Will Ropp has a confession to make. He borrowed a friend’s password to log on to the blacklist.
The actor-turned-director already had backing from production collective Act 4 Artists to make his feature directorial debut, but needed to find the right script.
“I tried to apply to be blacklisted, but I was denied because I had never made a film,” Ropp said. “So I got[my friend’s]login and read about 100 blacklist scripts.”
What he finds is “Brian,” a John Hughes-style coming-of-age comedy in which a high school student with an anxiety disorder falls in love with one of his teachers. The screenplay was written by Michael Scolins, the screenwriter for “Late Night with Seth Meyers.” “Then came the hard part of calling Mike Scolins and convincing a guy I’d never met and never made a movie to let me write the script,” Ropp says.
Ben Wang (The Best Kid: Legend and The Hunger Games: Sunrise) plays the lead role in Brian, with Natalie Morales playing the teacher. Randall Park and Eddie Patterson play Brian’s parents. William H. Macy is his therapist. Rounding out the cast are Joshua Collie as Brian’s new best friend and Sam Sung Lee as his brother.
Ben Wang, Will Ropp and Joshua Corrie on the set of “Brian.”
It’s not like Lopp had no experience behind the camera before “Brian.” His acting credits include “The Way Back,” “The Greatest Beer Run Ever,” “Love, Victor” and “The Sex Lives of College Girls,” but he made his directorial debut and began a partnership with Act 4 Artists in 2024 with the short comedy “Kodar: The Primordial God of Light and Ether.”
Shortly after he and Scolins signed the deal, Myers joined “Brian” as a producer. “It’s hard to direct movies about teenagers because when you’re a teenager you’re never allowed to do it (coward!),” Myers wrote in an email to me. “Will clearly remembers what made those years so difficult, interesting and formative, and he conveyed that very well to the cast. He also had to work with Scollins, so I can tell you from experience, no picnics.”
“Brian” is scheduled to have its world premiere during SXSW in Austin on Saturday, March 14th.
Although the film is primarily a comedy, it also tackles issues of mental health, which struck a chord with Ropp when he first read the script. “The line between comedy and tragedy is very fine,” he says. “In Smorgasbord, comedy and tragedy are all mixed together.” “I’ve always been a worrier. I’m very sensitive. Like Brian, I’ve had a lot of panic attacks. I wanted to convey what I feel a lot of people out there are going through. It shows the journey of adolescence, where everyone is trying to figure out who they are.”
