Main writer of ’American Pie’ movies has roots at Michigan

Ready or not, the Naked Mile is getting its close-up.

The now largely defunct midnight rite of spring at the University of Michigan receives some new attention Tuesday with the direct-to-video release of a fictional movie about the event.

"American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile’’ builds an entire teen sex comedy around an event that sounds like the former U-M student-initiated custom of running nude (or partly so) across the Diag and neighboring streets at midnight on the last day of classes in the spring.

It’s not clear in advance of the release whether the university portrayed in the movie is supposed to be U-M, an unnamed school or a fictional one. Yet while other schools may have histories of nude runs, Ann Arbor’s is arguably the most infamous, and it’s the one most commonly associated with the phrase "Naked Mile.’’

Industry and fan Internet sites have reported that the movie was filmed over the summer in Canada.

The idea of the new movie did not receive rave reviews - only a "no comment’’ - from U-M officials, who have worked to discourage the real Naked Mile after a resurgence in the late-1990s.

"The crowds grew to include people who were not associated with the university and it became a spectacle on the Internet,’’ said Kelly Cunningham, a U-M spokeswoman. "As a result it became very unsafe for our students. So the university and students did a lot of education around the risks associated (with it) and the event no longer exists today.’’

The Naked Mile started at U-M in 1986 as a small event organized by a group of students, with revelers racing naked or partially clothed along South University Avenue and through the Diag to the Michigan Union. By the late 1990s, it had grown into a major event attracting hundreds of participants, thousands of spectators and countless cameras, many of which fed Internet sites and television news reports about the public nudity.

As crowds grew, so did concerns about safety and the potential abuse of nude images of students who participated. A police crackdown effectively ended the event after 2003.

The first "American Pie,’’ from 1999, was a raunchy coming-of-age comedy starring Jason Biggs and Alyson Hannigan. A surprise hit, it grossed more than $100 million domestically and led to two sequels, "American Pie 2’’ and "American Wedding.’’

The franchise has always had a link to Ann Arbor: Adam Herz, a U-M graduate, created the original "Pie’’ characters and wrote the first three movies, and the original references U-M. However, Herz is not listed in the principal credits for "Naked Mile.’’

The franchise continued with last year’s direct-to-video "American Pie Presents Band Camp.’’ With the main characters entering adulthood, it featured only Eugene Levy from the primary cast, focusing instead on the brother of original supporting character Steve Stifler (Seann William Scott).

"Naked Mile,’’ according to a plot summary from the studio, follows a couple of new Stiflers, Steve’s cousins Erik and Adam. Shy Erik wants to lose his virginity before graduating from high school and figures a good chance to do that is at the famous Naked Mile. He heads to campus for the big event, where he discovers Adam is the life of the party. It features a mostly unknown cast (along with Levy, again).

The movie, which has not been released in theaters, is set to come out on DVD on Tuesday. It is being released without a content rating from the Motion Picture Association of America.