WEBVTT - Jeremy Garelick Gets a Hall Pass From 'American High' to Direct 'Murder Mystery 2' 0:00:08.119 --> 0:00:11.280 Welcome to another episode of Strictly Business, the podcast in 0:00:11.280 --> 0:00:13.360 which we speak with some of the brightest minds working 0:00:13.440 --> 0:00:17.160 in the media business today. I'm Andrew Wallenstein with Variety, 0:00:17.760 --> 0:00:21.040 Adam Sandler, and Jennifer Aniston reunite in the sequel to 0:00:21.200 --> 0:00:24.880 the Murder Mystery franchise, out this week on streaming. To 0:00:25.040 --> 0:00:28.560 direct the movie Netflix turned to my next guest. But 0:00:28.760 --> 0:00:32.280 Jeremy Garrilick is not just another writer director. He also 0:00:32.360 --> 0:00:35.320 has built a really interesting business that began with a 0:00:35.360 --> 0:00:39.519 pretty unorthodox transaction. He bought a high school. We'll be 0:00:39.520 --> 0:00:50.920 back with Jeremy in just a minute to find out why. 0:00:51.600 --> 0:00:54.360 Now we're back with Jeremy Garlick, the director of Murder 0:00:54.440 --> 0:00:57.640 Mystery two, which is out now on Netflix. Welcome to 0:00:57.680 --> 0:01:01.000 Strictly Business. So I think listen may not necessarily be 0:01:01.080 --> 0:01:03.600 familiar with your name, but they know your work. You've 0:01:03.600 --> 0:01:07.320 done everything from direct that Kevin Hart comedy, The Wedding Ringer, 0:01:07.560 --> 0:01:10.600 doing a script polish on The Hangover, and of course 0:01:10.600 --> 0:01:13.240 we're going to talk about your American high movie series 0:01:13.280 --> 0:01:15.600 in a moment. But is it safe the same Murder 0:01:15.640 --> 0:01:18.240 Mystery too? Is this sort of like the biggest project 0:01:18.240 --> 0:01:22.240 you've ever done. This is one percent the biggest project 0:01:22.240 --> 0:01:24.160 I've ever done. This is the biggest movie I've ever done, 0:01:24.240 --> 0:01:27.880 for sure. Okay, And how did you come to direct this, 0:01:28.120 --> 0:01:31.560 especially because you've got your whole interesting side business going 0:01:31.600 --> 0:01:35.360 with American High Yeah, it's a great question. I got 0:01:35.360 --> 0:01:39.800 a call out of nowhere from agents saying do you 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:46.360 have any interest in directing Murder Mystery Too? And I said, yeah, 0:01:46.400 --> 0:01:51.200 I do. That's simple. Apparently I was on a short 0:01:51.240 --> 0:01:58.880 list of possible directors that jen Aniston wanted to meet with. 0:01:59.360 --> 0:02:01.360 I knew and I worked with her on the film 0:02:01.360 --> 0:02:03.760 of The Breakup, which was your big break right. You 0:02:03.800 --> 0:02:06.120 wrote the script you I wrote the script of The 0:02:06.200 --> 0:02:08.720 Breakup with Jay Lavender, who was my co writer and 0:02:08.760 --> 0:02:12.400 co producer. We co produced it. Vince Vaughan was a 0:02:12.400 --> 0:02:15.800 producer on that movie, and we we got it to 0:02:16.120 --> 0:02:18.760 Jennifer Aniston and she said she read the script and 0:02:18.800 --> 0:02:20.760 she wanted to do it. And we made that movie 0:02:20.800 --> 0:02:24.320 a long time ago, and jenn and I have he'd 0:02:24.400 --> 0:02:27.560 been in touch ever since, and I've always wanted to 0:02:27.560 --> 0:02:30.800 work together. And I got that call out of the blue. 0:02:31.960 --> 0:02:34.040 It was a nice call to get. Yeah, I mean Hey, 0:02:34.200 --> 0:02:37.280 it's nice to have high powered friends like that. Now, 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:41.120 this was the first time you worked with Sandler? What 0:02:41.240 --> 0:02:43.560 was it like working with someone? I mean, this is 0:02:43.600 --> 0:02:48.639 a comedy legend too, So Adam Sandler was my hero 0:02:49.480 --> 0:02:53.000 from the time I was growing up. Saturday Night Live. 0:02:53.040 --> 0:02:54.920 When I was in high school, all I wanted to 0:02:54.960 --> 0:02:59.880 do was write jokes for Adam Sandler. I walked around 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:05.799 