We recently caught up with Film & Script Competition alumni Greg Porper, co-writer and director of the darkly comic, absurdist office-set comedy, Don’t Tell Larry, which had its world premiere at Austin Film Festival in 2023. Before Larry made the jump from script to screen, Greg and his co-writer/co-director John Schimke placed as Second Rounders with Don’t Tell Larry in AFF’s 2020 Script Competitions.
From Web Series to Feature Film: Don’t Tell Larry
By: Greg Porper
Check out the trailer for Don’t Tell Larry here.
In February 2016, I pitched an idea to my frequent collaborator, John Schimke, for a web series called Don’t Tell Larry. For as long as I can remember, I’ve always kept a notebook or phone nearby to jot down funny phrases or title ideas that popped into my head. In this case, Don’t Tell Larry came from a random comment during a work meeting, and I knew it sounded like a great title.
At the time, John and I had already written several web series and original pilots together. We had met a few years earlier while working at the same reality TV production company, where we bonded over our shared passion for narrative comedic storytelling. The web series centers on two coworkers trying to hide increasingly ridiculous secrets from their ‘slightly off’ colleague, Larry, played by Kiel Kennedy, a member of The Groundlings and our real-life coworker. The first secret involves Susan forgetting to invite Larry to a colleague’s birthday party. From there, a series of miscalculations and misguided attempts to fix the situation escalate with each episode. When viewed individually, each episode felt like an SNL skit, but together, they created a cohesive short film.
The web series premiered at the New York Television Festival and screened at festivals across the country. Afterward, we shared it online, where it received positive feedback and was featured on several popular comedy and pop-culture websites, including the front page of Funny or Die. Encouraged by the response, John and I decided to expand Don’t Tell Larry into a longer-form project. Though we wrote a full-length pilot version in 2017 and were fans of it, a TV show didn’t feel like the right fit for the concept. After reflecting on it and working on other projects, the idea of Don’t Tell Larry stayed with me, and I felt compelled to keep pursuing it. Eventually, we realized that the best way to continue the story and push ourselves creatively was to develop it into a feature film. We loved the character, the world we had built, and were excited to challenge ourselves further as filmmakers.
By late 2018, John and I began writing the feature. The first draft was wildly different from what the final product would become, but the character of Larry stayed relatively unchanged. We workshopped the draft with my writing group, Deadline Junkies, where talented actors performed live readings. Hearing it out loud was invaluable for learning what was working and what needed fixing. Over the next two and a half years, we rewrote the script more than 20 times, including ten complete page-one rewrites, usually between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. before each of us went to work. Each change created ripple effects throughout the tightly woven plot due to a large (unhealthy) amount of setups, builds, and payoffs, turning the script and story into a true puzzle. But the characters grew stronger with every pass, and the feedback we received, including a positive review from the Austin Film Festival where we submitted the script and it advanced to the second round back in 2020, gave us confidence we were on the right track. We realized the way this movie was going to get made was if we made it ourselves.
From there, it took eight months of pretty much nonstop networking, pitching, re-pitching, following up, and adjusting my approach before I finally raised enough funds to officially move the project into pre-production. Those months were intense. It required constant outreach, lots of “no’s,” “maybes,” and “wow! I haven’t heard from you in years, I thought you died” and many more meetings than I could have ever anticipated. But along the way, I started building a group of believers who were genuinely excited about the movie we were setting out to make.
Kiel was always at the heart of the movie, bringing an irreplaceable, hilarious, and unpredictable quality to Larry. His improv instincts brought fresh jokes and gems alongside our other leads Patty Guggenheim and Kenneth Mosley. We were also incredibly fortunate to have Hollywood legend and improv king Ed Begley Jr. connect with the script and join the cast. Alongside three-time Emmy nominee Dot-Marie Jones from Glee, and with a real production budget to complement our talented ensemble, the experience felt like the web series energy turned up to eleven.
We originally planned to film Don’t Tell Larry in LA, but logistical and COVID-19 challenges made it financially unfeasible. After meeting a Dallas-based producer, we moved production there, starting in Q1 of 2022. Despite hurdles like the Omicron wave and freezing temperatures during overnight shoots, we powered through, and ended up breaking up our filming schedule into two, to stop having to compete daily with a heavy COVID wave and a much-harsher-than-usual Texas winter. Once production and post-production wrapped, we began submitting to film festivals. Austin Film Festival felt like the perfect fit for our world premiere, not only because we were a Texas-based production, but because the festival really celebrates the indie-spirit of filmmaking and screenwriting. Whether you’re a first-time filmmaker or an industry veteran, AFF is known for its community-building atmosphere, offering many opportunities for networking and creating meaningful connections with other writers and filmmakers. So, when we were accepted, we were beyond thrilled to have our world premiere there.
Another great element of my experience at AFF was getting the opportunity to pitch the film in a 90-second elevator pitch before a major event. I jumped at the opportunity because my approach to this movie has always been about taking risks and putting myself out there. I ended up pitching in front of a room of 300 people just before a storytelling event led by Michael Arndt, who wrote Toy Story 3. Wearing my “DON’T TELL LARRY” shirt, which I wore pretty much every day that entire week (#branding), I shoved down my nerves, gave my pitch, got some laughs, and found out throughout the week that multiple people who were in the audience that day ended up going to the premiere simply because of my pitch. Overall, AFF was an incredible experience. I’ve made lasting friendships and occasionally run into people I met there while being out and about in LA. It was also where distribution companies first reached out about the film. Flash-forward another year and a half, and I’m so excited that the movie will finally be out in the world… in theaters and streaming nationwide on June 20, 2025, as recently announced in the Hollywood Reporter!
Follow our journey and spread the word (even to people named Larry) on Instagram @dtlthemovie and at www.dtlthemovie.com.
Don’t forget to mark your calendars for June 20 to catch this summer’s wackiest comedy and see what AFF is all about. And before the deadlines next month, submit to the Screenplay Competition to whip your script into shooting shape, or to the Film Competition and start your journey to the silver screen!