You may know Jon Lee Brody from those amazing fan-made Arrowverse promos which got everyone talking not too long ago but the filmmaker has taken time out of his busy schedule to talk to us about not only those but also his many other endeavours.
That includes running a successful YouTube channel with Star Wars Rebels actor Freddie Prinze Jr. and his aspirations to step both in front and behind the camera to work on the big and small screen DC Universes. You may also remember seeing Jon in movies like The Dark Knight and Star Trek Into Darkness.
This is a fascinating and insightful look into life as an actor, producer, and director, and it's clear that big things are on the horizon for Jon both this year and those to come.
Be sure to check out the interview below (his thoughts on the DC Extended Universe are bound to get you guys talking) and then track Jon down on social media and YouTube to keep up to date with everything he's working on.
Can you start by telling our readers a little about yourself and your production house, Iron Will?
I'm Jon Lee Brody. Filmmaker. Nerd. Corgi Lover. The last part especially. I started out in the business acting and then transitioned to doing stuff behind the camera. I started Iron Will back in 2010. I saw the direction the industry was going so I wanted to create a company where I could make my own content. It has since expanded into full-on producing films and tv and also being capable of doing post-production. I named it Iron Will because my high school football team's mantra was 'Iron Will' so that's my way to paying tribute to them! Go Fremd!
I think people started to take notice of my directing skills back in 2013 when I released this short film 'Police Guys'. I wrote, produced, directed and acted in it. I made the film for about $200. And that was spent on food. Everyone else donated their time.
I've also been lucky to be a producer of several feature films. One of my most recent titles is Sony Crackle's 'Office Uprising' which starred Brenton Thwaites, Zachary Levi, Jane Levy, Alan Ritchson, Karan Soni and many others. I was an Executive Producer and Iron Will also did the VFX on it. I'm going into my 11th year in the entertainment business. It's been a wild ride. But I'm always excited to keep growing and keep learning.
Your incredible fan-made promos for Arrowverse TV shows like The Flash and Supergirl really put you on the map and got people talking. What led to you deciding to create those?
Well, first off, thank you for referring to them as incredible. Thats high praise, my man! I was really happy with how they turned out and also the response from them. I'm always a believer in showing what you can do. Not to sound trite but theres a reason it's called 'show business'. It's easy to tell someone that you can do something but a whole other thing to back it up. So I decided to make these little spec promos to show how I can tell a mini story that would fit into that universe. And I did it all in the form of a promo.
People see "fan-made" and sometimes assume that means they won't be as good as officially released content but these promos featured impressive VFX and high production values. Take us through the process of making them.
The most important thing to me was to make sure the tone would match that of the Arrowverse counterparts. But at the same time, I wanted to make sure it had my thumbprint on it. This can go for any project. A lot of times the all important question of 'whats the tone' isn't answered in prep. So I always make sure to address that before I go any further. And then from there, my take on these was to go from a civilian perspective. Citizens of Star City, Central City, National City, Metropolis, etc are just as affected by the actions of supers and metas so I wanted to play on that. And then it turned into what you saw.
Once I had the ideas in mind, the next part was getting my crew together and casting actors. Rio Magdaleno was my actor in the two Flash spots and the Supergirl spot and Hannah Drake was my actress for the Arrow spot. Both are friends of mine and extremely talented. (Hire them, Hollywood!)
With The Flash 'Music Man' and Supergirl 'A Friend' spots the inspiration was drawn from the 1978 Superman movie. There's a part in the film where Superman is stopping a burglar on the side of a skyscraper and theres a shot of a man in his office while it's happening behind him and he looks back and thinks and wonders if he really saw what he saw and he just goes 'nah'. I always thought that was so funny and the Music Man spot seemed like a good spot to do it. When picking the song for 'Music Man', I wanted to make sure it was a song that sounded like it could be on the flash. My buddy Curtis Peoples was also gracious enough to let me use his song 'Castaways' for the spot. I thought it worked nicely. And with the Supergirl spot, in Superman Lois first asks Superman who he is he says 'a friend' and then later Lois gets a note from 'A friend' which makes her smile and then leads to her and Superman falling in love.
I wanted to shoot these all as 'oners' too. Meaning I didn't want there to be too much coverage. I wanted it to feel like it was all unfolding for the viewers. I'm just a big fan of that in general. The challenge with doing oners was just coordinating camera moves with the actors' actions. But I also wanted to make sure the moment still felt authentic to my actors and not just have them try to nail a mark or time things right. It helps immensely that my camera op ("Movi' Mikey Gorczynski) and I always get on the same page when I'm explaining my vision. His super power is legit being a total badass camera op/cinematographer. And also Rio and Hannah are such good actors they can adapt to anything.
