The final round at a pub trivia game puts the random knowledge of six oddly-matched teammates to the test. …but knowing is only half the battle.
As far back as he can remember the movie theater has been Michael’s favorite place to be. As a child, he got lost for hours in the stories he found there, in a dark room, set apart from the “real” world. As he grew, Michael began to see the movie theater as a place where traditions are subverted–where the status quo gets turned on its head. And this is where his writing sensibilities lie–in taking an established concept or idea and finding a way to turn it into something completely different. From slasher films where the “sexy” girls are the most competent ones to a rom-com where the meet cute takes place during casting for a snuff film, there’s no trope he’s unwilling to push to its limit.
From an early age he was a storyteller, crafting worlds that he and his friends would play in, but it wasn’t until much later that he even realized he could be the guy to create the movies he so loved. After years of pursuing music performance and production, Michael sat down to write his first script, which he eventually turned into a movie. Since then he’s written more than fifteen feature films (and produced four of them) as well as written and produced a series of shorts. Michael has had several feature scripts both place as finalists and win in festivals and has had multiple short films win awards at festivals in recent years, including several that took top honors.
I love pub trivia. Over the last 10 years I’ve played somewhere between 800 and 1000 games of trivia. Mostly through Geeks who Drink but I’ll play any and all companies. I’ve participated in 6 Geek Bowls (Geeks Who Drink’s national championship) and when I travel the country for work or film fests, my wife and I always look for places to play.
For years I’ve wanted to make a movie that captures my love of pub trivia but the dilemma has always been, what’s more boring than 6 nerds sitting around a table? Over the past year visiting film fests with my last project, the gentrification comedy “Here Comes the Neighborhood” I’ve been kicking around ideas to finally make it work. I sat down with Steven Gunter, our Director of Photography, and we tossed around ideas to somehow make a table of talking heads into something dynamic. After suggestions of spaceships and alternate dimensions we settled on the sports metaphor and building a world inside their minds and outside the bar to hopefully make it into something really unique and fun.
Maybe you like pub trivia and maybe you don’t, but I think we’ve pulled together a movie for both crowds. It’s fun and appeals to non trivia nerds and sports fans but has just enough inside jokes to make the regular trivia player happy.