If Hollywood’s obsession with sequels wasn’t abundantly clear from the number of them the industry produces each year, now even insider projects are receiving their own follow-up. Following the success of WME’s internally-produced Pinkberry: The Movie, the agency released a follow-up on Friday entitled Staff Meeting: The Movie.
The short re-enlists Final Destination 5 actor Miles Fisher as a high-powered executive who berates his staff for being behind the curve: he suggests that instead of producing movies, the agency should be releasing viral videos of inter-office politics and signing stars of viral videos such as Keyboard Cat. Written by Henry Gayden and directed by Dave Green, the six-minute short features cameo appearances from Charlize Theron, Shawn Levy and Max Landis.
Cleverly, the short seems to acknowledge the navelgazing aspect of insider videos, eventually incorporating the idea into its story as Fisher’s character proposes a final, metatextual video which is meant to make all other staff meeting videos irrelevant. But as with Pinkberry and Geoff Latulippe’s Yom Kippur at WME, Staff Meeting appeals directly to a demographic of industry insiders, publications and hardcore followers of studio politics – including The Hollywood Reporter, which gets a brief mention in the video.