I also did a previz animation for Batwoman and I titled it 'Are You Ready?". I didn't get to shoot a live action version but I basically made something to show how I woulda done it. This, too, would've been shot as a oner. And it's called 'Are You Ready' for two reasons: 1. Asking viewers if they're ready for the awesomeness ahead. 2. It's what Kate Kane (Batwoman) lover Renee Montoya once asked her before she went and did her thing as Batwoman. I also added in what I call a 'music easter egg'. As the Batwoman signal comes up, I inserted a few notes of the theme from the animated movie 'Mystery of the Batwomen.' So if it sounds familiar thats why!
All of these were filmed at my studio in Hollywood. Post production was done in house. I had my friend Molly Kate Nolan be the colorist for these spots. And the VFX were also done in house through my company and core team. Grover L Richardson has been my Head of VFX for about 6 years now. He and I always have a good planning session before a single frame of footage is filmed. That way I really know what I have to get shot wise and no time is wasted. Because of this workflow, all of these promos were finished with a one to two-day turnaround. It was important to me that these looked professional but I also that I could prove to myself that I could crank these out very fast. Because in television, everything is needed yesterday.
You've had a lot of positive feedback from those involved with these shows; how gratifying was that for you?
Extremely. The most gratifying thing in this industry is getting kudos from your peers. Let alone peers that you look up to. Beth Schwartz (the showrunner of Arrow) gave me a nice compliment, James Bamford (consulting producer and director of many episodes of 'Arrow) has always been very supportive. And I had other people in the industry reach out and all me how much they enjoyed them. The Batwoman animated previz even got nice praise from Ruby Rose herself! One of my good friends is Craig Byrne, hes the founder of Kryptonsite. He's someone I like to run things by. He's the ultimate database and I consider him a true OG. Before social media, there were forums. And I was always on the Kryptonsite forums to talk Smallville. I showed him the rough cuts and I knew once he gave the thumbs up that I did good.
I have to ask...is it possible that we'll see you pay an official visit to the Arrowverse in the not too distant future?
You know what, I'll just say that it's not out of the question. I havent been shy about that fact that I'd love to direct an episode within the Arrowverse. This business is all about building credibility and relationships. I have been lucky to make friends in the Arrowverse world and have a lot of support behind me. But I also understand that theres a certain protocol with these things. Especially when you're dealing with a company as prolific as Warner Brothers. I'm always respectful of protocols and formalities and have no problem paying my dues in order to earn my spot. And knowing that there is a process to these things, I took it upon myself to learn as much as possible. I know my time will come but in the meantime, I will keep honing my craft and staying ready for when my number is called.
You run a YouTube channel called GEGGHEAD with Freddie Prinze Jr. Can you tell us about how the two of you embarked on this collaboration?
Absolutely. Freddie is one of my closest friends, he's pretty much family. We're always sharing ideas. And like many things, GEGGHEAD started with Freddie having an idea. Initially, it started with a text convo of us spitballing ideas back and forth. We even discussed it further over sushi. And then we landed on GEGGHEAD. We then brought in our awesome friend Clare Grant and between the three of us we created what you see. At the core of it all, it's an extension of what we love about all things nerdy. Table top games, video games, comedy and of course comic book related stuff. GEGG stands for Good Evening and Good Game because thats what we wish upon all our viewers. And GEGGHEAD keeps evolving. I'm excited to keep creating under the GEGGHEAD banner and show you all some fun stuff!
What sort of content are you guys producing and what would you tell our readers about why they need to check it out?
We have things from us playing board games to video games and some original comedy sketches. Freddie, Clare and I all love the comic book world and we love game nights. So making comedic sketches with characters that wouldn't otherwise be in the same scene is a lot of fun. We have a series called 'F*@# Deadpool' which is basically Slade Wilson (Deathstroke) talking to his therapist about how much he despises Deadpool because technically Deathstroke was first and Deadpool was created as a parody of him. We have another series called 'Hoodwinged' which is basically random situations involving Nightwing and Red Hood. And a series called 'Casting Call' where we have professional impressionists Justin Rupple and Lauren O'Brien impersonate random celebrities auditioning for superhero roles. We still make sure the root of these superhero sketches stays true to where these characters originally came from and then we add on the comedy from there.
The table top gaming portion is an important one for us because it's a bit of a lost art form. I think younger generations seeing the charm and value of table top games is a lot of fun. We played The Oregon Trail card game on our channel. It was Freddie, myself, Josh Wolf, Mary Lynn Rajskub and Macaulay Culkin. It was a hilariously good time. We've gotten from parents telling us that they played the game with their kids or I'll get a message from someone saying they purchased a certain board game after watching us play. That's really cool to me. And with GEGGHEAD being an extension of Freddie, Clare and myself it's always nice to know that the things we love are loved by others.
What are the main challenges of creating original content for a platform like YouTube?
Oversaturation for sure. Theres so many people creating content. And a lot of is really good content. It always amazes me how much untapped talent there is out there. I actually discovered my go to animator on YouTube. His name is David M. Jones. He did this really cool animation called 'Arrow-66' and has done some animations for me (including on 'Office Uprising). He's since become a good friend. But that all being said, the best thing you can do is make content that is true to your voice. You can be inspired by others' content but I dont think it's wise to try to imitate it. And I think theres too many new creators who are trying to crack the code of the algorithm and only aim for views. I get it. It's important in a business sense to have a good amount of eyeballs on your content but it's almost useless if your content isn't high quality.
