Paul Weitz was also determined that the film would be even-handed in its treatment of the sexes. “We didn’t want anything that was mean: we didn’t want the sexuality to be associated with meanness or nastiness or anything that seemed degrading. One of the things we loved about the script was that a lot of it is from the girls’ point of view and, when we looked back at Porky’s, the girls were just strutting around with their breasts hanging out and the guys are just checking them out. I think we do pretty decent justice to the girl characters, because they’re intrigued by the same topics as the guys and also because they have a large amount of control.”

It’s something that wasn’t easy to achieve, especially as Paul admits that the core of the movie is the bond between Jim and his three friends. “The idea of male intimacy is something that underlies the film,” he says. “When we were trying to conceptualise the sex aspect, it was that these guys are now going to separate and move on and not really be such close friends anymore. So, instead of thinking about that, they’re obsessing about sex.”

Nevertheless, young women are responding to the film as well. “The most rewarding moment was in the first screening with the scene where Oz (Chris Klein) doesn’t admit that he slept with his girlfriend, and the girls in the audience applauded,” Paul adds: “That to me was so incredibly satisfying. It meant that they weren’t just watching a guy screwing a pie: they were getting it.”

Left, Kevin with girlfriend Vicky (Tara Reid). And below, that pie again

At the same time, the Weitzes don’t mind the comparisons to another set of film-making brothers, the Farrelly’s, who pushed the comic envelope with last year’s semen-splattered hit There’s Something About Mary. “It means that maybe the audience that went to see There’s Something About Mary will see American Pie”, grins Chris.