Since the breakout success of “Marcel the Shell With Shoes On,” filmmaker Dean Fleischer-Camp has become one of the most original online filmmakers working today. His latest project, “David,” released this month on Super Deluxe, is a dark comedy about a man who learns he only has five weeks to live.
“David” stars Nathan Fielder (“Nathan For You”) as the title character, and Jenny Slate (“Obvious Child”) as his ex-wife. On the surface, this star power is wasted behind the robotic inflections and blank stares that create the eerie tone in “David,” but creating such an idiosyncratic world is no easy task. It takes precision and clarity of vision to fully realize and sustain a unique aesthetic.
Read More: ‘David’ Review: ‘Marcel The Shell’ Meets ‘Twin Peaks’ In Dean Fleischer-Camp’s Surreal Series Starring Nathan Fielder
The experience of watching “David” is not unlike that of watching an experimental film; except “David” is funny,...
“David” stars Nathan Fielder (“Nathan For You”) as the title character, and Jenny Slate (“Obvious Child”) as his ex-wife. On the surface, this star power is wasted behind the robotic inflections and blank stares that create the eerie tone in “David,” but creating such an idiosyncratic world is no easy task. It takes precision and clarity of vision to fully realize and sustain a unique aesthetic.
Read More: ‘David’ Review: ‘Marcel The Shell’ Meets ‘Twin Peaks’ In Dean Fleischer-Camp’s Surreal Series Starring Nathan Fielder
The experience of watching “David” is not unlike that of watching an experimental film; except “David” is funny,...
- 9/20/2016
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
In an interview with Filmmaker Magazine, Dean Fleischer-Camp described the tone of his 2014 web series “Catherine” as “The New Banality.” With “David,” he adds yet another gem to his self-described banal canon.
The five-episode series premiered yesterday on Super Deluxe and stars Nathan Fielder (“Nathan For You”) as David, a recently-fired divorcee, as we learn from an uncannily accurate Tarot reader (Sally Berman). David’s vacantly concerned psychic tells him that he has a “black stone, like a rock, growing every minute” in his chest. If he doesn’t get rid of it, his body will de-compose in five weeks — hence the five episodes.
Read More: Comedy Studio Super Deluxe Signs Stephen Gaghan As Executive Producer
His search for answers leads to a therapist (who stuffs David’s last bill into an overflowing money drawer), an unhelpful priest (“Sometimes the Bible is really vague”) and a small-time baseball game. After...
The five-episode series premiered yesterday on Super Deluxe and stars Nathan Fielder (“Nathan For You”) as David, a recently-fired divorcee, as we learn from an uncannily accurate Tarot reader (Sally Berman). David’s vacantly concerned psychic tells him that he has a “black stone, like a rock, growing every minute” in his chest. If he doesn’t get rid of it, his body will de-compose in five weeks — hence the five episodes.
Read More: Comedy Studio Super Deluxe Signs Stephen Gaghan As Executive Producer
His search for answers leads to a therapist (who stuffs David’s last bill into an overflowing money drawer), an unhelpful priest (“Sometimes the Bible is really vague”) and a small-time baseball game. After...
- 9/9/2016
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
Today marks the official launch of Super Deluxe, Turner’s multiplatform digital content brand, which debuts with a strong lineup of names familiar to the comedy world, as well as one unexpected name: Stephen Gaghan, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of “Traffic.”
Read More: Magnolia To Distribute “Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie”
Super Deluxe president Wolfgang Hammer, speaking with IndieWire at a launch event last night, offered some clarity into what Gaghan’s role as an executive producer would be at the young studio, which is owned by Turner but operates as an independent unit.
“Steve is an amazing filmmaker,” Hammer said. “I’ve known him for a very long time. He’s a voice. He won an Emmy, he won an Academy Award. There’s no harm in having an Academy Award-winning writer/director to produce stuff for you.”
Hammer clarified that Gaghan would be producing things within the TV studio, but that they wouldn’t necessarily fall into the realm of comedy. “We’re a comedy brand, but we’ll do other things as well.”
The name “Super Deluxe” may in fact sound familiar if you’re a comedy nerd. Turner launched the original site in 2007, just as YouTube was becoming a true craze and Funny or Die was building its own nascent brand. But despite being an early digital platform for creators like Tim Heidecker, Eric Wareheim and Maria Bamford, the site was shut down in 2008 and its content absorbed into Adult Swim.
As part of the new Super Deluxe, Heidecker, Wareheim and partner Dave Kneebone have signed a development and production agreement. “[They’re] obviously huge talents themselves, but have an amazing trust within the creative community,” Hammer said.
