The bad news at Thursday night’s Sundance USA screening of “Win Win” at the Michigan Theater was that neither writer/director Tom McCarthy (“The Station Agent,” “The Visitor”) nor recent Golden Globe winning actor Paul Giamatti (“Barney’s Version”) was able to appear, despite announced plans for both to be part of the program.

The good news, however, was that more than 1,500 patrons who braved the area’s snow-choked roads were treated to a funny, charming film, and got to hear perspectives from one of the film's producers.

“Win Win” tells the story of a small-time elder law attorney and high school wrestling coach (Giamatti) who’s struggling to keep his practice - and by extension, his family - afloat. After he decides to assume guardianship of a client (Burt Young) in order to receive a monthly commission, the client’s previously unknown teenage grandson (Alex Shaffer) shows up on the doorstep and makes things far more complicated.

Ann Arbor resident Mike Romatowski said of the film, “I thought it was good. It wasn’t forced or pat. Believable and natural things grew out from the situation that could actually happen. And everybody was good, but to me, the hidden great performance was Burt Young.”

By way of an introduction for the film, Michigan Theater executive director Russ Collins offered brief remarks about the Sundance USA program and introduced “Win Win” producer Mary Jane Skalski onto the stage.

Skalski - an Eastpointe native and U-M grad who worked as a producer on McCarthy’s two previous films as well - answered questions in a one-on-one interview with AnnArbor.com backstage, moments before Thursday’s “Win Win” screening.

Q. What intrigued you about this project?

A. The first time that I read it, I just - I knew what it was going to be about, and we’d been talking about it, but the first time I read a whole draft, it was just really struck by how beautiful it was. That it really was just regular folks in a situation that I think you can find yourself in when you get in over your head, or you think, ‘Well, no one will notice if I cut this little corner or something.’ It was something that Tom and I talked a lot about. That in our lives, a lot of times, it’s easy to get sucked into that (idea), that no one will notice if I do this. You get away with a lot of things. But … things do catch up to you. And even if they don’t catch up to you on the outside, they catch up to you on the inside.

Q. When did “Win Win”’s film shoot take place?

A. We started looking for locations just before Christmastime last year. … We started shooting in the middle of March, and here we are. So it was unbelievably quick. Especially for us, because normally the movies - we finish them, go to a festival, find a distributor, (etc.). … Right before Christmas this year, we were mixing. So it’s almost like it’s too fresh.

Q. When did Giamatti sign on to star?

A. Pretty early on. Really before we started going out looking for money and all those things, Paul got on board. Tom and Paul have known each other for a long time. They went to Yale together and had been friends, and have wanted to find something to do together, and then Tom wrote this and sent it off to Paul.

Q. The movie’s already had screenings in Park City. Any particularly memorable comments or responses from audiences?

A. What’s been fun about it is, this is movie that I think we’ve done since the phenomenon of Twitter, and that’s been really fun to just get these pages of Tweets that come to us. And that gives us the feeling of people shouting out from an audience, moreso than - in Q&As, there’s only so many questions people get to ask.

Q. Any idea why “Win Win” was selected for the Sundance USA program?

A. I have no idea. I was so glad though. … I love Ann Arbor, and I love this theater. … All Tom’s movies have struck a chord with audiences, but I think this one even more so. And those movies weren’t hard to love, but on that scale, this one, I think, is a very easy movie to sit through. It’s an easy movie to like.

After "Win Win"'s screening, Skalski also took questions from Collins and the crowd, at which time patrons learned that while the film isn’t autobiographical, by any means, Joe Tiboni - who hatched the film’s story with McCarthy - grew up with McCarthy in New Provincetown, New Jersey (where “Win Win” is set), and they both wrestled for the high school team. Like Giamatti’s character, Tiboni became an elder care attorney and has 2 daughters. But that’s where the similarities end, according to Skalski.

“Tom loves wrestling, he loves that world, so he just said to Joe, 'Let’s write a story.'”

And since the film team shot "Win Win" in New Provincetown, perhaps it’s not surprising that the head stunt coordinator was the brother of McCarthy and Tiboni’s former coach.

But Skalski and several others involved in the film had little to no previous knowledge regarding wrestling; so when it came time to cast Kyle, the teenage grandson who’s also a terrific wrestler, the creative team started attending high school meets. “Tom would say, ‘We really need a wrestler. They walk a certain way. They move a certain way.' … He decided that, given the time we had, it would be easier to teach a wrestler how to act than to teach an actor how to wrestle.”

The film team advertised in newspapers and generally tried to get the word out that they were looking for a young wrestler to star in the film. Shaffer landed the role in the same week he won the state high school wrestling championship in New Jersey for the 119 lb. division.

“I was talking to his mom, and she said, ‘He’s the luckiest kid in the whole world,’” said Skalski.

Skalski, who’s been producing films for 15 years, used to only summer in Michigan, but recently, thanks to the state’s aggressive film incentives, she moved here more permanently, and she hopes to work on a Michigan-filmed project, called “Annie Jenkins,” this spring with Bob Odenkirk.

But regarding “Win Win” - which will likely open in New York and Los Angeles in mid-March, followed by a wider release - Skalski noted that Giamatti, after reading the script, visited McCarthy’s house at Thanksgiving in 2009.

McCarthy reportedly told Giamatti that the film would, in one way, be a challenge and a departure for the actor, and according to Skalski, Giamatti replied, “I know. The guy’s happy!”

Jenn McKee is the entertainment digital journalist for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at jennmckee@annarbor.com or 734-623-2546, and follow her on Twitter @jennmckee.