Fair Lawn Grad Sells Script to Will Ferrell's Production Company for $1.5 Million
Lauryn Kahn, Tinseltown’s newest talent, chatted with Patch remotely from her office in Hollywood about her first feature film and her experiences coming up in the industry.
Fair Lawn High School graduate Lauryn Kahn has sold her first feature comedy spec to Hollywood A-Listers Will Ferrell and Adam McKay of Gary Sanchez Productions for $1.5 million.
Her screenplay, "He’s F*ckin’ Perfect"—a working title—will star Emma Stone and revolves around a cynical, internet-savvy twenty-something who digs up dirt on her friends’ potential dates. But when she uncovers the ideal man, she convinces a pseudo-friend not to date him and instead uses her skills to become his perfect match.
Let the hilarity ensue.
After graduating from Ithaca College in 2004 with a degree in radio and television production, Kahn was referred by long-time friend and FLHS classmate Jamie Laudicina of NBC Universal, and landed her first industry job as a production assistant in New York City, though she had her sights set on Hollywood.
Bull’s-eye: She made it.
“I interned my junior year and lived in Hollywood for a semester, and fell in love with it; I felt like I found myself out [here],” Kahn said.
After saving for a year, Kahn left New York for Hollywood and never looked back.
During this time writer/director Adam McKay and partner, Will Ferrell, were launching Gary Sanchez Productions. They hired Lauren Palmigiano, Kahn’s good friend and night manager where the comedy group Upright Citizens Brigade performed.
“I remember the day [Palmigiano] called me. She said, ‘I just got the dream job. Adam McKay and Will Ferrell are starting a production company, and the office is on the block that you freaking live on,'” Kahn said. “I knew it had to be fate.”
Palmigiano promised to refer Kahn, and a year later she made good on that promise.
“She called me, and said, ‘They’re doing this movie called "Stepbrothers," I don’t know much about it, but [McKay] needs an assistant and I’m getting you in here.'”
Kahn was the first to interview.
“We just clicked," Kahn said. "Literally, we just clicked. And I remember feeling like, if I get this job everything will change for me."
She got the job. It was April of 2007.
“When [McKay] called me, he said, ‘We’re trying out this weird website thing. I don’t know what’s going to happen with it. [Ferrell] and I just filmed this video at Will’s guest house with my daughter. I’m going to send you a link.'”
That video is “The Landlord”, which has since garnered over 78 million views, and the website is the wildly successful funnyORDIE.com, of Or Die Networks, which in 2008 partnered with HBO on their Funny or Die Presents half-hour specials. The website and series feature short comedy sketch videos, many of which Kahn herself has written and acted in.
“I started working with [McKay] right as Funny or Die was taking off, and began working on the comedy sketches” Kahn said.
She also has written and sold pilots to television juggernauts MTV and NBC.
Kahn’s success with Funny or Die and other networks led to her signing with top talent agency William Morris Endeavor in October of 2010, where she was encouraged to start thinking of a film she would like to write.
After bouncing a few ideas off her agent, she pitched the premise for "He’s F*ckin’ Perfect."
“He said, ‘Dude, that’s the movie.'”
Kahn’s agent gave her a timeline. She started outlining and finished the first draft in May 2011.
“I wanted, obviously, [McKay] to read it first,” Kahn said. “I can’t . . . there are no words to thank that man enough. He gave me two-and-a-half hours of page-by-page notes on my first draft.”
McKay helped with two more drafts until it was finally ready to be brought to Kahn’s agent. The rest is history, her story.
Since then NBC has purchased a pilot from Kahn, based on her experiences dating in New York and Los Angeles.
Variety magazine will feature Kahn in their “Ten Screenwriters to Watch” list, due out Friday, Dec. 2.
When asked if she made any major purchases since becoming a millionaire, Kahn revealed plans to take her two friends on vacation to Thailand, though she doesn’t plan to buy anything “too crazy.”
“My one friend told me, the amount of time it takes to get a new car directly correlates to how good a person you are,” Kahn said, giggling a bit. “Though, I may buy a new pair of earrings.”
On her love life, she says she’s “dating, but nothing too serious.”
Kahn flew back east for the recent Thanksgiving holiday to spend time with friends and family. Her mother now lives in Midland Park.
“I went to CVS in Fair Lawn—popped through,” Kahn said.
Her favorite place to eat in Fair Lawn is Ness Pizza, and she loves the chicken salad on pita from The Brunch Club. Her bagel of choice comes from Modern Bagel Café.
--
Click here to see a Funny or Die video Lauryn Kahn wrote and starred in.
Stuart Pace
8:44 am on Thursday, December 1, 2011
funnyordie is a great website. Good luck Lauryn.
Sam Leigh
11:20 am on Friday, December 2, 2011
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118046664
Bruce Spencer
12:20 am on Monday, April 2, 2012
http://www.mediasanctuary.org/movie/481