doing Billy Madison and in fact, my sister, my older sister, 0:03:06.960 --> 0:03:11.440 won a raffle to go to Saturday eight Live. I 0:03:11.520 --> 0:03:14.280 was in I think I was fifteen. I went with 0:03:14.280 --> 0:03:19.079 her to Saturday Night Live and were they were doing 0:03:19.120 --> 0:03:21.160 one of those They were doing a skit where they 0:03:21.200 --> 0:03:23.239 were using our seats, so we had to go stand 0:03:23.320 --> 0:03:25.040 on the side. And I was standing on the side 0:03:25.040 --> 0:03:27.079 of the stage and all of a sudden I look 0:03:27.160 --> 0:03:32.359 up and it's Adam Sandler and um he was. I said, oh, 0:03:32.400 --> 0:03:34.160 what are you dressed up as? And he said, oh, 0:03:34.240 --> 0:03:37.560 I'm doing UM. I was like, are you doing weird? 0:03:37.600 --> 0:03:39.880 Are you dressed as? I was like, are you dressed 0:03:39.880 --> 0:03:43.120 as weird Al Yankovic And he said no, no, that'd 0:03:43.160 --> 0:03:49.080 be funny though He's he was Gary Delabate Howard's Dern Show, right, 0:03:49.280 --> 0:03:52.720 and he was in So Sweet and I had met 0:03:52.800 --> 0:03:55.400 him a couple of times playing basketball, and we had 0:03:55.440 --> 0:03:57.960 talked about working together a few times in Los Angeles. 0:03:58.040 --> 0:04:00.880 In Los Angeles when I was out here, you know, 0:04:00.920 --> 0:04:02.360 I was at Sony. I would play at the Sony 0:04:02.360 --> 0:04:03.720 a lot of All of a sudden, Adam Sandler which 0:04:03.880 --> 0:04:06.240 up in the so Many lot and he was playing 0:04:06.280 --> 0:04:10.200 basketball with Adam Sandler, which was pretty incredible. I had 0:04:10.200 --> 0:04:12.200 written a script a while ago that he had read 0:04:12.240 --> 0:04:15.240 and we met on that he liked and wanted to do, 0:04:15.840 --> 0:04:19.000 and we had always talked about working together. And now 0:04:19.200 --> 0:04:22.960 I had to interview to direct the movie. And what 0:04:23.080 --> 0:04:25.040 is it like interviewing with Adam? Saying, I mean you're 0:04:25.040 --> 0:04:28.039 talking about interviewing with Sandler? Yes, okay. So I had 0:04:28.120 --> 0:04:31.400 gone through, I had pitched my take on the movie. 0:04:31.520 --> 0:04:34.960 I had met with all the different producers. There's a 0:04:35.000 --> 0:04:37.640 lot of producers on this movie. I had met all 0:04:37.640 --> 0:04:41.640 the producers. Then I met with Netflix, had met with 0:04:41.760 --> 0:04:44.640 Jen and then I had to do the final meeting 0:04:44.640 --> 0:04:47.479 and interview with Adam. And I kept on getting text, 0:04:47.520 --> 0:04:50.000 Oh it's going to be tomorrow at eleven o'clock, he's 0:04:50.040 --> 0:04:52.520 gonna call you the next day. It was like on 0:04:52.640 --> 0:04:55.080 Thursday at two o'clock, he's gonna call. And this kind 0:04:55.080 --> 0:04:57.000 of went on and on for a couple of weeks, 0:04:59.160 --> 0:05:02.919 and then I got a text that said something like, hey, Bud, 0:05:03.080 --> 0:05:06.240 you're around. I said, yep, any any time, and then 0:05:06.279 --> 0:05:09.960 he FaceTime and me from the golf course I was in, 0:05:10.200 --> 0:05:12.320 I was in Kazan, I was in Syracuse, New York, 0:05:12.680 --> 0:05:16.120 by my house, and I walked around and he was 0:05:16.400 --> 0:05:20.920 in between holes. Just we were talking about life and 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:23.680 kids and really nothing to do with the movie. At 0:05:23.720 --> 0:05:25.400 the end of the at the end of the college 0:05:25.440 --> 0:05:27.880 was like, all right, let's do this. This will be fun. Hey, 0:05:27.920 --> 0:05:30.320 that's what it takes. Not bad. Did he remember you 0:05:30.600 --> 0:05:33.880 from your basketball days? He did, he did. He did 0:05:33.960 --> 0:05:36.599 remember me. He remembered me from my basketball days. He 0:05:36.640 --> 0:05:39.799 remembered me from a few times that we had spoken 0:05:39.800 --> 0:05:44.840 about business. And he definitely he checked me out