For many content creators, TikTok is the gateway to Hollywood. But now, the movie industry may finally be catching on to the value of the behemoth social media platform, which will soon be home to more scripted and produced shows.
Adam McKay, with his non-profit production company Yellow Dot Studios, is set to be the first traditional Hollywood producer to invest real money into ascripted series on TikTok. Written and directed by Ari Cagan, whose podcast “Things You Don’t Need to Know” was produced by McKay’s Hyperobject Industries, “Cobell Energy” is a satirical office comedy abouta family-owned oil company “battling against innovation, activists and each other as they destroy the planet to protect their own interests,” according to the series logline. The first episode of the 15-episode series releases on the platform on Nov. 14.
“Ari is a creative ball of energy who wakes up every day to make something or cause some kind of trouble,” Mckay told PvNew ahead of the show’s official announcement on Monday morning.“So when Staci Roberts-Steele at Yellow Dotand I realized how aware he is of the urgency of the climate’s insane warming and that he had a funny idea to call out the oil companies, I couldn’t say yes fast enough.”
A Studio 181 production, the series is co-written by Cagan, John Connor Hammond and Jack Reichert, with Cagan also directing and producing the series and Hammond starring and producing.Of course, as a made-for-TikTok series, it’s also one of the first narrative series to shot vertically, with cinematography by Matt Klahn.
The first season starts off after a massive explosion causes an oil spill at one of Cobell Energy’s offshore rigs. On track to be one of the largest oil spills ever recorded, it poses a risk to the family of losing it all – the oil company, the private jet and even Chris’s vintage H1 Hummer. The executives snap into damage control, enlisting the help of PR consultants who develop a greenwashing scheme to rebrand their oil as “Organic.” After they’re subpoenaed by Congress, they meet with seasoned oil executives who advise them to bribe a Congressman but when they arrive at Congress, they find out a whistleblower within the company has exposed their negligence, causing them to stumble into even bigger problems.
“’Cobell Energy’ is frighteningly accurate and rooted in truth,” Cagan says. “The series was created to pull the curtain back on the industry destroying our planet and to hopefully discourage the next generation from entering the business.”
Oscar winner McKay launched his non-profit studio in May with the intent of creating videos and other materials that will raise awareness of climate change and other issues, often told with comedy. It’s a high-wire act McKay has become adept at, having previously tackled material like the 2007-08 financial crisis (“The Big Short”), politics (“Vice”) and climate change (“Don’t Look Up”).
To help him widen his audience, McKay turned to Cagan who had spent the majority of the year working on numerous successful unscripted shows for TikTok, including the popular “Keep the Meter Running” series. When he found out about Yellow Dot Studios, he called McKay to see how he could help.
“He’s been a bit of a mentor to me,” Cagan says about McKay. “The last time I took a bunch of mushrooms I gave him a call and we got to talking about the fragile state of our planet.”
McKay gave him the following challenge: “Make something that could get people to give a sh-t about climate change.”
“Cobell Energy” is set to release on TikTok on Nov. 14.
