Don Webb worked in the city’s public works department for more than 30 years and served as mayor of Newport Beach in 2006.
“He’s very proud of Newport Beach,” the filmmaker said.
Featuring more than 400 films from 46 countries the Newport Beach Film Festival will roll out the red carpet Thursday for a week of film fare ranging from documentary to romantic comedy.
The local tie-in was a happy accident, said Newport Beach Festival Chief Executive Gregg Schwenk.
“That the two were related was unbeknownst to us — we saw the film at Sundance and we’ve had a very strong relationship with Fox Searchlight over the years, so we were selected to be the official West Coast premiere,” Schwenk said.
Although Marc Webb grew up in Madison, Wis., he and his family would often visit Newport Beach, he said.
Don Webb traveled to Park City, Utah, earlier this year to see “(500) Days of Summer” make its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.
“It’s a little different from Newport Beach — there’s snow everywhere,” Don Webb said.
Although he’s already seen the film twice, he has tickets to see his nephew’s movie again in Newport Beach.
“It’s a great film; there’s a lot of humor in it,” he said.
Staring Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, “(500) Days of Summer” tells the story of the relationship between Summer (Deschanel), who doesn’t believe in true love, and Tom (Gordon-Levitt), who does.
Marc Webb, who has a successful career directing music videos for pop-chart heavyweights including Lenny Kravitz, Ashlee Simpson and Miley Cyrus, fell in love with the script, he said.