for sure, 0:05:44.880 --> 0:05:47.320 because I know a bunch of people who were who 0:05:47.360 --> 0:05:51.400 he had called ahead of time, and yeah, I was. 0:05:52.200 --> 0:05:54.280 It was obviously a dream come true to be able 0:05:54.279 --> 0:05:56.360 to work with him. So what was your approach to 0:05:56.360 --> 0:05:58.839 the material, because what I remember from Murder Mystery the 0:05:58.880 --> 0:06:01.520 first one is it's the mix of who Done It, 0:06:01.560 --> 0:06:04.599 but it's also kind of silly comedy. I mean, are 0:06:04.600 --> 0:06:06.720 you staying in that vein with number two or did 0:06:06.720 --> 0:06:09.760 you do something different? Yeah, it's a little bit of 0:06:09.800 --> 0:06:13.880 a genre bending movie. They wanted this to be more 0:06:15.200 --> 0:06:18.120 more of like Taken and a little bit more action. Eka, 0:06:18.680 --> 0:06:23.520 So I really and worked off of Jamie Vanderbilt script 0:06:23.520 --> 0:06:25.960 and Jamie created a He wrote the first one and 0:06:26.000 --> 0:06:29.080 he created amazing characters and did a great job with 0:06:29.120 --> 0:06:31.560 the second script two. When I came in, I really 0:06:31.600 --> 0:06:35.279 wanted to build upon what he had initially put in 0:06:35.320 --> 0:06:39.760 there and did a lot with the romance between the 0:06:39.760 --> 0:06:41.760 two of them, really try to push the comedy and 0:06:41.960 --> 0:06:45.320 really try to push the action a lot. And James 0:06:45.400 --> 0:06:49.440 was actually incredibly helpful during the entire process. We worked 0:06:49.440 --> 0:06:54.080 together and yeah, this is so when you watched this movie, 0:06:54.640 --> 0:06:57.400 it's hard to say what genre it falls into it 0:06:57.680 --> 0:07:00.520 exactly because there's definitely a who Done It, there's definitely 0:07:00.560 --> 0:07:03.440 an element of action. There's a huge element of action, 0:07:03.760 --> 0:07:07.120 and of course there's a romance between Adam and Jen 0:07:08.080 --> 0:07:12.920 and yeah, and it's funny and the thing I remember 0:07:12.960 --> 0:07:17.120 about the Breakup movie was also somewhat of a genre bender, 0:07:17.160 --> 0:07:20.280 where it seemed like it was a typical romantic comedy 0:07:20.480 --> 0:07:22.280 and then it gets a little dark towards the end. 0:07:22.320 --> 0:07:24.880 I mean that was something back in the day where 0:07:24.920 --> 0:07:28.720 you didn't see romantic comedies go there. And I'm just curious, 0:07:29.120 --> 0:07:32.520 you know, how did you get a studio to take 0:07:32.560 --> 0:07:35.120 the leap with material like that at the breakup or 0:07:35.120 --> 0:07:37.960 a murder mystery the breakup? Oh, so the Breakup we 0:07:38.000 --> 0:07:42.840 wrote a pretty um we wrote a pretty great script, 0:07:42.960 --> 0:07:45.239 Like as a team, we wrote a pretty great script, 0:07:45.280 --> 0:07:48.720 and we wrote it on spec and we went out 0:07:48.760 --> 0:07:51.480 to every studio and Vince had just come off of 0:07:52.520 --> 0:07:56.320 wedding Crashers. I think so he was. He was definitely 0:07:56.320 --> 0:07:59.640 a hot commodity. Yeah it was. He was couldn't have 0:07:59.640 --> 0:08:04.680 been hot. And we went out with it and every 0:08:04.720 --> 0:08:08.440 studio wanted it. Almost all of them said, well, we 0:08:08.480 --> 0:08:11.320 want this, but we want you to change the ending, 0:08:12.320 --> 0:08:14.520 which was the dark part. We won't spoil it for 0:08:14.520 --> 0:08:16.240 those who haven't seen it. I read to end those 0:08:16.240 --> 0:08:18.920 fifteen years ago. Hey, it's still out there. I remember 0:08:19.000 --> 0:08:22.040 getting a call from Scott Stubor, who was the head 0:08:22.040 --> 0:08:24.240 of Universal at the time, and that was the head 0:08:24.240 --> 0:08:28.080 of Netflix, and he said, I love this script so much, 0:08:28.240 --> 0:08:31.240 and I want to do it here, and I don't 0:08:31.280 --> 0:08:34.319 want you to touch this ending. This is the perfect ending. 