Sideways Author Tells All

Posted on May 18, 2005

The Cleveland Plain Dealer has an interview with Rex Pickett, author of the novel Sideways, which was the basis for the Oscar-nominated film of the same name. Picket had two big flops before he found success. But he still seems kind of grumpy.

On one hand, he says, every day between this year's Golden Globe Awards and Oscar show was like Christmas. On the other hand, he moans how Santa Ynez in Santa Barbara County has made millions of dollars on tourism because of the book. "I guess I've totally transposed that area," he said as he gulped down another glass of pinot noir. The Hitching Post restaurants and winery, both prominent in the film, are raking in money while "I can't get in the Hitching Post," he said. Actually, the Hitching Post gave Pickett a lifetime certificate to the restaurants. But Pickett says he has still had a hard time getting any respect. While he loved Sideways director Alexander Payne, he despised the cast, with the exception of Paul Giamatti, whom he called "a decent guy."
In the mid-1990s, he started going to a wine shop that had four-hour tastings on Saturdays. Those tastings led to a trip with a friend -- who the film character Jack was based on -- to Santa Barbara for golf and wine tasting. Pickett had just divorced.
Pickett said publishers hated Sideways. He passed it around Hollywood, but no one was interested in it as a film. He was living on loans from his brother when he finally got a break.

He wrote a film which won an Oscar for best live action short film in 2000. Soon after, Alexander Payne who was filming About Schmidt with Jack Nicholson, bought the film rights to his book Sideways. Now Pickett is a success. But he doesn't seem very happy about it.