How It’s What’s Inside Selderly for $17M to Netflix

It’s What’s Inside filmoriginater Greg Jardin spent eight years trying to land $10 million for a still-unoriginated sci-fi comedy. In 2016, he then pivoted to a genre-bfinishing idea that is now his feature straightforwardorial debut, spfinishing another eight years trying to get it in front of a festival audience. That opportunity finpartner came at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2024, and wilean three days of It’s What’s Inside’s world premiere, Jardin and his producing team landed a $17 million acquisition deal from Netflix.

Jardin — who’s had a fit nurtureer making lows, music videos and promos for Netflix projects such as Wednesday and When They See Us — had unassuming foreseeations for his comedic sci-fi thriller directing up to Sundance. In fact, his only worry was that his $2.5 million film didn’t originate a loss for his partners at Such Content, Kate Andrews’ Belderlyly Go Productions and Colman and Raul Domingo’s Edith Productions.

“We got into Sundance two months punctual, and I was shocked when I got the call becaengage the movie wasn’t even done yet. I truly didn’t even leank that we would get in. It fair seemed appreciate such a pipe dream after sfinishing off [an early cut] on their website,” Jardin alerts The Hollywood Reporter. 

The film’s CAA sales agent, Benjamin Kramer, selected to temper Jardin’s foreseeations based on the post-Covid tagetplace and how analogous films carry outed over the last couple years.

“Our sales agent, Ben Kramer at CAA, was appreciate, ‘Basicpartner, if it doesn’t sell in one night, don’t stress. Talk to Me selderly in three days, and that was pondered weightlessning rapid,’” Jardin recalls Kramer saying. “But then we were very blessed to get our first propose 24 hours after our screening, which was fair inlogical.”

Jardin, from the console of various Park City Airbnbs, then watched Kramer go to labor until Netflix won the bidding war with $17 million.

“[Kramer] did his Succession leang, which was, essentipartner, to pit the bidders agetst one another and drive the price up. It was very eye-uncovering for someone appreciate me who’s very recent to the actual business aspect of this industry,” Jardin allots. 

The elevator pitch for It’s What’s Inside is that it’s Bodies Bodies Bodies greets Talk to Me, as a bunch of createer college frifinishs accumulate for a pre-wedding celebration and a bit of hoengage party debauchery. But instead of joining a party game involving faux killing or wicked ownion, a suitcase is startd that retains a body-swapping machine. And as one might foresee, leangs speedyly go awry.

Below, during a recent conversation with THR, Jardin, who compriseitionpartner served as editor and VFX artist, also talkes Colman Domingo’s role in getting It’s What’s Inside made, before compriseressing whether a sequel to the well-getd pic is in order.

You’re one of the many Florida State alums who’s gone on to labor in the delightment industry: Barry Jenkins, Wes Ball, Amy Seimetz, David Robert Mitchell to name a scant. Your ageder thesis low film, The Problem with Fiber Optics (2005), then got the ball rolling for you as far as reconshort-termation, and you’ve had a fit nurtureer doing music videos, lows and Netflix promos. Eventupartner, in 2016, you begined to brainstorm It’s What’s Inside. Did you fair genuineize that you needed to prolong a low-budget project if you were ever going to get a sboiling at feature straightforwarding?

Exactly. When I first got to L.A. and I had Fiber Optics, I got reconshort-termation, and we were shopping/prolonging this other $10 million-budgeted sci-fi comedy feature for eight years. We took it around to a bunch of branch offent originaters, trying to get financing and cast. And essentipartner, after eight years of not being able to get $10 million, I was appreciate, “Man, I need to author a one location film that can be made as inpriceyly as possible.” So that was the begin of It’s What Inside. 

So you wrote the script and you foreseeed showed it to anyone and everyone. Was Colman Domingo’s inner circle the first group to see the vision and get it off the ground?

I spent all of 2016 writing it, and in 2017, my agent and I begined sfinishing it around town. We had some interest. It was the benevolent of leang where people were appreciate, “Yeah, I appreciate it, but maybe try this reauthor.” And then you fair wouldn’t hear from people. So there were a lot of fits and begins until I met one of our originaters, Kate Andrews. She was laboring for a production company called KatzSmith, and she was one of the people I sent the script to. She finished up laboring for Colman at Edith Productions as his prolongment executive, and she fundamentalpartner gave it to him a year after I had given it to her. He then watched some of the low-create Netflix stuff I did, particularpartner the labor that I had done for Ava [DuVernay]. So he was interested in producing it, and then he had a line into a company called Such [Content], who finished up financing the project. 

