When Timothée Chalamet promoted his upcoming film Marty Supreme, he did so with the kind of high-budget spectacle usually reserved for rock stars, utilizing the massive, immersive screen of the Las Vegas Sphere. For the creative duo behind Pizza Movie, the approach was slightly more grounded—specifically, the height of a random picnic table in Austin, Texas.
The stunt served as a self-deprecating marketing bit for Pizza Movie’s surprising homage to Chalamet, designed to poke fun at the film’s lack of a theatrical release. Nick Kocher and Brian McElhaney, the former Saturday Night Live writers known collectively as BriTANick, had the lead actors, Gaten Matarazzo and Sean Giambrone, stand atop the table to announce that their hopes for a big-screen debut had been rejected. It was a lean, comedic pivot that mirrored the film’s own “stoner comedy for theater kids” energy.
Now streaming on Hulu, Pizza Movie marks the feature directorial debut for the Atlanta natives and NYU classmates. The film follows the hallucinatory misadventures of Jack (Matarazzo), Montgomery (Giambrone), and Lizzy (Lulu Wilson) as they attempt to navigate their college dormitory to secure a pizza—the only thing capable of neutralizing the effects of an experimental drug they have ingested.
The ‘Albatross’ of a Title
While the film is now well-received, the title was nearly its undoing. Kocher and McElhaney admit that Pizza Movie was far from their first choice, describing the name as an “albatross” throughout production. The duo initially pushed for a more evocative title, Oh God, No, Please Develop It Stop, but were told it was not viable.
The final title was essentially a placeholder that refused to abandon. It began as Untitled Pizza Movie on their internal slate, and after a series of inconclusive polls among friends, the writers simply dropped the word “Untitled.”
“I remember shouting, ‘We cannot call this Pizza Movie! That is the worst title in the world,’” McElhaney said. “But then we added the joke in the movie. Now I deeply love it because it is all the setup for this punchline 83 minutes into the movie,” Kocher added.
This meta-commentary extends into the film itself. In a fourth-wall-breaking sequence, the character Jack is transported into the actual writers’ room of Kocher and McElhaney, where the two are seen debating the very choices—including the title—that shaped the film.
From ‘Stranger Things’ to Surrealist Comedy
For Gaten Matarazzo, Pizza Movie represents a significant tonal shift from his role in Stranger Things. While he remains in the orbit of tabletop gaming and fantasy, the project allowed him to lean into a more absurdist, low-budget indie sensibility. The directors noted that Matarazzo was eager to take a gamble on the project, even if it meant a pay cut to work with “two wildcards.”
The film’s casting strategy was rigorous; the directors insisted on auditions for every role to ensure the chemistry was organic. This approach led them to Jack Martin, whose performance as the antagonistic RA, Blake, was designed to perceive as though he belonged in a “prestige film” rather than a college comedy. The result is a scenery-chewing villain who treats dormitory rule-breaking with the severity of a war crime.
Adding to the surrealist cast is Daniel Radcliffe, who provides the voice for a butterfly named Lysander. According to the directors, Radcliffe was “immediate and enthusiastic” about the role, spending 30 minutes in a recording booth to nail the character, including a version as a “British fop” that may appear in future special features.
The ‘Oppenheimers’ of Internet Comedy
The decision to market Pizza Movie through a parody of high-budget cinema is a nod to the current state of the comedy genre. Kocher and McElhaney are acutely aware of their own role in the decline of the theatrical comedy; as pioneers of internet sketch comedy via their YouTube channel, they acknowledge they helped shift the audience’s laughter from the cinema to the smartphone.
Kocher suggests that the barrier to entry for theater-going is higher now because “everything on your phone is also a comedy sketch.” This shift has created a “double-edged sword” where gatekeepers have been removed, allowing young creators to break into the industry, but the resulting “noise and distraction” has made it harder for mid-budget comedies to find a theatrical foothold.
Despite this, the duo remains committed to the communal experience of laughter. Their belief in the theater is reflected in their next project, Over Your Dead Body, which is slated for a theatrical release on April 24. The film, directed by Jorma Taccone, is a remake of Tommy Wirkola’s 2021 Norwegian dark comedy-thriller The Trip.
Working with Taccone was a full-circle moment for BriTANick, who cite The Lonely Island as one of their primary influences. The collaboration was characterized by an immediate shorthand, which Kocher described as “the hug of war veterans who’ve been in the battle trenches together.”
As they look toward the future, Kocher and McElhaney plan to continue “ping-ponging” between their own unique, absurdist sensibility and collaborative projects in different genres. They currently have a project in development at New Line Cinema, which they describe as being in a “very different area” than their current work.
Pizza Movie is currently available for streaming on Hulu. Over Your Dead Body is scheduled to open in theaters on April 24.
Do you think the era of the big-screen comedy is over, or is it just evolving? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
