EXCLUSIVE: Emmy and Academy Award nominated producer David Permut and Safdie Brothers producer Oscar Boyson are teaming up with author/filmmaker Mathew Klickstein to bring the San Diego Comic-Con origin story to life for the first time on screen in a new documentary based on the latter’s book See You at San Diego: An Oral History of Comic-Con, Fandom, and the Triumph of Geek Culture.
The See You at San Diego documentary will follow how a scrappy group of teenage fans, zinesters, illustrators, stoners, hippies, weirdoes, bookworms, and science buffs in the late 1960s joined forces with an unemployed thirtysomething comic fan to create what has now become one of the most influential pop culture events ever. San Diego Comic-Con has twice been recognized as the largest pop culture gathering worldwide by the Guinness Book of World Records in recent years.
Boyson and Oh Boy Productions will produce alongside Permut who will produce under his Permut Presentations banner — with his Director of Development Alex Astrachan serving as co-producer. Ricky Camilleri, of Oh Boy, will co-produce.
The plan is to align the project with a filmmaker who shares the producers’ passion for the wild story.
Through support of more than 50 interviewees originally gathered together by pop culture historian Klickstein for his two previous outings of the story — 2021’s six-part audio docuseries via SiriusXM/Stitcher Comic-Con Begins and the oral history book See You at San Diego, published by Fantagraphics in 2022 — expert, primary testimony will be presented by such surviving Con co-founders and early integral contributors as: Scott Shaw!, David Clark, Roger Freedman, Barry Alfonso, Wendy All, and Paul M. Sammon, as well as son of late co-originator Ken Krueger, Gus Krueger, and author, scholar, and media professor Dr. Erin Hanna (Only at Comic-Con). In addition, there’s a treasure trove of new and old interviews with all of the key players involved alongside special celebrity guests in combination with scores of rare or unseen photos, audio archives, artwork, and memorabilia — including a newly discovered and exclusive cache of more than 15 hours of unearthed video footage from the earliest days of the Con.
“This is the quintessential underdog story — young fanboys and fangirls filled with their passion and dreams — that mushroomed into the birth of what evolved into a global phenomenon,” said Permut.
“Culture grows out of community, ambition, and the often naive belief that you can change things without waiting for anyone’s permission,” said Boyson. “The origins of Comic-Con are no exception, and in a moment where many of us are wondering what the future of entertainment looks like, it’s an important and timely story to tell.”
“It’s been a true honor and privilege over the past five years to become a principal chronicler of the early years of Comic-Con and its original founders, the majority of whom have become close friends and mentors,” said Klickstein. “This forthcoming onscreen expansion will be a perfect coda to our ongoing labor-of-love illuminating the personal story of the early Con years by those who made it happen, all in a compelling form that will inspire viewers and fans everywhere.”
Permut is currently in production on James Sweeney’s recently announced film Twinless. Other recent credits include: Executive Producing on Rustin, for which Colman Domingo received a Best Actor Oscar nomination and the Paramount+ series hit Lawman: Bass Reeves from Taylor Sheridan, which stars SAG Awards nominee David Oyelowo. Permut’s upcoming high-priority slate includes Being Heumann, written and directed by Academy Award winner Sian Heder (CODA) at Apple, Jonathan Dayton’s and Valerie Faris’ (Little Miss Sunshine) new film The Invite, and Face/Off II at Paramount, the sequel to Permut’s 1997 hit film, to be directed by Adam Wingard, whose upcoming Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is literally opening in theatres tonight.
Boyson is a writer, director, and feature film producer whose producing credits include the iconic indie hits Frances Ha and Mistress America for Noah Baumbach, the acclaimed Safdie Brothers movies Good Time and Uncut Gems, as well as the doc hybrid series Chillin Island for HBO, and Owen Kline’s feature film directorial debut Funny Pages for A24. Boyson also debuted his short film Power Signal, which he wrote and directed, at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival.
Klickstein previously penned Against the Dark for Sony Pictures. In addition to his audiobook original with alt-comedy pioneer Beth Lapides and previous documentaries on “disabled rock band” the Kids of Widney High and TV icon Marc Summers, Klickstein is responsible for more than 20 books on a variety of nostalgic fandom subjects such as the Nickelodeon network and The Simpsons. His upcoming books include Lloyd Kaufman: Interviews for University Press of Mississippi’s long-running Conversations with Filmmakers series and the graphic novel Daisy Goes to the Moon in collaboration with illustrator and early Comic-Con contributor Rick Geary for Fantagraphics. He’s currently shopping his newly completed screenplay for his 1970’s inspired modern rom-com The Next Becky.
Boyson is repped by Theo Vieljeux at Dissident and Ken Garrett at Gang, Tyre, Ramer. Permut is represented by John Tishbi at Pearlman & Tishbi, LLP