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:39.040 And we ended up going with Scott Steubert at Universal 0:08:39.679 --> 0:08:43.920 and we shot it. And after we shot it, we 0:08:43.960 --> 0:08:48.880 tested the movie and I remember the head of this studio, 0:08:49.360 --> 0:08:52.360 I think it was Ron Meyer at the time. We say, 0:08:52.480 --> 0:08:56.240 I think his line was have them get together at 0:08:56.240 --> 0:08:57.960 the end and you get back the brink struck in. 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:03.160 So we ended up having to go and reshoot an ending. 0:09:03.200 --> 0:09:06.600 We should reshot two different endings. One it was a 0:09:06.640 --> 0:09:10.199 big Hollywood ending, it was pretty ridiculous. And then we 0:09:10.240 --> 0:09:12.880 shot what's now in the movie, where there's kind of 0:09:12.880 --> 0:09:16.640 a there's a glimmer of hope at the end that 0:09:16.920 --> 0:09:22.200 maybe they'll get together at some point in time. But 0:09:23.280 --> 0:09:27.080 at the time, when you had dark endings like that 0:09:27.160 --> 0:09:31.240 or endings that weren't the perfect Hollywood ending, testing doesn't 0:09:32.080 --> 0:09:36.400 people don't love those endings. But I'm so happy that 0:09:36.440 --> 0:09:39.360 we stuck with that because over the years I received 0:09:39.440 --> 0:09:45.800 so many emails and comments about how much people appreciated 0:09:45.840 --> 0:09:48.600 that ending because it was so true to life. And 0:09:48.640 --> 0:09:50.160 I'm curious. You know, you've worked on a lot of 0:09:50.160 --> 0:09:54.240 films since then. Do you feel that Hollywood has become 0:09:54.800 --> 0:09:58.440 more or less risky in terms of the kind of 0:09:58.480 --> 0:10:01.000 creative decisions that you know back then that was so 0:10:01.320 --> 0:10:05.360 courageous for a movie like that. Is Hollywood still friendly 0:10:05.400 --> 0:10:09.680 towards that kind of material? I think Hollywood itself is 0:10:09.800 --> 0:10:12.520 not friendly to that, is less friendly to that kind 0:10:12.520 --> 0:10:19.000 of material. Right now, everything is algorithms, right, but there 0:10:19.040 --> 0:10:22.880 are companies like A twenty four or our company, American High, 0:10:22.880 --> 0:10:28.240 where you where you're seeing a lot of original thoughts 0:10:28.240 --> 0:10:32.439 and original visions that are kind of outside of the 0:10:32.480 --> 0:10:38.839 Hollywood system. We'll talk more about American High. We'll be 0:10:38.880 --> 0:10:49.000 back in just a moment with Jeremy Garrelck. We are 0:10:49.120 --> 0:10:52.800 back with Jeremy Garlick. He is the director of the 0:10:52.880 --> 0:10:57.600 new Netflix movie Murder Mystery Too. Let's talk American High. 0:10:57.679 --> 0:11:02.480 Murder Mystery Too is separate from that. This is this 0:11:02.559 --> 0:11:04.920 is really it's one of the more fascinating stories I've 0:11:04.920 --> 0:11:09.400 heard in terms of taking an unusual entrepreneurial role to 0:11:09.679 --> 0:11:14.720 making movies. You bought a high school in Syracuse, New 0:11:14.800 --> 0:11:19.720 York walk back towards what made you do something like that? 0:11:19.800 --> 0:11:24.200 What was the point of it? Thank you? I was 0:11:24.360 --> 0:11:27.760 I had just finished shooting The Wedding Ringer with Kevin 0:11:27.760 --> 0:11:31.000 Hart and Josh Gad and it tests that one tested 0:11:31.080 --> 0:11:35.560 through the roof at the time, and I was everyone saying, Okay, 0:11:35.600 --> 0:11:36.559 what do you want to do next? What do you 0:11:36.600 --> 0:11:38.680 want to do next? I said, I want to do this. 0:11:39.400 --> 0:11:41.439 I want to do it in orated high school comedy, 0:11:41.480 --> 0:11:44.080 like the movies I grew up on Fast Times at 0:11:44.120 --> 0:11:47.520 Ridgemont High and Poor Keys and of course super Bad 0:11:47.520 --> 0:11:52.040 and all the John News movies. And the studio response was, 0:11:52.480 --> 0:11:55.400 we can't make this kind of a movie. And I said, 0:11:55.400 --> 0:11:57.760 I don't understand. If