Posted in: Exclusive, Interview, Movies | Tagged: Bull Run, Vertical Entertainment

Bull Run Director and Writer on Bringing Comedy to Wall Street

Director-writer Alfredo Barrios Jr (Burn Notice) and co-writer/author Bill Keenan spoke to us about Vertical's Wall Street comedy Bull Run.

Director and writer Alfredo Barrios Jr has enough of a balanced filmography from his work on TV on when to be serious and when to bring in humor when needed as organically as possible, from his work in USA's action comedy Burn Notice, Prime Video's mystery drama Harlan Coben's Shelter, History's historical epic Six, and MGM+'s crime drama Hotel Cocaine. Upon stumbling upon Bill Keenan's Discussion Materials: Tales of a Rookie Wall Street Investment Banker, chronicling his brief life in banking with some of the over-the-top stories, the two partnered up for Vertical Entertainment's Bull Run. The film follows a junior banker (Tom Blyth), who, in the wilds of Wall Street, discovers that the only thing more dangerous than billion-dollar deals are the men signing them. Barrios and Keenan spoke to Bleeding Cool about Keenan's turn as an author to adapt Discussion Materials into Bull Run, how Barrios transitioned from TV to his directorial feature debut, external inspiration, and how Blyth was the perfect lead as Bobby Sanders, a version of Keenan's former life.

Bull Run Director Alfredo Barrios Jr and Writer Bill Keenan on Bringing Wall Street Comedy to Life

BC: Bill, what's the inspiration behind Bull Run? Alfredo, how did you get involved with adapting it to the screen and working with Bill?

Keenan: Back in 2015, I graduated from business school, and I ended up working at an investment bank for a couple of years. That experience very quickly, I realized it would be one that I wanted to write about, and I remember most of my two years were spent taking notes, not necessarily about how to be good at the job or learning anything about how to help my bosses, but rather notes about the crazy stories that happened. The day I quit, I went home and started working on a book, which was called Discussion Materials, and ultimately, the inspiration for Bull Run eventually was.

Barrios: Yeah, and then what happened after he had written the book, I was contacted by Howard and Karen Baldwin, and Doug Ellin, who are all TV and film producers, whom I had worked with before. They mentioned and forwarded this book, and they wanted to know if I might be interested in possibly adapting it. I read Discussing Materials, and I fell in love with it. It made me laugh, and I connected to it. I'm a former corporate lawyer, and even though it's not the same thing as investment banking, it's similar with personalities and craziness, so I ended up meeting with Bill. We spoke initially about adapting it into a TV series, but it was during the pandemic, and no TV series were being sold at that point, and so Howard, Karen, Doug, and Bill asked, "Would you be up for adapting it as a movie and directing it?" I was like, "Is that a trick question? I would be up for that," so it basically launched the project.

Alfredo, what has your experience in shorts and TV helped make your way to making this as a theatrical debut for you?

Barrios: Well, writing a lot of comedic stuff, even though I've written what would be considered dramas, all the stuff I write has some comedic elements to it. I have practical experience and a skill set for doing comedies. I've also adapted a number of works, and so that experience came in handy, because when you adapt something that's not like a documentary about the underlying material. It's not like a word-for-word adaptation. You must take the spirit of the material that you're working with, then expand on it, and make it something of its own. I fell in love with the world of Discussion Materials and many of the characters, and then the challenge of it was then, to make its own thing in movie form, right? I had the good fortune of having Bill, and I worked and developed the story together, and he was really willing to let us depart from the underlying social material that he had written. We had such a good time doing that; it didn't feel like a chore or a significant challenge. It felt pretty seamless, to be honest.

Was there any external inspiration aside from the source material? I can think of some classics right away, like Wall Street (1987) or The Wolf of Wall Street (2013). Was something like that a factor in the framework?

Barrios: Yeah, we have many touchstones. You mentioned The Wolf of Wall Street was definitely in it, Office Space (1999), and The Big Short (2015). There's a little Swimming with Sharks (1994) and obviously, Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) [laughs], since we break the fourth wall. Those were all definitely top of mind for us and served as inspirations for what we were going to do with the movie.

Can you talk about how Tom got involved, why he worked so well as Bobby, and the way he carried himself? Obviously, it's an ensemble piece, but he's bearing the main narrative here.

Barrios: Well, speaking for myself, and then Bill can pick up on how I think he reflected his life. The way that Tom came to us and put himself on tape. He was not the star that he is at this moment. I think he fell in love with the material, and the material is challenging if you watch the movie, in that we try to use authentic language, which sometimes feels like indecipherable code. The way that Tom delivered it was so understandable, and it was as though he had been speaking in that way for years. He's that good an actor, and we immediately fell in love with him. I fell in with him right from the get-go, and to me, I don't think there could be another person who could play the lead, Bobby Sanders. Bill, do you want to comment on that?

Keenan: Look, it was like you said, we had a shout-out to Michelle Lewitt, who was our casting director, and with most movies, you have a wish list. If you get close, it's great, and you can make it work. Given that we use the device of breaking the fourth wall, this is one where we couldn't miss with who we cast as the lead, and I don't think we did. The second that everyone saw, whether it was me, Alfredo, our producers, everyone, when we saw Tom's tape, it was like, "How can we get this done today?!" We were very thankful that ultimately, we were able to make that happen.

Bull Run, which also stars Chris Diamantopoulos, Jay Mohr, Zach Villa, Jordyn Denning, Ashwin Gore, Helena Mattson, Trevor Gretzky, Troy Garity, Sam Daly, and Alyshia Ochse, is available in theaters.

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