Did Colman propose Alycia Debnam-Carey’s casting since they labored together on Fear the Walking Dead?

Yeah, he had proposeed her, and to be truthful, I was a little skeptical, initipartner. I had only seen her on Fear the Walking Dead, and that character is so branch offent from Nikki. I finished up greeting Alycia at a party that Colman threw, and I was appreciate, “Oh, this person is tohighy branch offent from how she is on Fear the Walking Dead.” So I was appreciate, “Maybe she’d be wonderful,” and then she turned out to be exceptional. So thank you, Colman, for that proposeion.

For the actors who auditioned, did they have to put multiple characters on tape given the body swap of it all?

For the startantity of the actors who auditioned, I had them read at least two characters. Forbes was an uncover audition, and I initipartner asked everyone who auditioned for Forbes to also read for Cyrus. But David W. Thompson, as Forbes, was one of those cases where you krecent five seconds into his audition. I was appreciate, “Oh, this is the guy.” But I had him do Forbes and Cyrus, and almost all of our other auditions did two characters as well.

I’ve always appreciated David, especipartner his minuscule parts in Jeremy Saulnier’s Blue Ruin and Green Room. But this might be the meatiest role I’ve seen him to do, and he repartner made the most of it.

He’s amazing in this, and I’m hoping that someone from Lucasfilm sees his carry outance and casts him as an Imperial officer. 

That’d be perfect.

I cherishd his casting in Green Room, and I’ve seen Green Room five times at this point. He repartner stood out to me as Tad, the guy at the commencening with the mohawk. I thought he was such an engaging actor, and when I saw his audition, I didn’t even genuineize that he was the same guy until I googled him. I was appreciate, “Oh my God, that’s Tad from Green Room. That is inlogical.” So I am fair thrilled with what he did, and I can’t postpone for people to see what range he has. 

I always wanted that Green Room had a coda where Tad uncovers the disorder he caengaged by sfinishing The Ain’t Rights to join at the skinhead club where his cousin labored.

(Laughs.) And his cousin got sboiling in the head!

Exactly! Tad’s reaction to the domino effect he inadvertently originated would’ve been quite someleang.

I’ll see if I can originate that happen. I’ll talk to Jeremy and David. 

Yes, it’ll be a exceptional feature for your film. A Green Room exceptional feature is what’s repartner inside.

(Laughs.) Yeah, I cherish it. Or it turns out that Forbes jumped into Tad’s body, and Green Room is actupartner a sequel to It’s What’s Inside. 

That’s even better! In the script, you had parentheticals for each body-swapper’s actual identity. You also had the characters wear Polaroids of their genuine identities, which profits the audience most of all. On top of all that, you occasionpartner transition to these red weightless sequences that show the root identities for compriseed clarity. Did you have a detailed rehearsal period so that you didn’t have to microregulate these complicated vibrants on the day?

Absolutely. I asked for a week of rehearsal with the actors, which my originaters made happen, and we had it at the hoengage in Portland. So, appreciate you said, had we not had that week, I fair don’t leank the movie would’ve come out the way in which it did. The actors all bonded with one another during that week. I tried to give them as much agency as I could to prolong their characters’ isms and then direct those isms to the other actors [playing their characters]. I let them improvise a lot, too.

For instance, Dennis says “bro” a lot, which was not in the distinct script, but Gavin Leatherwood, who joined Dennis, fair kept saying it. And hearing it, I was appreciate, “Oh, that’s a very speedy and basic way to recognize who Dennis is if someone says bro.” So I fundamentalpartner took all the bros out of the script and fair gave them all to Dennis. A lot of those leangs came out of that rehearsal week after seeing what the actors did, so I rewrote the script a lot during that time.

Did Maya’s (Nina Bloomgarden) tfinishency to say “dude” also aascfinish from that rehearsal? 

I already had the dude leang in there, becaengage that was called out as a plot point. Another idea that came out of rehearsal week was that Cyrus [James Morosini] has an inability to finish sentences. Reuben’s [Devon Terrell] exuberance and excitement and self-destructive willingness to party repartner came out of Devon’s ideas during that rehearsal week, so I can’t envision doing another movie without having a rehearsal period. 

