CHOP & STEELE Exclusive: First Look at Trailer And Poster For 'Fantastic Fest Presents' Series Doc

Lifelong friends Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher, two comedians famous for pranking local news stations on live television as the fake strongman duo ‘Chop & Steele,’ find themselves in federal court with a vengeful media conglomerate after their latest morning show stunt goes viral.

Drafthouse Films Acquires Found Footage Fest Double Feature Chop & Steele and A Life on the Farm, Sets Docs For April Theatrical Rollout with Alamo Drafthouse

 

Drafthouse Films has acquired North American rights to the documentary Chop & Steele, chronicling the comic travails of Found Footage Festival founders Joe Pickett and Nick Preuher as they face a major lawsuit. Directed by Ben Steinbauer (Winnebago Man) and Berndt Mader, the film is slated for an April theatrical rollout in Alamo Drafthouse theaters throughout the country along with live comedy shows, as part of the theater chain’s “Fantastic Fest Presents” series.

 

In the documentary, Pickett and Prueher, lifelong friends who tour the country with their popular VHS oddities festival, are slapped with a federal lawsuit after pranking a local news station as “strong men” Chop and Steele. Many notables are featured in the doc, including David Cross, Bobcat Goldthwait, Reggie Watts, and Howie Mandel. Chop & Steele world premiered at the Tribeca Festival, which kicked off a fruitful festival run.

 

"We're excited for the world to finally see the most stressful days of our lives,” say Pickett and Prueher,  “Chop & Steele is an inspirational story about friendship and perseverance, and frankly it is no different than the doc that won the Oscar about the guy who climbed mountains without any rope. It's self-inflicted misery of the highest order, and we can't wait to hit the road with Drafthouse Films and start choppin' some sticks."

 

Chop & Steele will be screened as a double feature along with the documentary A Life on the Farm, also newly acquired by Drafthouse Films. A Life on the Farm is directed by Oscar Harding and executive produced by Pickett and Preuher. The documentary follows the discovery of a VHS tape, naturally, titled “A Life on the Farm,” that was produced by isolated British farmer Charles Carson. Seemingly sweet and innocuous, the homemade doc gets increasingly darker as bits and pieces of Carson’s esoteric worldview comes into light. 

 

"I've known the legendary showmen Nick Prueher and Joe Pickett for years as they have entertained our audiences coast to coast with the Found Footage Festival," says Alamo Drafthouse Cinema and Drafthouse Films founder, Tim League. "Chop & Steele, however, peeled back a layer to expose their truly bizarre and impish side project.  This makes me love them even more."

 

Drafthouse Films’ CEO Nick Savva negotiated the deals with Jessica Lacy and Oliver Wheeler from Range Media Partners for Chop & Steele and Oscar Harding for A Life on the Farm.

  

Chop & Steele is directed and produced by Ben Steinbauer and Berndt Mader, stars Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher, with Howie Mandel, David Cross, Reggie Watts, Bobcat Goldthwait, Albertina Rizzo, and The Yes Men, produced by Janice Woods, Priest Fontaine Batten, Katie Steinbauer, Greta Kovach, Mike Saenz, Don Swaynos, and written by Alex McKenzie. A Life on the Farm is directed and produced by Oscar Harding, and produced by Edward Lomas, Dominik Platen, Joe Pickett, and Nick Prueher.