Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol Crash Drake's Toronto House in 'Nirvanna the Band the Show The Movie'
For the film, which had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival's 50th edition, the duo snuck onto the crime scene outside Drake's Bridle Path mansion after a security guard was shot there last May.
Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie
Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol will do anything for the bit.
Last May, a security guard was shot outside of Drake’s Bridle Path mansion. While local TV crews rushed to the scene, Johnson and McCarrol used it as a filming opportunity.
The duo, known as Nirvanna the Band, brought their own cameras to document the crime scene for their movie, Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) on September 4.
It’s a revival of the pair’s beloved web series and TV show, Nirvanna the Band the Show, which thrived on public stunts and inside jokes.
In the film, Johnson and McCarrol reprise their roles as two floundering Toronto musicians who are on a mission to book a show at local Toronto bar The Rivoli — which, of course, doesn’t go as planned.
Johnson and McCarrol were filming a scene for their movie as guests on the local morning radio program, The Roz & Mocha Show, when they heard a guard had been shot outside Drake’s residence.
“Because it was a radio station, they got the news of the Drake shooting right there,” Johnson told The Canadian Press. They immediately knew it was a unique opportunity that couldn’t be passed up.
“[We] just got into the van that we’d taken there and we drove to Drake’s house,” the BlackBerry director said.
One sequence in the movie captures the breaking-news media frenzy outside the Toronto rapper’s house. “There were helicopters in the sky, police lined up and down the street,” Johnson said.
When the duo initially arrived at Drake’s house, their crew was met with a police barricade and skeptical officers. The pair managed to slip past by claiming they were “independent media.”
Once at the crime scene, they began scouting opportunities to turn the situation into film fodder. In a viral CP24 clip, a reporter delivers a live segment (6:07) as Johnson is in the background, directing the film’s cinematographer, Jared Raab.
In Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, the duo puts Toronto at the forefront, staging gonzo-style sequences featuring the CN Tower, the Rogers Centre and TTC streetcars.
Yet, Johnson insists they “very rarely” get into legal trouble for their antics. “I'm good friends with our lawyer, like I really love this man,” he said.
“If I go and shoot something that I think is legally on the line, I will have spoken with him beforehand, 99 per cent of the time.”
Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie has one more TIFF screening scheduled on Saturday, September 13 at Scotiabank Theatre at 10:30 am.Tickets are available here.