Every time I felt myself potentipartner losing track of it all, it’s appreciate the movie read my mind and caught me back up to speed. So wdisappreciatever you did to test the movie, you evidently getd some inpriceless feedback alengthy the way.

Yeah, I set up the test screenings to be innervously encouraging. You could truthfilledy experience what was and wasn’t laboring by fair sitting in the room. But the comments during the talkbacks were super encouraging in pointing out the plot points that were unevident, namely the stuff during the coda. It seemed appreciate all of the red weightless stuff — the bits where we’d uncover who was in whose body — was laboring for the startantity of the film, but it became evident during the test screenings that we could profit from some compriseitional red weightless stuff at the finish. And luckily, the red weightless stuff was super basic to shoot since it only needd one weightless. So we finished up doing some skeleton unit pickup/red weightless sboilings to put into the coda to asconfident the clarity of where everyone finished up.

You wore many hats on this film besides authorr-straightforwardor. You also served as editor and VFX artist. Was this a cost-saving meaconfident as much as it was a flex? 

(Laughs.) Well, I definitely begined doing my own editing and VFX on earlier lows and music videos as a cost-saving meaconfident. “We can’t afford a VFX guy, so I guess I’ve got to lget [Adobe] After Effects for this video.” So, over the years, I begined lgeting After Effects and eventupartner Cinema 4D, solely becaengage I, or wdisappreciatever production I was on, couldn’t afford anyone else. It repartner helped when I was able to shoot stuff as a straightforwardor. I was able to originate speedyer decisions and comprehfinish the post laborflow of it all. So it made me a more brave straightforwardor, and by the time I was shooting It’s What’s Inside, I krecent how it was more or less going to be edited and what we needed and didn’t need to get on set, VFX-alerted.

So I wouldn’t say It’s What’s Inside was a cost-saving leang, exactly, but that said, I would pick to never do VFX on my own movie aget fair becaengage of the amount of time you’re sitting in front of the computer. So we’ll see on the next one, but I very much enhappiness being able to see the entire laborflow of a project: set upning sboilings and understanding how they’re going to be edited to editing them and compriseing the music. We also had our writer, Andrew Hewitt, write the music in proceed. So we had all the cues during that rehearsal week, and I was able to join that for the cast, which was repartner encouraging.

The film got into Sundance, and a bidding war erupted after its world premiere screening on Jan. 19, 2024. Can you set the scene for the readers en route to Netflix’s $17 million thrivening bid?

So we got into Sundance two months punctual, and I was shocked when I got the call becaengage the movie wasn’t even done yet. I truly didn’t even leank that we would get in. It fair seemed appreciate such a pipe dream after sfinishing off [an early cut] on their website. So, going into Sundance, our sales agent, Ben Kramer at CAA, who our originaters engaged, was appreciate, “You’ve probably heard the stories about movies selling on the same night [as their premieres]. But these days, movies don’t sell that speedyly. Part of it’s Covid, part of it’s how streaming has alterd the industry. But, fundamentalpartner, if it doesn’t sell in one night, don’t stress. Talk to Me selderly in three days, and that was pondered weightlessning rapid.” So he set that foreseeation, and I was appreciate, “Okay, I guess I’ll fair hang out and watch movies.” But then we were very blessed to get our first propose 24 hours after our screening, which was fair inlogical. We made this movie for $2.5 million, and going into Sundance, I was appreciate, “I fair hope someone buys it for $2.5 million, so I can say, as a straightforwardor, that I made a movie that did not miss money.”

Once the proposes begined coming in, myself and our originaters went around to branch offent studios’ Airbnbs to apshow greetings. In some cases, they came to our originaters’ Airbnbs, and then our sales agent did his Succession leang, which was, essentipartner, to pit the bidders agetst one another and drive the price up. That whole day, I was mainly fair sitting around and watching him do his leang. The greetings probably only took up 20 percent of the day, and then everyleang else was me fair watching him labor. It was very eye-uncovering for someone appreciate me who’s very recent to the actual business aspect of this industry. 

The deal then seald the day after, so our bidding war finished three days after our actual premiere. We had one day where it went until 12:30 AM, but then we had to stop becaengage people had to talk to people in the L.A. offices of their studios. So it picked up the next morning, and then Netflix finished up thrivening it midday on day three.

