Post-'Friends' Schwimmer directs his first film

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As used to be said of the British Empire, the sun never sets on an episode of "Friends." Money pouring in from syndication plus savings from the $750,000 per episode each cast member was paid has landed these friends among the filthy rich.After David Schwimmer, who played Ross, spiffed up his homes in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles, he went back to doing the thing he enjoys most: work."I wasn't about to just sit back with a big cigar and say, 'Yeah, I made it,' " he said. "That is just not me. I have too much of a work ethic."Schwimmer, 41, has the luxury of being picky."The great gift that the show gave all of us is the financial freedom to kind of only choose something that you are completely passionate about."For Schwimmer, that meant starring in the little-seen indie film "Duane Hopwood," making his Broadway debut in "The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial" and debuting on the London stage in Neil LaBute's "Some Girls."All the while he has had his eye out for a script that appealed to him to direct. Making movies has been his ambition since he studied drama at Northwestern University. Schwimmer directed 10 episodes of "Friends" and also directed at Lookingglass Theatre, a Chicago company he started with other Northwestern alums.But Schwimmer knew directing would take at least a year."It wasn't practical to do it during the 10-year run of our show," he said. "I was kind of chomping at the bit and trying to learn as much as possible by directing TV pilots and 'Friends.' "The script of his dreams finally materialized: a comedy about a guy who, five years earlier, had deserted his pregnant fiancee on what was to be their wedding day. Its title, "Run Fatboy Run," alludes to a marathon he signs up for, although he's out of shape, to impress his former girlfriend and attempt to win her back.The movie was originally to be set in New York and feature that city's popular marathon. But then a London company, Material Entertainment, expressed interest in financing the film on the condition it be shot in London and star British actors.Schwimmer almost turned it down. He'd been in London for a year doing a play and a small movie "and I was a little homesick."Then he got together with Simon Pegg, who not only agreed to play the title character but also to rework the script to make it British. Pegg had co-written and starred in "Shaun of the Dead" and "Hot Fuzz," so Schwimmer knew he was up to the test.The biggest change was making the lead character's landlord Indian rather than Italian-American. A few cultural references were changed, and the language dotted with four-letter words.The movie's central joke is that Pegg's character is out of shape to run even a 5K race. But Pegg started the film right after finishing "Hot Fuzz," for which he'd gotten in great shape."Simon didn't want to gain the weight back, and I don't blame him," Schwimmer said. "We created a fat pad to give him a little belly and decided our movie wasn't 'Norbit.' It's really about a guy who is lazy and can't get his act together."Schwimmer learned that it's important for a director to "have a really good battle plan, but also be really flexible. I loved it. It's what I want to do, along with acting."He's developing a dramatic thriller to direct, this time in the United States. And he's looking at returning to Lookingglass, either in productions of "The Brothers Karamazov" or "Our Town."One thing he isn't actively in the market for is another TV sitcom."You know, I never say never. But I am really enjoying the freedom of being able to move around and pick and choose projects," said Schwimmer, who just finished starring opposite Kate Beckinsale in the political thriller "Nothing But the Truth." "It's a kind of freedom you don't have when you have a seven-year commitment to a TV show."(E-mail Ruthe Stein at rstein(at)sfchronicle.com.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)