we're you know, we could make 0:11:57.800 --> 0:12:02.160 this movie for five, five, ten million dollars, And they said, well, 0:12:02.200 --> 0:12:05.319 you still have to spend twenty to twenty five million 0:12:05.360 --> 0:12:08.840 dollars to put it out there, and if the movie 0:12:08.920 --> 0:12:13.040 makes seventy five in the box office, which would be massive, 0:12:13.720 --> 0:12:18.400 it's still not worth that risk when the same studio 0:12:18.520 --> 0:12:23.439 is doing Spider Man, right. So this was the philosophy 0:12:23.480 --> 0:12:25.880 at the time from all of the studios. So nobody 0:12:25.920 --> 0:12:30.280 wanted to make these So I was trying to figure 0:12:30.280 --> 0:12:32.319 out why and like, why couldn't we just do this 0:12:32.520 --> 0:12:36.439 on our own? And I started just read. I started 0:12:36.440 --> 0:12:39.480 telling everybody all I want to do, every agent, every producer, 0:12:39.559 --> 0:12:41.040 all I want to do is make high school movies. 0:12:41.080 --> 0:12:42.920 I want to find this R rated high school movie. 0:12:42.960 --> 0:12:45.880 We started getting all of these submissions, and as I'm 0:12:45.920 --> 0:12:49.120 reading the high school movies, they all have the same sets. 0:12:49.160 --> 0:12:53.400 It's always it's a gym, it's the auditorium, it's the 0:12:53.440 --> 0:12:58.600 local diner, it's the classroom. And having been on a 0:12:58.640 --> 0:13:02.439 bunch of movies Spittrol Schumacher for a while, I was like, Oh, 0:13:03.080 --> 0:13:07.320 the locations are It's are so expensive. There's such an 0:13:07.320 --> 0:13:11.040 expensive part of making a film that I wonder if 0:13:11.080 --> 0:13:14.440 we made instead of just doing one movie, if we 0:13:14.520 --> 0:13:19.800 made three high school movies and we just said everything 0:13:19.880 --> 0:13:23.480 it was the same same location. And I try to 0:13:23.559 --> 0:13:26.160 like run the numbers as to what that would would 0:13:26.200 --> 0:13:29.760 save us, and it ended up saving about a third 0:13:29.800 --> 0:13:33.120 of the cost in terms of the production cost. So 0:13:33.160 --> 0:13:35.360 then I was just thinking, if I were to just 0:13:35.720 --> 0:13:39.400 own the location and can completely control the location, we 0:13:39.400 --> 0:13:41.160 could store all the equipment there, we could have all 0:13:41.160 --> 0:13:44.880 the production there, we could house people close by, We 0:13:44.960 --> 0:13:49.720 could make a pretty expensive looking, high quality film for 0:13:50.960 --> 0:13:54.880 a third of the cost. So I started googling, you know, 0:13:55.360 --> 0:13:58.320 I literally just started googling how to buy a high school, 0:13:58.440 --> 0:14:03.080 like high schools for sale, and um, many high schools 0:14:03.080 --> 0:14:05.240 were for sale, there were a lot of them. And 0:14:05.480 --> 0:14:09.600 I was looking in tax incentive where there were tax incentives, 0:14:09.720 --> 0:14:12.400 and I was looking in Detroit, and I was looking 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:15.600 in Georgia, and I got one one popped up on 0:14:15.679 --> 0:14:18.959 my loop net account. In loop I've not heard that. 0:14:19.040 --> 0:14:20.920 I was a little plugged for loot neet. I hope 0:14:20.920 --> 0:14:25.080 I can get some some free membership from loop neet 0:14:25.120 --> 0:14:28.760 on that um. But it was in Liverpool, New York, 0:14:28.800 --> 0:14:32.040 and it looked like the perfect John Us town and 0:14:32.120 --> 0:14:36.160 a perfect John Us thing um building. And I just 0:14:36.360 --> 0:14:39.560 remember Will, who was my assistant at the time now 0:14:39.640 --> 0:14:41.800 my partner. We hopped on a flight and we flew 0:14:41.840 --> 0:14:44.720 to Liverpool, New York, which is a suburb of Syracuse, 0:14:45.240 --> 0:14:47.520 and I said, this is this is it, like this 0:14:47.600 --> 0:14:50.880 is where we're going to make this happen, and um, 0:14:50.920 --> 0:14:53.800 I bought this, made an offer, bought the school for 0:14:53.880 --> 0:14:57.560 how much we have to ask it's public, it's public records, 0:14:57.600 --> 0:15:00.360 so it was a million we we I bought it 0:15:00.400 --> 0:15:03.560 for a million dollars. Wow. It's one hundred thousand square 0:15:03.680 --> 0:15:08.040 foot building on eight acres a lane. So coming from 0:15:08.080 --> 0:15:11.440 Los Angeles, where land and buildings are very expensive, it 0:15:11.440 --> 0:15:15.880 seemed like a pretty incredible deal. Did you get backers 0:15:15.920 --> 0:15:19.520 to help you with this investment? I took out a 0:15:19.560 --> 0:15:22.560 lot of yes. I took out a lot of loans, 0:15:23.720 --> 0:15:28.680 went into a lot of debt and was able to 0:15:29.560 --> 0:15:33.640 do it. And then once I had the high school 0:15:34.280 --> 0:15:39.720 and this business plan, I then went to a handful 0:15:39.720 --> 0:15:43.840 of different investors and backers and initially made a deal 0:15:43.920 --> 0:15:49.000 with Mickey Ladell or ld Entertainment, who was just incredible 0:15:49.120 --> 0:15:51.520 who when I pitched him this idea, he was like, great, 0:15:51.560 --> 0:15:54.400 let's do it. And but I would imagine you may 0:15:54.440 --> 0:15:56.200 have pitched this elsewhere and people might have thought you 0:15:56.240 --> 0:15:58.520 were nuts. I mean, this is different I did. I 0:15:58.560 --> 0:16:02.920 pitched it to a bunch of places and everyone thought 0:16:03.000 --> 0:16:06.520 I was nuts, and everyone asked to see the scripts. 0:16:06.520 --> 0:16:08.440 I was like, well, let's see what the scripts are, 0:16:09.320 --> 0:16:12.480 and Mickey didn't even Mickey was just like, I trust you. 0:16:12.520 --> 0:16:14.880 I trust that you're you know, just from what you've done. 0:16:15.360 --> 0:16:17.440 I believe in you. I believe in this vision, and 0:16:17.480 --> 0:16:19.040 if you want to go do this, let's just go 0:16:19.120 --> 0:16:22.200 do this. And he was able. He basically started writing 0:16:22.280 --> 0:16:28.120 checks and we started making these low budget high school movies. 0:16:28.320 --> 0:16:30.680 But I'd imagine it's not so simple to walk into 0:16:30.920 --> 0:16:33.920 a town in Syracuse and say, hey, I'm just going 0:16:33.960 --> 0:16:38.640 to start making movies here. Okay, so this is probably 0:16:38.680 --> 0:16:42.800 a podcast in and of itself, but yes, I the 0:16:43.440 --> 0:16:47.200 school is located in the village of Liverpool, which is 0:16:47.200 --> 0:16:49.960 a small village. It's a suburb of Syracuse, and there's 0:16:50.000 --> 0:16:52.840 a there's a mayor of Liverpool, and there is a 0:16:53.240 --> 0:16:57.880 board in Liverpool. And I had purchased the building and 0:16:57.960 --> 0:16:59.880 we were ready to go, and we were told that 0:17:00.640 --> 0:17:03.960 we couldn't make these movies because it wasn't zoned for 0:17:04.040 --> 0:17:09.040 commercial use. I said, so, okay, so this plan already 0:17:09.080 --> 0:17:13.280 starting off. Not so again. I said, what's a zoned for? 0:17:13.480 --> 0:17:16.240 They said it zoned for a school. It's zoned for 0:17:16.320 --> 0:17:19.800 either a trade school or or high school. I said, well, 0:17:19.840 --> 0:17:22.600 we're going to let's start a school. And we then 0:17:22.640 --> 0:17:27.159 went around to all the local university Syracuse University on 0:17:27.200 --> 0:17:29.879 a doga community college. When we went around and we 0:17:29.960 --> 0:17:32.439 pitched all of these colleges on what we were going 0:17:32.480 --> 0:17:36.119 to do, and we partnered with all the colleges to 0:17:36.160 --> 0:17:40.000 create internships where these students would come and they would 0:17:40.000 --> 0:17:42.600 work on our films and we would whoever was coming in, 0:17:42.600 --> 0:17:46.800 whatever producers, actors, directors would be the teachers and the 0:17:46.880 --> 0:17:49.480 mentors for all of these students, and we became a 0:17:49.560 --> 0:17:54.240 qualified trade trade school. That's just genius. But what we 0:17:54.240 --> 0:17:56.960 were doing