It's clear that you're a huge DC Comics fan. What are your thoughts on how things are going for them on the big and small screens and do you ever pay a visit to the Marvel Universe?
I'm really happy with the direction of the DCEU right now. I think Wonder Woman was a major push in a new direction. And then Aquaman pushed it even further. I felt like Aquaman was what Guardians of the Galaxy was for the MCU. It showed you can have fun. And Aquaman very much had a Raiders of the Lost Ark/Romancing the Stone vibe. I'm very excited for Shazam for many reasons, not least of which is the fact that Office Uprising alum Zachary Levi is playing the title character. It's like Billy Baston saw Josh Baskin wish he was 'big' at the Zoltar and Billy took it a step further wished for the powers of Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles and Mercury that can be activated by the magic word 'Shazam'.
The Arrowverse is on point. They have such a well-oiled machine going over there. And I really enjoyed the first season of Titans. Especially episode 4, which was the backdoor pilot to 'Doom Patrol'. And we got 'Swamp Thing' and 'Stargirl' coming too! The DC Universe App is doing some really innovative stuff. And, no, I'm not on their payroll so I'm not legally obligated to say any of this. Not yet at least. (laughs) And animation from DC is always on point. To this day, Batman: The Animated Series is one of the best shows ever made. And then theres Batman Beyond! And one of the things I really loved about Aquaman was it reminded me of the animated film 'Throne of Atlantis'. I could go on and on.
And I have a lot of love for the Marvel Universe. Oh man. Into the Spiderverse was so good. And I'm especially excited for Captain Marvel in all of her cosmic awareness glory! Marvel has just been killing it. Theres no denying that. And I very much enjoy their content. I'm very interested to see what the next phase will entail.
You're clearly busy writing, directing, and producing new content these days but your IMDb page features some big movies that you've made appearances in, including The Dark Knight, Star Trek Into Darkness, and Furious 7. What can you tell us about working on those and any future acting aspirations you might have?
For the past four years or so I took a break from acting. I wanted to concentrate on directing and producing and writing. And I felt it was important for me to do so. But last year I actually decided to open myself back up to the acting world. But it's with the mindset of doing something I feel would be right for me and well, something that's fun. I do enjoy acting though. It's funny because I got a numerous amount of texts after 'Crazy Rich Asians' came out asking why I wasn't in it (laughs). Who knows? Maybe the sequel!
If you could step in front of the camera to play a superhero of your choosing, who would it be and why?
Oh wow, loaded question. I will say there is definitely one character I'd wanna play above all else. But they have yet to make the standalone movie for this one. I think I wanna hold off on saying exactly who that is. Although those who know me probably know who I'm talking about. I'll tell you off the record maybe. (laughs) Actually. I'd love to know what the readers think though! Let's open it up to them! CBM fam, what superhero would you see me play? Choose wisely.
In terms of being a producer and director, though, do any of these characters stand out to you as ones you'd like to get hands-on with creatively?
I would love to have a chance to direct a Superman movie. I feel like somehow it has lost its way. Superman's greatest power isn't his strength or heat vision or flight, it's that he uses his abilities for good. His biggest weakness isn't Kryptonite, it's that he cares. He could wear a lead suit and not be affected by Kryptonite. But if he lost someone he loved, no amount of armor could protect him. If I were to make a Superman film I'd make that my throughline.
Or a Solomon Grundy movie. Freddie has a lot of great ideas when it comes to Grundy, which got me thinking. And I love horror films. And the thought of making a superhero horror flick would be exciting to me. I view Grundy as a homicidal Elephant Man. It's really like Jaws but can be in the woods. 'Born on a Monday....' would be our equivalent to 'One, two, Freddy's coming for you'. But there's also a storyline that Geoff Johns wrote about where Grundy is looking to find his killer and redeem himself like a fallen angel. And I found that to be interesting as well.
I like lesser known characters too. I'm always fascinated by points of view. I'd love to make a film about Arkham Asylum but from the perspective of Amadeus Arkham, the founder. Seeing the genesis of it all and make it this self-contained psychological thriller. Very claustrophobic. And one property I'd love to tackle is something in the Star Wars universe. Kevin Anderson wrote a book called 'The Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina'. I always thought that'd make a cool anthology series. Learning the backstories of the colorful characters of the Mos Eisley Cantina would be hella fun.
Again I could go on and on about this stuff. So I'll just cut myself off there. (laughs)
What do you have in the works this year and where should people keep an eye out for you next?
Definitely more stuff from GEGGHEAD. We have some cool content and partnerships that we're excited to announce soon. Freddie and I also have a couple irons in the fire. There's always something with us! (laughs). And I have a feature film I'm looking to get going. I have to stay pretty tight-lipped right now but I promise I'll let you and CBM know what's up when I'm able!
Finally, where can our readers find you online and across your social media accounts?