Inspired by an by their first exposure to indie films, two young men attempt to make their own independent masteripiece … with no money, resources, or experience.

“I’ll detonate the nukes in 24 hours unless you surrender the command codes.” If those words ain’t spoken in a movie, Joey and Jerome ain’t watchin’ it. After spending their entire lives watching Bruce Willis, Jason Statham, and Vin Diesel fill various Englishmen, Russians, Germans, nonspecific Middle Easterners, and the occasional Asian full of hot lead, the two get a wakeup call when Jerome’s sister lends them several of her arthouse flicks on DVD. After an indie movie marathon, the pair are so inspired they immediately begin work on their own independent masterpiece … with no money, resources, or experience.

I blame "Joey and Jerome's Artistic Meaningful Independent Film" on Garden State. I saw this movie in the theater, and as I walked out, it hit me that many of the independent films I'd seen in the last couple years (including Garden State) had something in common. . .extreme (and often extremely FORCED) quirkiness. These films had many similarities --characters with symbolic/meaningful names, characters with unusual jobs, a quirky, alterna-chick/hippy girl for the lead character to fall for that you (the audience) were also supposed to love. . .the list goes on.

Earlier that year (2004) I had made "Joey and Jerome's Excellent Action Movie", a short film where two clueless guys had been so amped up after watching a Ben Affleck action movie (these actually used to exist) that they made their own very crappy, no-budget action movie. I wondered "What if Joey and Jerome saw a few forcedly quirky independent films and thought they were all like this? What kind of movie would they make?" And the idea was born.