(This story was updated to add new information.)
A feature film with some big names attached is set to begin filming in Wilmington early next year.
“Driver’s Ed,” about teenagers who take their high school’s driver-education car on an illegal road trip to visit the college-freshman girlfriend of one of their cohorts, is set to be directed by Bobby Farrelly, who with his brother, Peter, co-directed such ’90s comedy classics as “Dumb & Dumber,” “Kingpin” and “There’s Something About Mary.”
“Driver’s Ed” will be co-produced by Wilmington resident Jonas Pate, best-known as a co-creator of Netflix hit “Outer Banks.”
“We’re all excited,” Pate said. “Bobby is such a lovely dude.”
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Pate said pre-production on “Driver’s Ed” will start in January, with filming commencing in February.
Also co-producing is Pate’s wife, Jennifer Pate, who with her husband is a co-producer of upcoming Prime Video series “The Runarounds,” which recently wrapped filming in Wilmington.
With his twin brother, Joshua, Jonas Pate is a co-creator of “The Runarounds.” It’s about a young rock band trying to make it big. He said “Driver’s Ed” will use much of the same crew as “The Runarounds” and “Outer Banks.”
“We’re just trying to find a way to keep them all together,” Pate said.
Jonas and Jennifer Pate helped develop the script for “Driver’s Ed,” which was written by Thomas Moffett (2018’s “An Actor Prepares,” starring Jeremy Irons).
Pate said he and his wife are starting a production company to produce movies for young adults, and as part of that they commissioned several scripts. One of those was “Driver’s Ed.” If all goes well, he said, they could end up shooting three to five YA movies a year in Wilmington.
Pate likened “Driver’s Ed” to “‘The Breakfast Club’ in a car,” with kids from different walks of life thrown together.
And while Farrelly is known more for raunchy, button-pushing comedies than for YA fare, Pate said the film’s producers “just wanted to get someone who understands funny.”
Farrelly’s most recent directorial effort is “Dear Santa” on Paramount+, about a young boy who writes to Santa but ends up accidentally summoning Satan (played by Jack Black) via the dark power of misspelling.
According to Deadline and other industry publications, executive producers of “Driver’s Ed” include Farrelly as well as Stuart Ford, owner of AGC Studio, which is financing the movie.
Jonas Pate’s connections to Wilmington go back to the 1990s, when he and his brother shot an independent film here, “The Grave,” that got into the Sundance Film Festival and kick-started their careers.
The Pate brothers also shot supernatural NBC drama “Surface” here in the mid-2000s.
Netflix recently announced that the fifth season of “Outer Banks,” which is currently being written, will be its last.
“Outer Banks” mostly shoots in South Carolina, but season four features scenes shot in the Wilmington area, including at Fort Fisher, at Wrightsville Beach’s south end, and at The Oceanic Pier, aka Crystal Pier, in Wrightsville.
Pate said it’s too early to known whether any of the show’s fifth season will shoot in the Wilmington area. He is, however, working on what he called “a prequel to ‘Outer Banks’ called ‘Kildare,’ and that might shoot in Wilmington.”
Pate added that they’re currently working on scripts for what would be the second season of “The Runarounds,” and said the first season of the show will be filled with music by Wilmington bands, in addition to original songs by the title band.
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