EXCLUSIVE: Live Nation Studios, Hartbeat and All Things Comedy got underway this week on Golf Trip, a new ensemble comedy starring comedians Tom Segura, Andrew Santino and Timothy Simons alongside Sinqua Walls, Heather Graham, and John Stamos.
In Golf Trip, three best friends have their annual golf trip ruined when they’re paired with the universally dreaded single.
For 20 years, four best friends have held onto one sacred tradition: their annual golf trip. No matter how much their lives have changed, the trip has remained the one weekend they can count on to reconnect, compete and briefly escape the pressures of adulthood.
But when one of the four drops out at the last minute, the remaining three arrive at a picture-perfect golf resort only to be paired with Chuck Wheeler, an aggressively friendly, completely unfiltered solo golfer with no sense of personal boundaries. What should be a relaxing weekend quickly veers off course as Chuck inserts himself into the group and tests the limits of their patience.
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Always game to play the unhinged or aggressively unlikeable, Bad Thoughts‘ Segura takes on the role of Chuck. An avid golfer known for his golf-focused podcast No Bad Lies, Santino plays Jason. Simons plays Don, with Walls as Mike, Graham as Margo, and Stamos as Ted. Jolene, one of the project’s producers, plays Stacy.
Golf Trip‘s director, Nicholas Thomas, last sold the comedy pitch Fantasy Camp to Amazon MGM’s United Artists with Nate Bargatze attached to star. He’s otherwise perhaps best known for co-writing and exec producing the high-concept comedy Let’s Be Cops starring Jake Johnson and Damon Wayans Jr.
Thomas penned Golf Trip with Corey Pendergast. Stella Bulochnikov and Jolene are producing alongside Luke Kelly-Clyne and Kevin Hart for Hartbeat and Billy Rosenberg for All Things Comedy. Segura, Santino, Thomas and Jeremy Stein are exec producing, as are Aaron Edmonds and Harold Berón III for Hartbeat, and the Live Nation Studios duo of Ryan Kroft and Michael Rapino. Brendan Darmody is co-executive producer.
Kroft, who serves as Head of Film & Television at Live Nation Studios, told us: “‘Golf Trip’ is a great example of giving our Live Nation comedians an opportunity to expand their talents to scripted projects. We’ve found a really hilarious story and assembled an incredible group of comedic talent that audiences will want to tee off with.”
Kelly-Clyne, who’s EVP at Hartbeat Studios, said, “‘Golf Trip’ is exactly the kind of ensemble comedy Hartbeat is built to make: a strong premise, a distinctive mix of comedic voices and partners who know how to give talent room to do their best work. Together with Live Nation Studios and All Things Comedy, we’ve assembled a cast that can make the friendship feel real and the weekend unravel in a way that will hopefully surprise audiences.”
Live Nation Studios, the production arm of the live entertainment giant Live Nation Entertainment, earlier this year released Stray Kids: The dominATE Experience, which made history as the first K-pop concert film to top the worldwide box office. Other recent and upcoming projects include Anderson .Paak’s K-Pops!, Noah Kahan: Out of Body, and the upcoming festival comedy Rolling Loud: The Movie, starring Owen Wilson, Matt Rife and Travis Scott.
Kevin Hart’s Hartbeat is riding high following its launch of Funny AF with Kevin Hart, the stand-up competition series that drummed up nearly 42M views in its first season, elevating the profile of emerging stand-ups like Ron Taylor and Usama Siddiquee and quickly securing a Season 2 renewal, with progress on the new installment already underway. They also hit #1 worldwide on Netflix over the summer with their comedy 72 Hours, starring Hart and Marcello Hernández, which remained in the top 10 for six weeks.
All Things Comedy, along with American High and LD Entertainment, scored earlier this year with Pizza Movie, a stoner comedy starring Gaten Matarazzo and Sean Giambrone that shot to #1 on Hulu and also drummed up substantial viewership on Disney+, after premiering at SXSW. Subsequently, ATC and American High unveiled Never Change!, an ensemble comedy that premiered at Tribeca before releasing on Hulu. This year, the company has also launched new podcasts, such as After School Snack and Hold Your Peace, while debuting projects like the Marie Faustin-hosted game show Why Are You Single? and The Bad Game Show, co-hosted by the Bad Friends podcast’s Santino and Bobby Lee.
Segura is repped by WME, Mosaic, and Jackoway Austen Tyerman; Santino by UTA and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole; Simons by UTA, Strand Entertainment, and Myman Greenspan Fox; Walls by WME and Jackoway Austen Tyerman; Graham by Paradigm, RMS Productions, and Yorn, Levine, Barnes; Stamos by CAA; Thomas by Entertainment 360 and Yorn, Levine, Barnes; and Pendergast by Artists First.
