Nerdist Industries announced today at San Diego Comic-con that together with Tribeca Film they will co release Katie Graham and Andrew Matthews’s directorial debut “Zero Charisma.” The “Dungeons & Dragons” culture-inspired indie-dramedy, which world premiered at the 2013 SXSW Film Festival – taking home the audience award in the Narrative Spotlight category, stars Sam Eidson (Natural Selection, My Sucky Teen Romance), Garrett Graham, and Brock England. The film was written by Matthews and produced by Shark Films and Magic Stone.
Tribeca Film and Nerdist Industries will co-release the film this fall beginning October 8, 2013 on cable/telco and satellite video-on-demand platforms, as well as iTunes, Amazon Watch Instantly, VUDU, Playstation, and Google Play, followed by a theatrical release on October 11, 2013.
As the strict Game Master of a fantasy role-playing game, Scott (Sam Eidson) leads his friends in a weekly quest through mysterious lands from the safety of his grandmother’s kitchen. But his mastery of his own domain starts to slip — along with everything else in his life — when neo-nerd hipster Miles (Garrett Graham) joins the game, winning over the group with his confident charm and dethroning Scott with an unexpected coup. Caught in delusions of grandeur, Scott must roll the dice and risk everything to expose Miles as the fraud he believes him to be. A darkly comedic fable of epic proportions, Zero Charisma is an ode to nerds from every realm.
States Nerdist founder and chief creative officer Chris Hardwick, “My podcast mate Jonah Ray saw Zero Charisma at SXSW and immediately texted me to say it was one of the best movies of the year. When I saw it, I knew I had to tell as many people as I could about it. It’s hilarious, touching, beautiful, authentic and an eerily accurate echo of my first D&D group in the 80’s. I think the character of Scott will become a cultural hero. He is the personification of the nerd rage that boils in all of us when PEOPLE. DON’T. FOLLOW. THE. RULES. OF. THE GAME.”
“We couldn’t be happier to be working with the Nerdist and Tribeca Film. Both organizations have such credibility with audiences, cultural acuity and such love of storytelling, we feel very confident trusting them with our first film,” said Andrew Matthews & Katie Graham, co-directors of ‘Zero Charisma.’
Thomas Fernandes, Ezra Venetos, Andrew Matthews and Katie Graham produced. Michael and Lindsay Stephenson of Magic Stone served as executive producers alongside Rod Olson, and Shark Films – with producer Mr. Venetos.
Peter Levin, CEO of Nerdist and Jon Patricof, President and COO of Tribeca and Alison Diviney, manager of acquisitions, negotiated the deal with Adam Sher providing legal representation for the filmmakers.
