More and more prolific actors nowadays are shifting their production ambitions and workloads to their own startup production companies, where they get to dictate and fund their own projects and safeguard and boost projects of other, often younger and newer writers/directors. It’s an ever-expanding initiative by some of Hollywood’s most successful actors to help diversify options for creators, and now one more can officially add himself to that list. Per a report from Deadline, famous character actor David Dastmalchian, who has been making the rounds lately in numerous movies, has now founded his own production company named Good Fiend Films, which will focus on genre projects.
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Akin to his ever-growing acting filmography, Dastmalchian’s new company will specialize primarily in sci-fi, horror, and fantasy. As Deadline further notes, Good Fiend Films’ mission is to produce “character-driven projects across horror, sci-fi, and fantasy for film, television, audio, and publishing.” Furthermore, through these projects, they seek to “generate nostalgic, entertaining content that captivates audiences while reminding them they’re not alone in this scary world.” Dastmalchian himself gave a statement about his new company’s initiative to produce projects in these genres that are not only entertaining and character-driven but full of meaning and tough questions, all in tandem with his personal journey as a passionate actor grappling with mental wellness and addiction.
To kick things off, the first project under the Good Fiend Films’ umbrella will be a unique horror film titled Late Night With the Devil, directed and written by Colin and Cameron Cairnes in collaboration with Spooky Pictures and Image Nation Abu Dhabi. The film stars Dastmalchian as a 1970s late-night talk show host named Jack Delroy, and per the film’s synopsis, one night in 1977, the show’s broadcast goes terribly awry and unleashes evil into every living room in the nation. Late Night With the Devil will premiere at the immensely popular South by Southwest (SXSW) film festival this March.
“It’s an exciting time for elevated genres and I am grateful to be entering the marketplace with a strong collection of ideas and projects at various stages of creation…I have been blessed with the good fortune of collaborating with some of the best minds in entertainment and I have learned so much about myself and the craft of storytelling. At this stage in my journey of mental wellness and addiction recovery, I’m honored to be leading Good Fiend Films as we wrestle with tough questions through the entertaining lens of science fiction, horror, and superhero narratives.”
David Dastmalchian’s Blooming Career Echoes His Passion for Character and Imagination
Warner Bros. Pictures
Dastmalchian has come a very long way since the earliest days of his acting career. His breakout role, a relatively small but memorable one, was the Joker’s schizophrenic lackey Thomas Schiff in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight (2008). From there, he went on to star alongside Hugh Jackman and Paul Dano in Denis Villeneuve’s thriller Prisoners (2013). Soon after, he wrote and starred in the romantic drama Animals (2014), giving a performance that won him significant critical acclaim.
Putting his name on the map, he officially joined the MCU as Kurt Goreshter in both Ant-Man (2015) and its sequel, Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018). In addition, he’s reportedly taken a new role in the third upcoming film of the mini-franchise Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023) as a character named Veb. Alongside that, Dastmalchian also played the role of Baron Harkonnen’s Mentat henchman named Piter De Vries in Villeneuve’s new adaptation of sci-fi epic Dune (2021) and, the same year, appeared in James Gunn’s reboot of The Suicide Squad (2021) as the eccentric Polka-Dot Man. Now with the launch of his production hub Good Fiend Films, his docket will likely only get bigger, better, and crazier.
