Fishing With John - Production

Production

Fishing With John centered around actor/musician John Lurie taking solo fishing trips with various celebrity friends of his. Jim Jarmusch, Matt Dillon, Tom Waits, Willem Dafoe and Dennis Hopper all appear in the series.

In the DVD commentary, Lurie notes that the original plan was to film in Arkansas, but funding issues forced the filming to happen in Jamaica, where Waits was already on vacation. Also in the commentary, Lurie claimed that following their trip to Jamaica, Tom Waits was displeased to the point that he did not speak to Lurie for two years afterwards. At the end of the episode (actually shot halfway through filming), Waits tells Lurie to no response, "You're a mess. And you dragged me along on this safari and I don't know why." Lurie also said that off-camera, shortly afterward on their drive back to camp, Waits "really let me have it."

Lurie claimed that Dennis Hopper was so high on sugar during his two-part episode that he was unable to concentrate long enough to fish. Also in the commentary, Lurie explains that the choice of Matt Dillon was largely pushed upon him by the Japanese group financing the episodes; the filmmaker had originally wanted Flea from The Red Hot Chili Peppers to accompany him on the Costa Rica episode.