it just to solve that initial challenge of 0:17:57.920 --> 0:18:02.479 you can't do business here. And what the result was 0:18:02.480 --> 0:18:06.720 was we created a local crew where there really was 0:18:06.760 --> 0:18:10.760 no local crew before. And the school is now a 0:18:10.920 --> 0:18:14.320 huge part of our business. We've I think we've we've 0:18:14.440 --> 0:18:19.080 had over one hundred crew members become union crew members 0:18:19.400 --> 0:18:23.159 having gone through our academy training program. So it was 0:18:23.200 --> 0:18:29.679 an accidental solve that resulted in um in a huge 0:18:29.720 --> 0:18:34.880 part of our business model. So fast forward how many 0:18:34.960 --> 0:18:38.040 years now as American hyve in operation five years and 0:18:38.080 --> 0:18:40.800 you've made how many movies over that time? Wow? That 0:18:40.800 --> 0:18:44.480 that is a very good question. I think close to fourteen, 0:18:45.320 --> 0:18:50.040 maybe fifteen, and COVID was COVID was was a struggle 0:18:50.160 --> 0:18:53.520 because nobody was making movies during COVID. We actually were 0:18:54.000 --> 0:18:57.679 think we were the first movie to movie studio to 0:18:57.800 --> 0:19:04.160 go back into production during COVID. And if you were 0:19:04.200 --> 0:19:07.959 all of these movies on Hulu, no, So the first 0:19:08.000 --> 0:19:11.800 one was bought by was Sony. It was distributed, bought 0:19:11.840 --> 0:19:14.320 and distributed by Sony called Holly Slept Over. Then there 0:19:14.359 --> 0:19:20.600 was Banana Split, which was universal. Then there was there 0:19:20.760 --> 0:19:25.680 was the Ultimate Playlist of Noise right Um. Then there 0:19:25.760 --> 0:19:29.119 was a movie called Big Time Adolescence which was bought 0:19:29.119 --> 0:19:32.640 by Hulu at Sundance. C Davidson was in that one 0:19:33.560 --> 0:19:37.840 from Saturday Night Live. Jason Orley wrote and directed the script. 0:19:39.160 --> 0:19:43.919 And we then made our deal with Hulu to do 0:19:44.280 --> 0:19:48.119 got It eight movies for Hulu. And now we're learning 0:19:48.160 --> 0:19:50.239 that you were doing more for them. Yeah, we have 0:19:50.280 --> 0:19:53.000 one more with Hulu on the original deal, and then 0:19:53.040 --> 0:19:55.399 we have another slate. We just closed a deal to 0:19:55.400 --> 0:19:57.720 do another slate of films for them, which we're really 0:19:57.720 --> 0:20:01.280 excited about because we've had a pretty amazing working relationship 0:20:01.320 --> 0:20:04.880 with So. How looking back at you know, you took 0:20:05.359 --> 0:20:08.440 a really interesting risk. Did it play out the way 0:20:08.440 --> 0:20:10.440 you thought it was. Did you learn things that maybe 0:20:10.480 --> 0:20:17.240 you weren't even expecting. This played out so differently than 0:20:17.800 --> 0:20:22.280 anything I could have ever imagined. I didn't really have 0:20:22.320 --> 0:20:25.119 a full plan when I was going into it. I 0:20:25.160 --> 0:20:27.200 was kind of like, Oh, this could be this could work, 0:20:27.240 --> 0:20:29.240 this could be fun, and we'd go make a few 0:20:29.280 --> 0:20:31.720 movies and see if this works. This could be a 0:20:31.800 --> 0:20:35.280 fun thing. I was going to do them out a 0:20:35.280 --> 0:20:39.359 little bit higher of a budget and with the hope 0:20:39.359 --> 0:20:45.800 of everything being theatrical, and then theatrical basically was killed 0:20:46.200 --> 0:20:49.720 during our first release of Banana Split, and Big Time 0:20:49.720 --> 0:20:54.840 Adolescents were supposed to be theatrically released and they were 0:20:55.960 --> 0:20:59.679 so Banana Split came out the week that Tom Hanks 0:21:00.000 --> 0:21:03.040 announced that he had COVID and the NBA was canceled 0:21:03.160 --> 0:21:05.960 right about March twenty twenty, I want to say yeah. 0:21:06.040 --> 0:21:08.800 And then Big Time Adolescence was scheduled to come out 0:21:08.960 --> 0:21:15.600 theatrially two weeks later, and that basically changed our entire 0:21:15.680 --> 