Here is what he had to say:

IAR: To begin with, I was unaware that the type of bird watching competition depicted in the film actually takes place, what was your knowledge on the subject before you began making the film and what kind of research did you do for the project?

David Frankel: Well I was equally unaware, and sort of the last thing I thought I would ever do is make a movie about birding but I read the screenplay and I let it sit on my desk for a few months before I finally read a few pages and just got hooked. I fell in love with the characters and I embraced the notion of making a film about people who are passionate about something that was so unusual, but also in a world that seems to me to be very cinematic, giving the opportunity to travel and just make something that is beautiful and explore men reconnecting with nature and also competing. It’s a great narrative. As I read the screenplay for the first time I was flipping pages just to see who won. So all those qualities in the screenplay really drew me to make the movie. The birding was sort of the least of it but it also seemed like it could be quite beautiful. Personally my wife is a birder so I knew that I would make a movie that satisfied at least an audience of one.

In the film, the characters really put their lives on hold, both professionally and personally, to participate in this competition. Does that hold true as well in real life based on what you find out from your research?

Frankel: Yeah, they definitely are committed for the entire 365 days and in some cases mortgage their lives because it can be so expensive to do that kind of travel for that long and some of them occur huge debts. I know that Craig Miller, who is one of the birders profiled in Mark Obmascik’s book, he’s still paying for his big year that was twelve or thirteen years ago. So it definitely takes a toll but he had no regrets and I think that is true of the characters in the movie too.

You were able to cast in the film two of the best comedic actors working in the business today, Owen Wilson and Jack Black, and you also cast a genuine comedy legend in Steve Martin, so tell me about how the three of them worked together on set? Did they get along well, and was there a lot of improvising or did they stick pretty closely to the script?

Frankel: Well they fell in love with the characters too and I think they also saw this world as a fun way to explore those themes about what it means to be excellent at something and the sacrifices you have to make to be great. I think that they have all experienced that in their own careers because they are all great at what they do. They’re all superb and they know that you have to make compromises or sacrifices along the way, both personal and professional. I think they enjoyed the opportunity to explore that in the film. They had never met or worked together before and they got along great. We’d have parties after work and on the weekends and Steve would sit around and play his banjo in Owen’s apartment and they would sing together. You know, Jack and Steve appeared together during our shoot at the Bonnaroo festival, so they had become friends. Owen and Steve are still working together on some projects and I know Jack would like to work with each of them again too. There was not a lot of improvisation and for the most part they performed the script as written. I encouraged them to freelance as much as possible, and certainly there is a lot of funny stuff that they do in the film. They are three of the funniest guys on the planet.

Obviously we know Jack Black best as a comedic actor but he has also played some serious roles in the past where he has had to show a real range of emotions, just like he does in this film. He’s actually a really good dramatic actor as well as a comedian, isn’t he?

Frankel: Yes, he’s a wonderful actor and you know a lot of the work that he did early in his career was as a serious and dramatic actor. He’s got a great depth and such a companionate soul in real life and he brings that to the screen if given the opportunity. One of the joys of making the film for me was the opportunity to give all three of the main actors the opportunity to do work that was different than what they’ve become famous for and I think they did it superbly.

You were also able to surround the three leads with an amazing group of excellent actors in the supporting roles; can you talk about putting together the rest of your cast?

Frankel: Yes, Brian Dennehy, Diane Wiest, Anjelica Huston, Rashida Jones, Rosamund Pike, and JoBeth Williams, we really have extraordinary actors in every role. Anjelica Huston came and worked with us for a few days. Anthony Anderson’s part in the film took two days, and he was incredible. Every few days another extraordinary actor would show up to work with us, so we had a great cast.

Rashida Jones had to perform some incredible birdcalls in the film, did it take her a long time to learn how to do that or is she just a natural?

Frankel: She was, she was! We put her in touch with a woman who does astonishing live versions of birdcalls and we flew her up to Vancouver. She spent a few days with us teaching Rashida the local birdcalls. So they turn out to be much harder than you can imagine but Rashida was a real trooper and studied hard.

Without giving too much away, there’s a point in the film where the audience is led to believe that Owen Wilson’s character’s wife, played by Rosamund Pike, might be having an affair. Ultimately we find out that she is not, but I was curious if it was written in the script that way or if, as a director, you chose to not have her actually cheat on her husband because you thought that it might hurt the integrity of her character?

Frankel: We put that in the story to create a little suspense about what the cost of being away from home for that long is, which I think can cost anybody, an athlete, a politician, a workaholic, anybody who is so committed and passionate to their work or are so ambitious that they spend a lot of time away from home, can end up creating opportunity and dissatisfaction for their significant other. In the end though, it just seemed more interesting to me that she made a decision not to cheat on him, but that she realized that this wasn’t what she signed up for. She loves him, but she didn’t like being married to him. The cost of loosing someone you love is sometimes the price that people who aim high have to pay.

Did you have to use a lot of visual effects to create the bird sequences in the movie or were you able to use the real exotic birds depicted in the film for those shots?

Frankel: There are some very well placed visual effects throughout the movie. I would say it’s about half and half. Certainly there are a lot of real birds, stock footage that is employed throughout the film. Then there are sequences, like the High Island sequence where all the birds are visual effect. Over time I’ll probably forget which ones were real because the visual effects guys did such brilliant jobs.

What can you tell me about your next film, Great Hope Springs? You just finished shooting that, right?

Frankel: We’re just in post now but the response so far has been great and the cast is amazing. I mean its really just tour de force acting and I’m really proud of the film. It will come out later this year but I’m just not sure when. Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones play a married couple that goes to marriage theorpy where Steve Carrell is their therapist. It’s funny, dramatic and moving too.

Finally, are you still planning to direct a film adaptation of Septimus Heap, based on the popular fantasy book series?

Frankel: That is still in the works. It’s a major, major undertaking so we’re still in various stages of development there. But I’m not sure when that will happen.

The Big Year is available now on Blu-ray and DVD.