That trust will extend to a strategy built around incubating new talent. The site will also be working with (per the official release) “fresh, new voices such as Dean Fleischer-Camp (‘Catherine’), Jen Tullock (HBO’s ‘A Lot’) and Hannah Utt, Hye Yun Park and Brandon Rogers.” The latter will be working on the new original half-hour “Magic Funhouse,” “an adult show about a kid’s show.”
As Hammer explained, “Our philosophy generally is that a lot of creatives, especially the eccentric ones, are not good at pitching. So we provide a safe environment for them to go make stuff. Whether that’s television or short form — doesn’t matter.”
Check out what Super Deluxe has in store today at superdeluxe.com.
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Related storiesFirst Look: Matthew McConaughey & Edgar Ramirez In Stephen Gaghan's 'Gold'Weinsteins' Dimension Drops Big Bucks on 'Gold' Starring Matthew McConaugheyHow One Writer Turned a Love for Writing Into an Oscar- and Emmy-Award Winning Career: Exclusive Excerpt from 'Traffic' Screenwriter Stephen Gaghan...
Read More: Magnolia To Distribute “Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie”
Super Deluxe president Wolfgang Hammer, speaking with IndieWire at a launch event last night, offered some clarity into what Gaghan’s role as an executive producer would be at the young studio, which is owned by Turner but operates as an independent unit.
“Steve is an amazing filmmaker,” Hammer said. “I’ve known him for a very long time. He’s a voice. He won an Emmy, he won an Academy Award. There’s no harm in having an Academy Award-winning writer/director to produce stuff for you.”
Hammer clarified that Gaghan would be producing things within the TV studio, but that they wouldn’t necessarily fall into the realm of comedy. “We’re a comedy brand, but we’ll do other things as well.”
The name “Super Deluxe” may in fact sound familiar if you’re a comedy nerd. Turner launched the original site in 2007, just as YouTube was becoming a true craze and Funny or Die was building its own nascent brand. But despite being an early digital platform for creators like Tim Heidecker, Eric Wareheim and Maria Bamford, the site was shut down in 2008 and its content absorbed into Adult Swim.
As part of the new Super Deluxe, Heidecker, Wareheim and partner Dave Kneebone have signed a development and production agreement. “[They’re] obviously huge talents themselves, but have an amazing trust within the creative community,” Hammer said.
That trust will extend to a strategy built around incubating new talent. The site will also be working with (per the official release) “fresh, new voices such as Dean Fleischer-Camp (‘Catherine’), Jen Tullock (HBO’s ‘A Lot’) and Hannah Utt, Hye Yun Park and Brandon Rogers.” The latter will be working on the new original half-hour “Magic Funhouse,” “an adult show about a kid’s show.”
As Hammer explained, “Our philosophy generally is that a lot of creatives, especially the eccentric ones, are not good at pitching. So we provide a safe environment for them to go make stuff. Whether that’s television or short form — doesn’t matter.”
Check out what Super Deluxe has in store today at superdeluxe.com.
Stay on top of the latest TV news! Sign up for our TV email newsletter here.
Related storiesFirst Look: Matthew McConaughey & Edgar Ramirez In Stephen Gaghan's 'Gold'Weinsteins' Dimension Drops Big Bucks on 'Gold' Starring Matthew McConaugheyHow One Writer Turned a Love for Writing Into an Oscar- and Emmy-Award Winning Career: Exclusive Excerpt from 'Traffic' Screenwriter Stephen Gaghan...
- 6/15/2016
- by Liz Shannon Miller
- Indiewire
When, in 2013, I spoke to Dean Fleischer Camp about his exquisitely deadpan web series, Catherine, created with Jenny Slate, I immediately wanted to know about its production design. How did he come up with its uncannily bland, generically discomforting visual spaces? The director told me that his inspirations included the ’90s TV show Kids in the Hall as well as Lars von Trier’s The Kingdom, but that part of the show’s visual aesthetic came from the porn-movie sets he was renting as a location. Now, Camp writes with word of a new project that furthers the aesthetic he’s been […]...
- 3/2/2015
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
When, in 2013, I spoke to Dean Fleischer Camp about his exquisitely deadpan web series, Catherine, created with Jenny Slate, I immediately wanted to know about its production design. How did he come up with its uncannily bland, generically discomforting visual spaces? The director told me that his inspirations included the ’90s TV show Kids in the Hall as well as Lars von Trier’s The Kingdom, but that part of the show’s visual aesthetic came from the porn-movie sets he was renting as a location. Now, Camp writes with word of a new project that furthers the aesthetic he’s been […]...
- 3/2/2015
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
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