Last week I had the pleasure of attending a special blogger screening of Edward Burns’ latest venture, Nice Guy Johnny (trailer above). Hosted at one of my favorite NYC spots, Meet at the Apartment, I walked in to find buckets of sugary treats, three flavors of popcorn, a glass of wine and a tall, charming ”Eddie” Burns standing right there to greet me! He brought co-star Kerry Bishé to host a Q&A before the film. Wow, hearing about the making of an independent film really adds to the viewing experience (almost like the culture of wine)…which is why I’m going to tell you!

First, let me give you the two sentence schpeel on the film. Johnny Rizzo (Matt Bush) is about to trade his dream job as a sports radio journalist for some snooze-ville gig that’ll pay enough to please his fiancée. Enter Uncle Terry (Ed Burns), a rascally womanizer set on turning a weekend in the Hamptons into an eye-opening fling for his nephew. Nice guy Johnny’s not interested, of course, but then he meets the lovely Brooke (Kerry Bishé), who challenges Johnny to make the toughest decision of is life.

Without even knowing the background, you’ll still love the film. It hits home by touching on different feelings we’ve all had at one point in our lives – the different flavors of quarter-life-crises, if you will. However, here’s a little insight into how it was made from Mr. Burns himself.

Ed explained part of the inspiration for this project was going back to when he first started making films – having the ability to see a creative vision through from start to finish and working with hungry, talented actors with a fire in their eyes. They only had 10 days to shoot the film and the budget was what a lot of people might spend on a car. They had to find scrappy ways to accomplish what normally is solved through a production house. Ed’s car had an exciting role, the actors styled themselves head to toe and Kerry even made a reference about Ed BBQing lunch for the entire cast and crew.

Kerry made a strong impression on Ed from the second she spoke in her audition and he’s forecasting an incredibly bright future for her. I think the entire room of bloggers was pretty mesmereized by her. Brooke, her character in the movie, is the kind of person everyone wants to be friends with and it translates to her presence in real life, just a little more sophisticated. This girl is smart!

Overall, Nice Guy Johnny is a beautiful film and you have it see it when it comes out on October 26. For more info, check out the Facebook page and you can also tweet with Ed on Twitter with @edward_burns. Here are a couple more pics from the night:

Above: With Carolyn and “Eddie”

Photo Credits: Nice Guy Johnny/The Digital Brand Architects