Sometimes great things come from serendipitous introductions. Such is the story of Flock of Dudes, a movie starring Hollywood notables including Chris D’Elia, Hannah Simone, Skylar Astin, Bryan Greenberg, Eric Andre, Marc Maron, Hilary Duff, Brett Gelman, Jamie Chung, and Ray Liotta, and set to hit theaters on September 30th. In fact, it was quite unforeseen that this particular flock of dudes would come together to produce Flock of Dudes, which is a comedy about a group of friends who break up their friendship in the name of growing up. Four years ago, Flock of Dudes wasn’t even in the cards for Kaufman who is best known for recently writing, directing and producing the movie Urge, which stars Pierce Brosnan, Ashley Greene, and Danny Masterson. Prior to that he produced Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, Machete, Machete Kills, Spread, The Greatest and the US remake of 13 Tzameti. As for his co-producer, Brian Levin, he came to fame through his online comedy show, The Post Show which aired on Funny or Die, CNN.com and G4’s Attack of the Show, and was right in the midst of writing and producing Flock of Dudes when a mutual friend, actor Danny Masterson (That 70s Show, The Ranch, Urge) introduced Levin and Kaufman. The meeting came when Kaufman was working at Troublemaker Studios during the production of Spy Kids 4 and was in need of someone to do a comedy punch up of the script. Kaufman introduced The Post Show to the film’s director, Robert Rodriguez, who gave the boys a shot. While working together, Levin mentioned his project, Flock of Dudes, and, as Kaufman describes it, the movie itself ended up taking on a life of its own.
I recently spent an afternoon getting the lowdown on Flock of Dudes right from the co-producing dudes themselves, Aaron Kaufman and Brian Levin, where we talked about how their little flock of dudes worked together to make Flock of Dudes possible.
No Permission Needed: What is most interesting about Brian Levin is that he started his own online comedy show in 2005 called The Post Show. To give you some context, he had an online show before Youtube had launched. There are millions of want-to-be comedy writers, producers, and directors who are starving artists, knocking on doors, applying for jobs, and submitting their work to gate keepers waiting for the permission they need to build a career in an industry they are passionate about. The competition is heavy and the barriers to entry are high. They didn’t wait for any gate keeper’s permission. They simply started doing what they loved, for anyone and everyone who was willing to watch and listen. And such was the beginning of the story of Brian Levin and The Post Show. He and his two close friends, Bob Castrone and Jason Zumwait, created an online show and started producing comedy. It wasn’t long before their videos landed in the right hands. One video, “No Direction, Period” went viral, making its way onto CNN. The Post Show turned out to be an outlier in the industry, a show which benefited from being early to online distribution. The traction continued and soon Brian, and his co-writers, Bob and Jason, were pursued by UTA and began writing and producing pilots and selling screenplays as their feet were firmly in the door of the movie and television industry. Levin says that if you have extreme passion for your work, start doing it and getting it out to the world in any way that you can. It’s hard work and it’s risky, but at least you are creating and building your expertise and your portfolio. The alternative, says Levin, is knocking on doors, waiting(sometimes waiting a lifetime) to do the work that you want to do, instead of just creating. He says for him, success meant that he had to keep showing the world what he was capable of day in and day out, even if there wasn’t a huge audience at first, because all of the hard work was preparing him for the day in which the world would take notice.
Only As Good As Your Partners: Kaufman says that in business, in life, and in movies, you are only as good as your partners. Kaufman was impressed with The Post Show and saw potential for their movie, Flock of Dudes. Kaufman worked with Levin to buy back back the rights to the film so that they could develop, package, and finance it independently. In April of 2016 they announced that Starz Digital had purchased the film and that a theatrical and digital release would take place in the fall of 2016. Kaufman says that it’s been awesome working with Levin, noting that getting any film made requires hundreds of partnership dynamics. He says Levin and The Post Show are incredibly talented comedy writers, and beyond that, Brian and the rest of the team are very much open to learning all they can about the movie industry. Kaufman says that Levin is also tenacious and not afraid to work hard and to question everything. He says that it would have been easy for Levin to let Flock of Dudes just sit with its original owner, and the movie would never have seen the light of day. But, he didn’t accept the status quo. He kept asking questions, and figured out a way to buy back the rights so that they could find a better partner. Kaufman ultimately introduced The Post Show to Kilburn Media’s founder, Mark Manuel, who ultimately green lit the project. Levin and Kaufman are excited about the partnership with Starz Digital. Outside of the theatrical release and their bold Video on Demand strategy, Starz has also partnered with HULU to showcase the film on their service early next year.
The Art of the Deal: When Levin first approached Kaufman about producing the movie, he was hesitant if only because he was producing large-scale studio films such as Sin City: A Dame to Kill For at the time. Kaufman had never worked on a comedy before. What Aaron did understand well was that Levin and The Post Show showed promise and had written a fresh and funny screenplay. Kaufman helped to put together a truly amazing comedy ensemble filled with a slew of new comic talent who are now blowing up the comedy world such as Hannibal Buress, Kumail Nanjiani, and Chris D’elia. Kaufman says that the world for independent film has changed quite a bit. You have to be nimble and creative to get a movie made by first time talent financed and ultimately distributed.
Thanks to the happenstance introduction made by mutual Hollywood friend, Danny Masterson, two friends, Aaron Kaufman and Brian Levin, were able to bring a new brand of comedic talent to the screen. Watch the trailer, find it at your local theater on September 30th, and watch it on HULU in the fall.