audiences should check out the film.
“It’s the first 3-D movie with real s— and puke … flowing into the audience,” McGhehey said.
