When Weezer took the Coachella stage on Saturday afternoon, many fans in the crowd were awaiting some sort of update on bassist Scott Shriner’s wife, Jillian Lauren Shriner, who was shot by the Los Angels Police Department on her own property last week and arrested for attempted murder. Unsurprisingly, the band made no reference to the incident, but they did confirm rumors that a Weezer movie is in the works.
“We’ve been busy making the Weezer movie back in L.A. the last couple weeks,” Rivers Cuomo told the crowd before breaking out “Undone (The Sweater Song). “But when Coachella called us up, said, ‘Hey Weezer, could you guys make it out for a surprise appearance?,’ we’re like, ‘Heck yeah!’ It feels so good to be here with you guys and let out these emotions.”
As Stereogum notes, word of a Weezer movie has been circulating in the fan community for several weeks, and longtime band historian/archivist/unofficial fifth member Karl Koch recently invited fan club members to a “private filmed merchandise signing” for a “TBA video” in Los Angeles on April 21. “This is your chance to say hello to the band and get something signed in an exclusive private setting,” Koch wrote, “and hopefully be in the video to boot!…Fans should bring their own merch for autographing. Note that this will involve serval hours of ‘waiting in line’ for the camera crew’s needs.”
This makes it seem like Weezer are shooting a traditional documentary about their history, and they simply need B-roll of them interacting with fans. But when their Voyage To The Blue Album tour wrapped up in Los Angeles back in October 2024, actor Ben Schwartz asked the crowd to help out with a movie shoot.
“Now, there’s a big fight where Weezer is fighting these big villains,” he said. “And what’s going to happen now is they’re going to follow me, and I’m going to be fighting in different areas. And I’m going to say, ‘Someone throws a punch at someone from Weezer,’ and you’ll react to that. And then I say, ‘And Weezer kicks their butt!,’ and you react to that.”
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Judging by this, something far stranger than a standard doc is in the works. It seems like some sort of weird cross between The 1978 Kiss TV film Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park, and the 2024 documentary/fiction Pavement movie Pavements. But at the moment, we really have no clue what sort of movie they’re making that involves a choreographed fight with “big villains” and footage of them meeting real-life fans.
In the meantime, Shriner has become an unlikely TMZ figure due to his wife’s ongoing legal situation. He was very nonchalant when confronted with a camera while walking his dogs a couple of days ago. “She’s all right,” he said when asked for an update on his wife. “Thank you for asking.”
The incident took place April 8 when a hit-and-run suspect left his car on the 134 Freeway and ran near Shriner’s property, with the LAPD in pursuit. According to the police, Jillian Lauren Shriner stood in her backyard with a handgun as the chaos erupted. They claim she pointed her gun at officers, ignored commands to drop it, and fired the weapon. She was then shot by the LAPD, and charged with attempted murder.
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She has yet to come forward with her version of events, and it’s unclear if there’s body camera footage of the incident.
Weezer, meanwhile, are continuing to play shows. They next take the stage May 3 at the Lovin’ Life Music Fest in Charlotte, North Carolina. They have a steady calendar of festival gigs in America and Europe throughout the summer and fall, wrapping up Oct. 19 at When We Were Young in Las Vegas.
