And he wants your help.
A student of 90s children’s TV staples like Nickelodeon’s Hey Arnold! and The Adventures of Pete & Pete, filmmaker Tyler Taormina, 31, a LosAngeles resident and Smithtown native, didn’t always see film directing in his future.
Then, he assessed the time it would take to gain notable sets of industry eyes on his screenplays, and for meetings with big-name companies to turn greenlit pitches into something that’s actually shot. He weighed his experiences down these roads versus a reality where he could quickly roll out watchable content through personal financiering.
Sure enough, Taormina fell in love with cinema over television “and never really looked back.”
After filming a few shorts, his debut feature, Ham on Rye (2019) satiated the hunger of virtual theater audiences and critics alike. The Factory 25-distributed film garnered unanimous positive press amidst the Pandemic’s then-grave impact on traditional moviegoing. Keeping with his nostalgic sensisbilites, Taormina cast former Nickelodeon and Disney child stars Lori Beth Denberg (All That), Danny Tamberelli (All That, The Adventures of Pete & Pete, The Mighty Ducks) Clayton Snyder (Lizzie McGuire) and Aaron Schwartz (Heavyweights) for key adult roles in this mystery-drama about teenagers trying to escape suburbia.
Ham on Rye was selected under the “best films of the year” collection by Rolling Stone Magazine, The New Yorker and The New York Times. It currently sits at a whopping 96% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Taormina’s second feature-length film, Happer’s Comet, was shot around the early days of the COVID lockdown – in Smithtown, with a small crew and cast “basically of friends and family and a few actors.” The film won 4 awards and is currently screening at the 67th Valladolid International Film Festival in Spain.
“It was an experimental and esoteric feature,” Taormina admitted.
He describes getting out there and making a film during a time when screenwriting was not satisfying as “very empowering” and “medicinal.”
“We made a painstaking effort to be very meticulous about the image,” said Taormina. “It looks like a much higher production.”
And now he and his crew are looking to do it again.
With friend, collaborator and movie star Michael Cera (Superbad, Arrested Development) signed on to produce his third directorial outing, Taormina can’t disclose too much yet about the project, save for its killer elevator pitch tagline – Home Alone– meets-Dazed and Confused – and title, Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point.
What he can tell you, though, is he needs your help finding “grandma’s house.”
With Home Alone as a clear reference point for Taormina’s foray into the holiday comedy arena, he asks all locals to keep their eyes peeled for a usable home that “has that feeling of grandma’s house– doesn’t feel very modernistic,” but that which is “spacious and quaint.”
Learn more about what Taormina and his Omnes Film production team are exactly in need of, and how you can become involved with the upcoming movie shoot below. All inquirers can e-mail the crew directly at [email protected].
As for advice for local creatives wondering what high-concept ideas of theirs they should focus on when taking their next big steps into the business, Taormina offers simple but sound advice.
“I say do whatever the hell you want.”
Noted.
