EXCLUSIVE: Following the November 25 Paramount+ launch of his holiday comedy Dear Santa, Bobby Farrelly has closed a deal to direct Driver’s Ed, a teen ensemble comedy to be fully financed and co-produced by Stuart Ford’s AGC Studio.
While we’d reported in October that Sporkinfeesten, a “finding your roots” style family vacation comedy loosely inspired by true events, would be Farrelly’s next project after Aaron and Will Eisenberg’s hot spec landed at Amazon MGM Studios, Driver’s Ed has gained traction first and moved to the top of the filmmaker’s docket, with casting underway for an early 2025 shoot in North Carolina.
Driver’s Ed centers on teens who steal their school’s driver’s ed car to go on a road trip to help a high school senior track down his college-freshman girlfriend and win her back. Jonas Pate, co-creator of Netflix’s smash hit YA series Outer Banks, and Jennifer Pate commissioned and developed the original screenplay by Thomas Moffett (Shrink, An Actor Prepares). The film is the first on a new cost-efficient YA film slate that they’re putting together.
Producers will include Jonas Pate (Outer Banks, Amazon’s upcoming The Runarounds), Jennifer Pate (The Runarounds), and TFC Management’s David Stone. Ford and Aghi Koh of AGC, Farrelly, and Scott Lambert (The Killer’s Game, Tár) will serve as executive producers, with AGC International handling worldwide sales.
Stated Ford of AGC, “When the Pates and David Stone brought us this unbelievably charming script, we immediately saw the crowd-pleasing potential of the film with audiences of all ages. To now have a director with Bobby’s amazing commercial track record onboard puts Driver’s Ed on a really exciting trajectory towards production early next year.”
Farrelly’s new film Dear Santa, starring Jack Black and up-and-comer Robert Timothy Smith, follows a boy who thinks he’s writing Santa, but after one crucial spelling error, winds up in dialogue with Satan instead. Prior to that, he took the helm on Champions, a heartfelt Focus Features comedy, starring Woody Harrelson and Kaitlin Olson, about a basketball coach working with a team of players with intellectual disabilities.
Alongside brother Peter, Bobby is one half of famed comedy duo the Farrelly Brothers, who together have made classic comedies like Dumb & Dumber and There’s Something About Mary, among many other films. Bobby also produced the award-winning documentary, The Lost Son of Havana, and has directed many hit TV shows, including Loudermilk, The Now, and Trailer Park Boys.
At the tail end of its busiest year to date, independent content studio AGC has Justin Kurzel’s true-crime thriller The Order, starring Jude Law, Nicholas Hoult, Tye Sheridan and Jurnee Smollet, coming up for release in the U.S. on December 6. Currently, the company is in post on Rowan Athale’s boxing drama Giant, starring Pierce Brosnan and Amir El-Masry. They’re also prepping Will Eubank’s The Last Druid starring Russell Crowe, as well as Tarsem Singh’s The Journeyman starring Dev Patel, and an adaptation of the bestselling children’s book Fing!.
Farrelly is repped by Independent Artist Group, Jeff Okin at Anonymous Content, and Cindy Gesner & Peter Grossman at Lichter, Grossman, Nichols; Moffett by 3 Arts Entertainment and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller; and Jonas Pate by TFC Management’s Stone and Carlos Goodman at Goodman, Genow, Schenkman. EVP of Legal & Business Affairs Anant Tamirisa negotiated deals for AGC Studios.
