The new digital series :DRYVRS, created and written by Jack Dishel, premiered today on YouTube, and it has the zeitgeist by the jingle bells: guest starring Macaulay Culkin, co-directed by Dishel and Kerry Harris, and edited by Eric Argiro of bicoastal Union, the debut episode – “Just Me in the House by Myself” – has made quite an impact in the few hours since it launched. The episode has been covered by the Huffington Post, EW, Refinery 29, The Wrap, The Hollywood Reporter, E! Online, Mashable, Daily Beast, Daily Mail UK and more, retweeted by celebs, and become a trending topic on Facebook (#5) and Twitter (#9). In each episode of the :DRYVRS series, Dishel stars as an on-demand car service passenger and will be accompanied by special guest drivers including Rosanna Arquette and Steven Weber, along with numerous other notable personalities. New episodes will premiere early next year. :DRYVRS is produced by Dishel, Harris and David Zonshine.
For his part, Argiro said he anticipated some attention being paid to the episode, given its guest star. “Mac is a somewhat polarizing dude,” the editor observed. “Love him or hate him everyone has to check in on him. I mean, this is a guy who got 2 million hits for eating a slice of pizza. I figured, even if we make a mess of this whole thing, Macaulay Culkin playing a psychotic emotionally broken adult who – before having a psychotic episode – justifies his hatred for his mother by reliving raw and painful memories of how she left him home alone on Christmas for a week when he was 8 is pretty awesome.” Still, of the response over the past several hours, Argiro, said simply, “Holy s*%t.”
Argiro, whose recent spot work includes projects for CoverGirl (Grey), GE (direct) and Avis (Leo Burnett), has a history of working with co-director Harris. “Kerry and I had worked on a few projects when I was first coming up as an editor,” he said. “They were always well-written, funny and fun to work on, so when he reached out to me for this, I jumped at the chance. Jack’s not only a talented writer, director and musician but completely egoless and open to any creative ideas. Collaborating with those two guys while getting to cut narrative comedy was a real blast.”
"Eric is the rare editor who consistently comes up with something better than what you had envisioned and who can do anything from comedy to beauty and make it all look effortless,” Harris said. “He's a secret weapon and the secret is getting out.” Dishel added that Argiro “elevated our project the moment he signed on to do it. He is a real artist.”
The debut episode of :DRYVRS follows Dishel’s character and his overly emotional and crazy driver, played by Culkin, who engages a carjacker in a dark, nostalgia-evoking booby-trap battle. The timing of the episode could not be more apt, given that this holiday season marks the 25th anniversary of “Home Alone”. If the response to :DRYVRS is any indication, no one will ever leave Kevin McCallister home alone again.