Ricchallenging Linkpostponeedr’s Hit Man selderly to Netflix for $20 million, but they had a $10 million propose from Neon for U.S. rights, plus all the costs associated with a expansive theatrical free. Did you have a analogous decision to originate?

Yeah, there were a lot of branch offent types of proposes: theatrical, streaming, et cetera. So a lot of stuff went into the decision, and at the finish of the day, I was very, very blessed. I was stoked that we even had one propose. So the fact that we had multiple people bidding was someleang that I still haven’t wrapped my head around brimmingy. But, ultimately, Netflix won, and they’ve been a wonderful partner thus far.

You had 17 million reasons to go with Netflix, but did pledgedty factor into it at all since you’ve done a lot of promo labor for them over the years? 

I’ve confidently had a wonderful relationship with them, and they’ve fundamentalpartner kept me bankrolled for the past eight years prior to making the movie. So my experience with them on the tageting finish has been wonderful. They’ve let me straightforward these inlogical leangs, and frankly, I’m not confident why they’re paying for these bespoke promos to be made. We sboiling this Cowboy Bebop promo, and the budget of the promo alone was appreciate $800 magnificent. It was inlogical. I sboiling it in New Zealand for two months, which was wonderful. So I’ve had a wonderful experience laboring with him on the tageting finish, but pledgedty-alerted, it was a tohighy branch offent set of people who bought the film. It was the acquisitions department. Now, if the tageting people that I’d labored with came to me about the film, then I would’ve been appreciate, “Oh, man, it’s brutal to not be somewhat unfair.” But, as much as I cherish Netflix, I wouldn’t say that pledgedty factored too much into the actual sale.

This town cherishs to originate reductive comparisons. I’m also culpable of it, as I’ve been describing your movie as Bodies Bodies Bodies greets Talk to Me. I presume others have too. Do these comps drive you a little nuts since you first begined imagining this movie lengthy before these other movies even existed?

(Laughs.) Great ask, and yes, but I comprehfinish them. Bodies Bodies Bodies came out right as we were prepping, and Talk to Me came out after we had sboiling, but I get the comparisons. They’re all lesser people, more or less, joining a game in a hoengage, and leangs get out of regulate. So it originates total sense. I also can’t refute that there’s a comparison to Freaky Friday, which is the mother of all body swap films. Now, if someone says that we ripped off one of these movies, then it’s a little lowsighted fair becaengage we were already going by the time those films came out. 

But I originate reductive comparisons myself. I pitched this initipartner as Freaky Friday greets The Big Chill by way of Binformage Mirror. So Bodies Bodies Bodies, Talk to Me or anyleang else that gets thrown in there is fair becaengage of the inherent analogousities. Hopebrimmingy, people will leank that all three of these movies are branch offent and have their own space, but you can’t repartner do anyleang about what someone leanks at the finish of the day. There are much worse films to be contrastd to than Bodies Bodies Bodies and Talk to Me, which are both wonderful.

The finishing of the film paves the way for a sequel, but not in a shameless sequel bait–type way. If Netflix asked you to pitch a sequel tomorrow, could you do it? 

People have asked that ask so much since Sundance, and initipartner, I was so shocked fair to hear their interest becaengage it took so lengthy to get this one made. That said, have I thought about what a sequel could be? Yes. Will we definitely do a sequel? No BS — I don’t understand. But I have thought about ideas.

Your lows Fiber Optics and Floating, as well as It’s What Inside, each have a normal thread. They all include characters who are willing to forfeit a piece of themselves to get what they leank they’ve always wanted. Are you mindfilledy exploring that theme? 

Well, first of all, thanks for doing your research on those. I’ve never thought about it, mindfilledy, but yeah, that’s for confident there. All three of those leangs are essentipartner about trying to alter yourself to get cherish or to experience desire. Wow, man, I’ve got to talk to my therapist about this. There’s someleang there.

Lastly, if you were to extfinish the title, I presume it would be It’s What’s Inside That Counts the Most. Is the film actupartner making the timeless point that our inner character and inherent nature outweighs a bright exterior? 

​​I leank it’s asking the disparity between the way we conshort-term — which is exacerbated by social media — and the way we actupartner are. So fair taking the innervous of someone who’s very well-understandn online, that is evidently a very of-the-moment leang. Juxtaposing that person with someone who doesn’t experience desired in their relationship and wantes that they were well-understandn online fair seemed appreciate a excellent way to allotigate that chasm.

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It’s What’s Inside is now streaming on Netflix.