0:21:21.639 business model into just stream a streaming business model. The 0:21:21.680 --> 0:21:26.359 biggest thing I probably didn't expect was the impact on 0:21:26.600 --> 0:21:32.440 the local community and economy. Um. I've had so many 0:21:32.480 --> 0:21:37.920 people who are in Syracuse who who've wanted to be 0:21:39.040 --> 0:21:42.200 in the film industry who just didn't have the opportunity 0:21:42.240 --> 0:21:45.159 because they can't leave Syracuse for you know, family reasons 0:21:45.480 --> 0:21:51.000 or financial reasons, and people people who have been working 0:21:51.000 --> 0:21:54.639 with us now for four or five years. And what 0:21:54.760 --> 0:21:58.239 he didn't expect is that now every there are so 0:21:58.280 --> 0:22:00.760 many people who depend on us. How people to employ 0:22:00.800 --> 0:22:09.760 there full time? Probably ten okay, but we're consistently making films, 0:22:10.280 --> 0:22:16.000 so people make the bulk of their their living just 0:22:16.119 --> 0:22:20.439 working on our movies, which is a tremendous amount of 0:22:20.520 --> 0:22:25.040 pressure because I I've had people say, oh, thank you, 0:22:25.320 --> 0:22:28.120 we can now have a family. My wife is now pregnant. 0:22:28.320 --> 0:22:30.199 Now we could feel good having your family, And I'm like, 0:22:30.240 --> 0:22:34.400 oh God, don't put that one on me. But that's 0:22:34.440 --> 0:22:37.840 the thing that I didn't I didn't expect to have 0:22:38.680 --> 0:22:42.200 the impact on the local community and feel like that 0:22:42.400 --> 0:22:45.760 was now my job more than actually making the movies, 0:22:45.840 --> 0:22:48.000 if that makes sense. Sure, I feel more of a 0:22:48.080 --> 0:22:53.080 responsibility to continue to make movies for the local community 0:22:53.080 --> 0:22:59.080 and local economy then I that would have ever dropped 0:22:59.119 --> 0:23:02.200 up now is every movie that you're doing in American 0:23:02.280 --> 0:23:05.480 high in that sort of teen friendly vein that you 0:23:05.520 --> 0:23:08.120 set out to do, or do you branch out or 0:23:08.280 --> 0:23:11.560 so for the most part, um, the movies we're making 0:23:11.560 --> 0:23:14.119 are in the teen space, sort of the John Usian 0:23:14.280 --> 0:23:21.160 type films, but with a diverse cast and telling stories 0:23:21.200 --> 0:23:24.080 of characters that would have been in the background and 0:23:24.160 --> 0:23:25.879 John you use movies or like the butt of the 0:23:25.920 --> 0:23:28.919 joke and having them be the main characters. We have 0:23:29.119 --> 0:23:32.000 branched out if a script jumps out at us as 0:23:32.080 --> 0:23:36.240 being particularly special, like, um, we did a film called 0:23:36.320 --> 0:23:40.720 I Love My Dad, Yeah right, with Patton and James 0:23:40.760 --> 0:23:44.520 Morrissini wrote in and directed. It was just incredible and 0:23:44.880 --> 0:23:46.919 it was just one of those scripts where I started 0:23:46.920 --> 0:23:50.640 reading I couldn't put it down. So so we did 0:23:50.400 --> 0:23:54.040 do that film, and we will branch out if there's 0:23:54.080 --> 0:23:56.960 something special, But for the most part, we're doing high 0:23:56.960 --> 0:24:00.840 school high school stuff. That's our main focus. And describe 0:24:00.880 --> 0:24:03.800 the market today for those movies, because you were saying 0:24:03.800 --> 0:24:07.000 earlier that financially there was a time where Hollywood was like, yeah, 0:24:07.040 --> 0:24:09.560 this doesn't make sense. Now I assume in the streaming 0:24:09.560 --> 0:24:11.840 age it makes a lot of sense, or maybe it's 0:24:11.840 --> 0:24:15.560 still to sledging to get these done. It's all tough. 0:24:15.680 --> 0:24:18.359 Everything's tough. It's not easy to get a film made 0:24:18.440 --> 0:24:22.800 at all. Every movie we've made so far has been 0:24:22.800 --> 0:24:27.840 a miracle and has taken a lot of work. I 0:24:28.960 --> 0:24:33.160 what I know is that people still like watching these movies. 0:24:33.640 --> 0:24:36.600