EXCLUSIVE: Alex Wolff (Hereditary), Jim Gaffigan (Troop Zero), Brooklynn Prince (The Florida Project), and Sarah Wayne Callies (The Walking Dead) have wrapped lead roles in Outside of Cleveland, a new fantasy dramedy from writer-director Colin West, who previously collaborated with Gaffigan on the sci-fi dramedy Linoleum.
Hailing from Brain Scratch Productions and 1515 Films, Outside of Cleveland follows Max (Wolff), a nostalgic thirty-something songwriter who returns to Cleveland to help his parents (Gaffigan and Callies) move out of his childhood home, only to be transported back to his teenage years where he reconnects with a neighbor (Prince) he once ignored. Now literally living in the past, Max begins to see up close that the childhood he’d been romanticizing as an adult was more of a flawed picture than the one he’d painted in his mind. With his fiancée (Olivia Jude) waiting in Chicago and his youth quickly slipping away, Max must decide whether to keep hiding in the past or finally start living in the moment.
Others appearing in the film include Michael Ian Black (Wet Hot American Summer), Jay Walker (Linoleum), and Jay Westbrook (Superman).
Chad Simpson’s Brain Scratch Productions partnered with Dan Erdman’s 1515 Films, Drew Johnson, and Heather Francis to produce. Burton Welly, Chadd Harbold, Kinley Welly, David Erdman, and Robert Wheaton served as executive producers. West, Simpson and Erdman, who previously collaborated on Linoleum, shot the film in their hometown of Columbus, OH.
“Outside of Cleveland is a story that attempts to thread together the lives we live with the lives we could have lived, weaving memory, regret, and possibility into a single emotional narrative,” said West. “Our crew’s boundless creativity and Alex Wolff’s grounded performance made it possible to tell this multilayered, magical story.”
Known for his work in films like Hereditary and Pig, Wolff will next be seen in Sony’s new Jumanji film, out in theaters on Christmas Day. He is repped by Untitled Entertainment and WME.
Actor and comedian Jim Gaffigan’s upcoming slate includes the fourth season of HBO’s The Gilded Age, plus indies New England Toys, Three People in the Woods, and Crosshairs. He is repped by Brillstein Entertainment Partners, UTA, and Schreck Rose Dapello.
Prince broke out with her starring turn in Sean Baker’s The Florida Project before going on to projects like Home Before Dark, Cocaine Bear, and The Marsh King’s Daughter. She is repped by Untitled Entertainment, UTA, and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller.
Best known for starring in shows like The Walking Dead, Prison Break and Colony, Callies is repped by More/Medavoy and Gersh.
West’s last film Linoleum, starring Gaffigan and Rhea Seehorn, premiered at SXSW in 2022 and was acquired by Shout! Studios. The multi-hyphenate studied fine arts before transitioning to filmmaking and his films have screened internationally at festivals including SXSW, BFI London Film Festival, Fantasia, and the Palm Springs Film Festival, among others. West was awarded the Alfred P. Sloan Science in Cinema Prize in 2022 and was an Annenberg Foundation MFA Fellow at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. He is repped by Anonymous Content and attorney Marios Rush.
Black is repped by Artists First; Walker by Buchwald, Principal Entertainment LA, and Myman Greenspan Fox; and Westbrook by Gray Talent Group.