Tale of Tails Exclusively on Tubi Now Streaming.
It was late 2019, Harley Wallen was in between projects and a meeting scheduled with fellow actor ‘Tevis Marcum’.. They met at a local brunch spot in Lake Orion as Marcum offered Wallen the lead role as Nick and the offer to come onboard as a producer and more as thru laid out the pilot outline and pitch deck. The third co-creator ‘Steve Kopera’ had already been working on “Tale of Tails” but with Wallen’s new ideas they started rewriting season 1. After securing a meeting with Mike Hamilton and Courtney Hamilton Vanloo the presentation and pitch was made and the green light was flipped on! Wallen, Markum, Kopera needed to quickly assemble a team and begin production. Kaiti Wallen (wife of Harley Wallen) came in and ran the production and play the co-lead. The first weekend of February 2020 the cameras rolled only to be shut off by the COVID shutdown March 17th 2020. With less than 3 episodes in the can they almost reconsidered to rewrite it into a feature and just shoot whatever would be left but thankfully calmer heads prevailed and they started production back up again in late June 2020 and wrapped production shortly after Labor Day 2021.
Steve Kopera had been editing as we were going so rather quickly Kopera and Wallen started “locking” episodes. As production came to an end Harley Wallen had secured his post production sound team with his talented duo Kaizad Patel and Firoze Patel on sound design and not only the composers of Randy Lynch and Allen Lynch but also their record label and the music that’s such a character throughout the series.
After the very first episode was completed the attention turned towards the film festival circuit to try and find its audience. Tale of Tails was greeted with nominations and awards from across the globe, winning in Austin TX, Paris France, Toronto, Los Angeles, India and Italy. Even took the top prize as Best TV Pilot at the 26th Annual Indie Gathering Film Festival in Cleveland, OH. Finding a Sales Agent would be tricky but after Wallen met with good friend Dennis Reed Homestead Entertainment became the clear choice. An offer from Tubi and in June 2021 the series was released on Tubi TV and it’s been trending since then.
The writing of Season 2 is in the works and lots of new plot and mysteries will be uncovered and the questions from Season 1 will be answered…
So your original Pilot got into several film festivals and won. I am not sure if this is a good question. Does season 2 get the adventure of film festivals too?
Yeah, I guess we’ll likely enter Episode 1 of Season 2 into some festivals as well as next year we’ll be Emmy eligible!
How many episodes are you planning for season 2 of Tale of Tails?
We have not decided yet but our audience have been really verbal about us needing 10-12 episodes instead of the 8 we currently have as Season 1 and we are listening.
What made you think of yourself as a strip club owner?
I didn’t, I was offered the original role as Nick by the original creator Tevis Marcum and actually before I accepted any other responsibilities. I do see why though, I definitely have Nick “in me”…. His mission isn’t overly complicated haha he feels he’s paid his dues and should at this point have his millions and retire on his own tropical island sipping tequila in the sunset.
This crime drama story was there a story behind this you were thinking about when writing the series?
With us having the original story primarily taking place around Nick I felt we could really add to the story with the biker element and with the crime element the cops get a natural part if the action so I wanted more of a reason to see both angles, hence the missing dancer being the very up and coming “Officer Alison Olsen”. That enables us to tell the story from two different and often opposing angles. Not to mention it’s a way to make sure you not glorify the adult industry too much.. A healthier perspective.
Police Detective Allison in the story. Is there any back story you are going to show in season 2?
You know this is such a good question that I think a lot of people have missed but yes. One of the things we wanted to give a taste of in season one was how similar Ally and Amber were and also how much The friction between them for life choices they made ultimately divided them and could have been a part of the detriment. We are very much exploring that further in Season 2!
Biker gang making a play for a strip the club / did you do any research on the gangs for this part of a story?
Yes! I ride myself and have biker associations both here and in Sweden but we kept the Bikers contained snd I’m definitely looking forward to exploring the bikers more in Season 2 and beyond. I think that’s another curtain we’re curious to peek behind and we will continue to do so as well as the explore flashbacks of what shaped these people.
The absurd questions that came to my mind. How much does a seedy strip club make a night or a year?
No clue but I’m sure more than we can imagine as there are a fair amount of them around.
https://tubitv.com/series/300007160/tale-of-tails
The dancers in the club / show real strippers in life or are they actresses?
We have both professional pole dancers, actual strippers and actresses in order to create the environment.
https://tubitv.com/tv-shows/603259/s01-e03-an-offer-you-can-t-refuse?start=true
In season 2 what are you going for more thriller crime drama or since you have a dead stripper maybe a ghost paranormal feature where she scares the gang away. Laugh with me. Haha fun but maybe as a stand alone horror comedy!
So budget wise what does a short cost to make if this is an acceptable question.
That’s a place I’d rather not go because if I tell people how we pulled favors and lucked out it can be used against me for Season 2… All I can say is that we had less than pretty much any show on TV per episode than our Season 1 budget.
What is your hope for this series?
I honestly hope we get 7-9 seasons out of this, I have such good ideas of where to take it and I do t see characters or settings/plot getting boring at all!
Can you tell my readers more about your character in the series?
Nick has been a lot of fun to play actually and like I said. He’s the kind of guy who’s been hustling and grinding and he just really feels like he’s paid his dues and contributed his part and is now ready to collect and retire on his own little island in the Caribbean sipping on a good drink. As much as he feels like a “bad guy” at times I think ultimately he’s more nuanced than that.. He’s selfish and worrying about others has only caused problems for him in the past so he’s better with arrangements and partnerships to different degrees. Nick is always looking for an edge on everyone, all of the time. It’s been a fun ride I hope to have fun with for years to come.
Can you tell my readers more about Kaiti Wallen in the series?
Kaiti Wallen plays the adult versions of Allison and Amber Olsen. So far we’ve seen very little of the slightly younger sister Amber who made some costly young mistakes but we’ve seen a lot of headstrong and emotional Allison. I think she’s really strong as Allison and feedback so far has been great! We’ve had a huge and positive female fan base and I think she’s a huge reason!
Can you tell my readers more about https://www.imdb.com/name/nm7716984/ Dominque Alexander’s character.
I really enjoy Dominique as Gar, it was funny but I worked with him in a different project and when I started looking at the character I called it. We still auditioned the role but it would have been hard to see anyone else!
Can you tell my readers more about https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3017660/ Tevis R. Marcum character.
Really enjoyed it and didn’t see how awesome of an imprint Roadie is until you watch the whole season. He’s so many things and definitely adds a layer of dark humor that I really enjoy that wasn’t as clear in the script.
I am not familiar with tubitv. What are they?
Tubi TV makes money by showing commercials within the video content or when switching between them. Launched in 2014, the firm has risen to become one of the leading over-the-top streaming platforms. In March 2020, Tubi TV was acquired for $440 million by Fox Corporation.
https://tubitv.com/series/300007160/tale-of-tails?start=true