Audiences are most familiar with James Murray from his 15 years as one of the stars of “Impractical Jokers,” the hit hidden-camera show where Murray and some of his oldest friends pull pranks on each other and embarrass themselves in front of unsuspecting onlookers.
But Murray has also embraced darkness with a lucrative side gig — one that is set to unleash scares in movie theaters.
Murray is the co-writer and producer of the upcoming horror movie “Don’t Move,” set to hit theaters on Sept. 11. Lyndsy Fonseca, rapper Russ, Tom Cavanagh, Hunter King, Joseph Lee Anderson and Rob Riggle star in the indie film, which concerns a group of campers who run into a nasty, giant, prehistoric spider.
The story is an adaptation of Murray’s 2020 novel of the same name, which he co-wrote with frequent collaborator Darren Wearmouth. Beyond his “Jokers” gig, Murray has been a prolific author, publishing nine books he’s co-written since 2018. Before working in television, he got a degree in writing from Georgetown University, but he looks at his work through a businessman’s eye as well.
“‘Don’t Move’ was my fifth book and came out a few years back. It was always my dream and intention to either adapt my books into movies or TV shows,” he says. “That was the plan all along, to create the characters, create the IP, and I can do what I do, which is I love pitching and selling and making something happen from nothing.”
Murray found an essential partner in bringing “Don’t Move” to the big screen in one of his best friends of 25 years, indie director Maclain Nelson. The pair first met when Nelson was a hungry young comedian in New York City. He ended up opening for Murray and befriended the rising star, before taking his own path to direct movies in a slew of different genres.
Cut to years later, when Nelson confessed he hadn’t had a chance to read one of Murray’s books yet, and was handed a copy of “Don’t Move.”
“I was at his house and I disappeared,” Nelson says. “He thought I left and went home. I read the book in one sitting. It reminded me, honestly, of ‘Tremors’: The scare of it, the sci-fi of it, but also the heart of the community coming together to fight this thing. And I said, ‘James, we have to make this into a movie.’ And this is cheesy, but we pinky swore on it.”
The pinky swear proved binding, as Nelson wrote the screenplay within six weeks. Murray says he was not only inspired by the speed of his friend’s work, but also the quality.
“He nailed it,” Murray says. “I can say this because I wrote the book: The screenplay was better than the book. It had heart in it that the book doesn’t necessarily have. I’m a huge horror fan — the book is fairly brutal. Not only did Mac nail the tone and the characters, but he added so many extra layers of heart and emotion to the scenes that weren’t necessarily in the book, and really captured the spirit of our writing. I was like, ‘Shoot, man, I gotta make good on this pinky swear now.’”
Murray began assembling a unique group of actors for the film, with many of them having worked with the “Impractical Jokers” on various projects. But despite having their ducks in a row, Nelson and Murray were not received warmly in traditional Hollywood settings.
“Not a lot of people believed in us in the industry,” Nelson says. “People like to have a one-track mind. They look at James: ‘Yes, he made one of the most successful TV shows on cable television ever, but can he do horror movies? We don’t know about that.’ I’ve made most of my career doing rom-coms and comedies. For people to be like, ‘Well, can Maclain do this horror movie?’ You get that kind feeling of, ‘Nope, stay in your lane.’ We would have meetings; we tried the more traditional way of getting studio funding. At a certain point, we turned to each other and said, ‘What are we doing? Our whole careers, we’ve done this ourselves.’ James literally bootstrapped. We made the little pilot together that launched his ‘Impractical’ job, and we did that together from a shoestring budget — nothing.”
Courtesy of Impractical Productions
When it came to distribution, Murray had a similar experience going the indie route. Despite having a hit show, when the “Impractical Jokers” made a feature-length movie, they couldn’t get distribution.
“We had no formal distributor, so the network paid for us to make the movie, and then we couldn’t get a distributor,” Murray says. “This is six years ago, 2020, and we shot the movie in 2018. So it sat for two years with no distributor. And then we booked the theaters ourselves through the AMC distribution program. The first weekend, we were in 200 theaters. Second weekend, we were in 800. Then we jumped up to over 3,000 … and then we got shut down by COVID. It was March 2020. But in that time, the movie ended up pulling in $14, 15 million. So it was an early test run of the exact distribution model that’s all the rage now.”
For “Don’t Move,” the team went to Centurion Film Service, the company that helped Markiplier turn “Iron Lung” into a self-released, fan-requested $51 million box office sensation.
“You have great filmmakers that haven’t been able to go through the studio system, that have great ideas that need a nontraditional way to get onto screens,” Murray says. “I think the theaters need that content too, those fresh voices. We’re saying to our fans, ‘This is a passion project from the heart and soul. We have a great cast. You’re going to love it. Here’s the trailer, it’s great. You’re going to love the movie. We promise you, please come out and see it.’ And we’re going to do the exact same thing.”
That spirit, harnessed through the “Impractical Jokers” diehards as well as fans of the cast, is part of the reason the “Don’t Move” team is doing their premieres a little differently. They will be held in Kansas City, where the film was shot, as well as Los Angeles and New York City, where fans can buy tickets and be close to the action. Additionally, Murray is planning to drop in on as many screenings as he can to personally show his appreciation to people supporting this indie film.
“I’ll be at more theaters popping in across California,” he says. “Then I’m going to be in Texas, popping in theaters that weekend. And then I’m on the road across America doing that, which I think you have to do in this day and age. You have to be there and believe in your project so much that you say, ‘I’m going to go there as well to thank you personally for coming.’ Because if you’re spending your hard-earned money and getting a babysitter and leaving the dogs at home and getting your car and making the trip to a theater to see a movie, and spending $20 of your hard-earned money to see it, I want to be there personally to thank you for doing that. I think that shows the DNA of the project.”
See the exclusive trailer for “Don’t Move” below.
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