WILMINGTON — A filmmaker known for his hit Netflix series “Outer Banks” has started a new production company to feature young audience content and by February will be rolling cameras on its first movie.
READ MORE: ‘Outer Banks’ creator talks about new Amazon show to film in Wilmington
ALSO: Netflix’s ‘Outer Banks’ features local talent, director talks future, other projects in development
“Driver’s Ed” is a comedy written by Thomas Moffett and will have director Bobby Farrelly on board, according to producer Jonas Pate.
“We’ve long-admired him,” the Wilmington resident said of he and his wife, Jennifer, who co-founded a new yet-to-be-named production company.
Well-known as one-half of the Farrelly Brothers — behind classic comedies like “There’s Something About Mary,” “Kingpin,” “Shallow Hal,” and “Dumb and Dumber” — Bobby Farrelly immediately took to the script, Pate said. The director is part of the recently released “Dear Santa,” starring Jack Black, on Paramount+.
The Pates were able to quickly secure financing from Stuart Ford of AGC Studio as well.
The “Driver’s Ed” script follows two 18-year-olds, a senior high-school student and his college girlfriend, as they navigate a long-distance relationship during her freshman year at a university. The high schooler is taking driver’s ed and ends up on a road trip to Chapel Hill with random classmates after his teacher steps out of the car briefly during a road lesson.
“A road trip movie always ends up funny,” Pate said, “and this one has a lot of hijinks.”
Film prep begins in Wilmington in the new year and the film will shoot in February and wrap in time for Pate to take on the final season of “Outer Banks.” It begins shooting in the spring through the end of 2025.
“We actually got the script two or so years ago and wanted to film it beforehand,” Pate said of commissioning “Driver’s Ed.” “But other projects kept getting in the way.”
This includes “The Runarounds,” which filmed from summer through fall this year at numerous Wilmington locations, including but not limited to New Hanover High School, Carolina Place neighborhood, The Eagle’s Dare, Seabird, and Cinespace Studios. Another YA-centered project, also co-produced by his wife, “The Runarounds” is about a group of high schoolers who are graduating and trying to figure out college plans and their careers but decide instead to start a band, with dreams of making it big.
It was filmed with the same crew as “Outer Banks,” many of whom are locals, such as Bo Webb (cinematographer), Tom Parris (locations) and Holly Sago (makeup), among others. Pate said the crew will also flesh out “Driver’s Ed” and other projects backed by his production company.
“We all work well together,” he said. “And the goal is to always have the local film community working.”
Originally, Pate hoped to film “Driver’s Ed” in the western part of North Carolina but switched plans after Helene devastated the area. He said his goal with the production company’s projects is to highlight all of the Tar Heel State, which could mean moving films and series from Charlotte to Raleigh to Asheville.
The casting for “Driver’s Ed” is being worked out currently and Pate said he imagines new faces to take on the teenage roles.
“One of the great joys of ‘Outer Banks’ and ‘The Runarounds’ is we found actors that people didn’t know,” Pate said. “And we love doing that — to watch all the casts, such as on ‘Outer Banks,’ succeed the way they have.”
The adult roles in the “Driver’s Ed” film will likely consist of familiar faces, he clarified, but they’re still being finalized.
Pate got his start in the film industry with his brother, Joshua. The two have been involved in multiple projects together, including the Wilmington-shot series “Surface,” which ran for a season on NBC in 2005. They both wrote “Outer Banks,” which hit massive fanfare on Netflix in 2020, and the recently wrapped “The Runarounds,” to debut on Amazon by summer 2025. The latter, in part, was inspired by Pate’s visits to his brother, when Josh attended UNC Chapel Hill, to see the band Dillon Fence.
Though Pate said he didn’t imagine the young adult sector would be the genre he focused his film career on, nonetheless he has enjoyed immersing himself into it.
“It’s fun, it’s creative, and it has mass appeal,” Pate said.
Hence, he has a cadre of scripts already stacked up to feature YA content with his and Jennifer’s production company.
“A lot of people may not realize this but the ‘Outer Banks’ audience is around 15 percent youth,” Pate said, “which means it has a diverse crowd. I think young adult content appeals to all ages because it reminds people of when they were younger. There is definitely a sense of nostalgia there.”
Pate thinks back to the ‘80s and some of his favorite John Hughes films and said he wants to bring back the same caliber of work to the big screen, revered decades later because of its timelessness.
“Anthony Michael Hall just had a great run in ‘Sixteen Candles’ and then ‘The Breakfast Club,’” Pate said, noting he thinks the actor’s comedic chops were at the top of his game.
Pate calls “Driver’s Ed” “The Breakfast Club on wheels.”
The goal is to sell the film for theatrical release and no streamer is attached to it yet.
He is also currently writing the second season of “The Runarounds,” as Amazon has already signed off on fleshing out the plot.
“It’s almost unheard of,” Pate said, since the show hasn’t garnered audience feedback yet. “But they loved what they saw so far. It’s so good — we’re really proud of it. So they gave us the go-ahead to start writing; projects are green lit in multiple stages, so they have to read what we write and see if it will be pursued further.”
And Pate already has ideas he wants to broach next in “The Runarounds”; he told PCD in February season two would parallel the band’s life hitting the road while on tour. Though he anticipates a good deal of the show will be filmed in Wilmington again, “The Runarounds” likely will roll cameras in other places, too.
First, Pate has to wrap the “Outer Banks” series finale. The timing feels right, he said, conceding his cast is aging out after six years.
“We don’t want to still be doing this and it looks like Chase Stokes is turning 40,” Pate quipped.
However, it won’t be the last audiences will see of the Pogues and the Kooks; Pate is also working on the prequel, “Kildare,” as originally reported by PCD in June 2023. It will have a whole new set of younger actors, as it will take place at the founding of each group and explore the class divide present on the show’s fictitious Figure 8 (named after Wilmington’s own private island of wealthy residents) in Kildare County.
“We’re looking to film it in Wilmington,” Pate said.
“Kildare” would be a Netflix project.
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