Rob Burnett is in Edinburgh this week for a film festival showing of his new film The Fundamentals of Caring, starring Paul (Ant-Man) Rudd, Britain’s own Craig Robertson and Jennifer Ehle and pop starlet Selena Gomez. Better known as a producer of The Late Show with David Letterman, Burnett has made an intimate comic film about grief and disability that doubles up as a road movie. Here he talks to Herald Scotland about the film, his cast and why he’s happy the film’s available on Netflix later this month.

Why did you want to make The Fundamentals of Caring?

I was interested in trying to adapt a novel into a screenplay. So I started reading a bunch of stuff. And this was the first one I read with that intention. It’s a beautiful book by Jonathan Evison and it struck me immediately and resonated for me. It’s a very tragic story told in a very funny way.

For a film like this I guess casting is key?

Well, casting is key in every film. But in this film it’s total. Without Paul Rudd and Craig Roberts I think we have no movie here quite honestly. This movie is entirely about the chemistry between these two characters who are both broken but somehow manage to find a way to breathe a little life back into each other. This is a chemistry you need very skilled performers to create on a set and these guys are as good as it gets.

Jennifer really is a ridiculously good actress. For me as a director to direct Jennifer Ehle is like a five-year-old driving a race car. I have no business being in the same room as Jennifer Ehle quite frankly.

And Selena was fantastic in the movie, a departure for her for sure but she, I think, is a real talent and just beginning to realise her full abilities as an actress.

And you can’t say enough about Paul Rudd. My solemn advice to any young film-maker is get Paul Rudd in your movie and start the camera, go home, come back at the end of the day. You’re going to be fine.

What’s the appeal of making a road movie?

What I tried to do with this movie was take something that is in some ways formulaic. The plot is not groundbreaking. It’s very small. But what I wanted to do was bring something different and fresh with that. And in the case of these characters literally and metaphorically needing to get out of the house the road movie aspect plays into that very well.

Does the idea of the open road still have a power in American culture?

I think it does. I think there is something about getting on the open road that is filled with potential and possibility I think there is something about getting in a vehicle and moving that is preternaturally exciting.

Have you done your own American road trip?

Yes, I’ve driven across the country several times. We ended up shooting in Atlanta on the east coast, but at one point we were considering New Mexico and when we finished scouting there my daughter flew out, met me in New Mexico and as father and daughter we drove back from New Mexico to New York. As great an experience as I could possibly have had.

How hard is it to get a small film like this made today?

It’s difficult in a sense to get any film made. When I bought the rights to this book it seemed like a very big long shot that this would ever become a movie. Just from the nature of the material. Two broken characters. One guy’s in a wheelchair and one guy’s lost his child. It doesn’t feel very commercial.

So I said I’m just going to try and write the best script I can because this material means something to me.

The Herald:

I did that and people seemed to like the script. And from there I reached out directly to Paul Rudd.

I didn’t really know Paul. We had met a couple of times. My background was with the David Letterman Show, so we had met each other once or twice and we know a lot of the same people. New York’s comedy guys.

And amazingly Paul responded and said yes to doing the movie. And once you get someone of Paul’s calibre and recognition everything starts to flow. From there we got financing.

And one of the great things about having Paul Rudd in your movie is then everyone wants to be in your movie. I had agents calling me from every agency. We probably considered about 250 actors before we settled on Craig.

Paul was actually in Atlanta prepping Ant-Man at the time. He came up and did some chemistry reads with three or four of the finalists and once we saw Paul and Craig together we knew we had something very special.

Why do you want to be a director? You have a perfectly good career as a producer.

Everyone does assume you’d want to be a director. The process of making a film is an enormous collaboration. It’s 100 people holding a 100ft paintbrush painting a 1,000ft billboard. That’s what that is. And there’s one guy that has an idea of what that thing is supposed to look like.

And frankly when you get the right people around you as I did in this movie it’s really thrilling. You look around that set and, if I’ve done my job and hired properly, every single person on that set is better at their job than I would be.

And yet I’m the only one on that set in a position to know what the film is meant to be.

The film is getting a showing on Netflix. Are we losing something if films like this can’t get cinema distribution?

For sure the world is changing and you have to evolve with it. When Netflix came into the picture they bought the film right before Sundance. We were thrilled because all of our investors were immediately in profit, which I do care about. And then Netflix came back and bought the rest of the rights as we were about to consider a theatrical release.

It’s so compelling to be on Netflix. They will open our little, tiny movie in 190 countries on June 24 in 12 languages to 81 million viewers. Where could we ever imagine such a thing?

And really as a film maker the thing you want is for as many people to see your film as possible.

The Herald:

Now that you are in Edinburgh what are you going to do while you’re in Scotland?

This is one of my bucket list items. To be in Scotland. I’ve been so busy promoting this movie. We had an after party in our house last night and then quickly got on the plane today We landed got to the hotel and my wife and I looked at each other and said ‘we have planned nothing.’ We have two days to try to figure this out. We can see the castle from our hotel. That’s a start. But I’m open to all suggestions.

We’re really excited to be here. The only issue I have is your men here are a little too manly. I think your weakest man could beat up our strongest man. And I’m not our strongest man. Already my wife has said ‘not the way a Scotsman would do it.’ This may put a crimp in the 25-year marriage.

The European premiere of The Fundamentals of Caring takes place at the Edinburgh International Film Festival on Thursday at Cineworld at 6.10pm. It will also screen at Filmhouse on Saturday at 6.30pm. It will be available on Netflix from June 24.