Deep Blue Pictures dives in Danny Mooney Eddie Rubin

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by Chris Aliapoulios

The intellectual property does not stay here for many films, and that’s where the real money is. Once you get a bunch of these properties growing at one time - that is when you create more jobs and you actually start running offices.
- Danny Mooney

Recent University of Michigan graduates Eddie Rubin (09), and Danny Mooney (08) founded Deep Blue Pictures in 2007. Representing a new generation of indie filmmakers, they combine skill and initiative in producing new films in challenging times. Deep Blue received one of the first few refunds from the Michigan film tax incentive for their first feature Art House (Directed by U of M professor Victor Fannuchi and produced by fellow U of M filmmaker Debashis Mazumder), and the intellectual property remains in Michigan.

Danny told MMM, “The intellectual property does not stay here for many films, and that’s where the real money is. Once you get a bunch of these properties growing at one time - that is when you create more jobs and you actually start running offices. It’s something not a lot of groups are doing so far.”

Eddie and Danny teamed up in undergrad. Danny said, “We were talking about where we saw the future and realized we were on the same page on many business and creative aspects of the film industry and what we wanted to see happen. We were right there together so we decided to start Deep Blue and we just took off running from there.”

Eddie added, “When we were in school we began to realize that a lot of people talk, but fewer people really go out there and just do it. One day, we were sitting in this café talking about how we had this incredible resource (Jim Burnstein). He was our professor, a phenomenal screenwriter, and very accessible. We said ‘Why don’t we try to do one of his movies?’ I was a sophomore and Danny a junior at the time. So I set up a meeting with him. Sitting down I said ‘alright Jim here is a little business proposal we have. We know there is a movie you have never made that you are dying to make. We want to do it.’ He looked at me and said something like ‘Listen, I am a professor and you are a student.’ OK fine - so I go home disheartened but at least we went out and we tried it.”

Deep Blue’s first short film Fingers was submitted to the Hamptons International Film Festival in October 2008. Written and Directed by Danny, the film featured Ben Daniels (son of Jeff Daniels) and LA Groundlings Tim Brennan and Hayes Hargrove as well as Mooney. The film was placed with four other films in the festival’s prestigious Academy Recognized category. Deep Blue competed with filmmakers Natalie Portman and Oscar Nominee Don Hertzfeldt. Budgets for the short selections ranged from $100,000 to $300,000. Fingers cost $4500. Eddie said, “It started to get people to notice we were taking something with a high production value and creating it for next to nothing.”

Danny told MMM, Deep Blue produced their first two features shortly thereafter. “We did two right away under six figures. Art House, which is just starting to hit the festival circuit and Starlight and Superfish which is in post production,” said Danny.

Art House, a comedy about a communal home of artists fighting eviction was filmed in Ann Arbor. The cast includes Greta Gerwig, Chris Beier, Hayes Hargrove, Danny Mooney and Ann Arbor legend Iggy Pop. Producer Eddie Rubin said, “The film has been submitted to the South by Southwest Film Festival and we are waiting to hear back.” Art House is repped by Cinetic Rights Management, headed by indie film power broker John Sloss (Detroit native and U of M law school grad), and Matt Dentler (South by Southwest Film Festival Director).

Danny described Starlight and Superfish as “a film about a guy who dies and gets stuck in purgatory. Purgatory turns out to be his own loft. The powers-that-be then send the universal house band to help him figure out life before he can finally depart from it. It’s a super fun story.” It’s directed by Steve Kopera and written by Rob Hess of The Triumvirate and produced by Danny and Deep Blue.

In 2009, Deep Blue in association with Peace Films, wrapped on the feature film Mooz-lum. The cast includes Danny Glover, Nia Long, Summer Bishil and Evan Ross. “We became involved in Mooz-lum when the director Quasim Basir did a bunch of shorts for the Obama campaign and I acted in one of them. While we were in NY for some meetings I was talking with him and he told me he was looking for a production company,” Mooney explained. Mooney and Rubin have been producing nonstop since they founded the company and their list of future projects is growing. Mooney told MMM, “Someone said recently, ‘Wow everything seems to be falling together or you guys.’ Part of it is we have been creating our own opportunities. No one is ever going to hand anything to you. We realized this early on, but if we juggle 20 different opportunities and three of them open up -- it may not be a very good percentage -- but those three can be huge.”

Deep Blue’s ongoing initiative was highlighted as Eddie described how he scored his LA Hollywood internship. “ I literally just cold called the company and said ‘THIS IS EDDIE RUBIN AND I NEED TO SPEAK WITH ED ZWICK RIGHT AWAY.’ The assistant kind of freaked out not knowing who I was and put me through. Ed soon figured out I was just looking for an internship and the next thing I know I was in LA. So I was interning with Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz during preproduction on Defiance. They could have said no - absolutely. Take the chance and just do it. There is no reason not to. I mean right now we really have nothing to lose,” laughed Eddie.

Eddie expressed gratitude for the many people that have helped launch Deep Blue: “We have a very tight knit family here in Michigan. The people who worked with us from day one in college – many for free and a lot of times - have spent their own money. Now we are starting to get them jobs. Danny added, “They are ridiculously talented and they all work so hard! You should see these people – the hours they put in, everyone from out of state is blown away!”

Perhaps their biggest break came in 2009 while doing a music video with Michigan Grammy Nominated producer/writer Peter Zora for Kanye West’s new prodigy Big Sean. “One of the roles in the music video was a professor,” said Eddie. “So we asked our professor Jim Burnstein, to come play the role for us. He had watched us grow and do features since we asked to do his screenplay two years before. He was sitting there, on set, watching us work and he says to Danny ‘How are you doing all of this?’ Then he says to Danny ‘Alright -- Eddie graduates in April, let’s sit down then and talk.’

“So April 9th I graduated, and April 10th I called Jim Burnstein. We got together the next week and he walks in with a giant stack of papers. Danny and I are looking at each other like – there is no way he brought us the script. We were just meeting for the first time! No way. Well he walks in and says ‘Alright guys if you can help package this and put the money together I’ve got this script for you that I wrote with my writing partner, Garrett Schiff.

“‘This is my most beloved script and I am entrusting you guys with this.’ And he says to Eddie, ‘You will produce this as long as you are ok with producing with Chip Diggins.’ I asked Who is Chip? Burnstein says, ‘He is the former Senior VP for Production at Paramount Pictures and prior to that he ran Barry Levinson’s Baltimore Pictures.’ I said absolutely I can do that! We are very lucky.” Danny is set to direct and Eddie will be producing with Diggins. This project is schedule to start mid 2010.

Mooney stated, “I’ve heard that when hardship comes - that’s usually when a lot of creativitybooms. I really feel like through these hard times there are gonna be a couple of voices that start popping up in this state in music and film – it’s gonna be exciting to see what we can do.”