Kirk Ward, Episode 2: New series Wayne on YouTube Premium

Kirk Ward in character as villain Calvin Clay 
in YouTube Premium series "Wayne."

The last time Hollister, Calif. residents heard about the exploits of native son, Kirk Ward, he was pitching his new television pilot, Skyward,that was airing on Amazon Prime Video. He was encouraging the hometown crowd to watch the pilot and then vote for it in the hopes of launching a series.

That was then and this is now: Skyward is dead, but not so Ward’s future as a filmmaker, screenwriter, actor, and television producer. He’s back, pitching his newest project called Wayne. The pilot received such a tremendous reception in Hollywood circles that it resulted in a 10-episode run that is scheduled to stream on YouTube Premium Jan. 16.

The real Kirk Ward, writer, producer, actor.

Ward described the off-beat and very raw series about a teenage vigilante as: “Dirty Harry with a heart of gold, who sets out on a dirt bike from Boston to Florida with his new friend Del to get back the hot ’78 Trans-Am that was stolen from his father before he died. It is an action-comedy in the mode of John Wick as if directed by John Hughes.”

At first, what may have been seen by some as a serious setback when Skyward failed to launch in 2017, Ward saw as just a detour on the way to experiencing a pretty terrific 2018, as he worked simultaneously on Wayne and a feature film called Turkey Bowl that he wrote and is starring in.

“At the top of 2018 the film and the series were green-lit at the same time and I thought ‘this will be no problem,’” he said. “It turned out to be one of the most creative years in my life so far, and the most exhausting. I actually ended up in the emergency room, suffering from dehydration and exhaustion.”

The film was shot in Norman, Oklahoma because it’s Greg Coolidge, his business partner’s hometown, where they were able to recruit famed University of Oklahoma football coach Barry Switzer to act in the movie.

“He steals the movie,” Ward said. “He plays an old, senile coach. Getting to know and hang out with Barry Switzer was just as good an experience as making the movie.”

Ward said his philosophy when it comes to working in movies or television is everything goes great, until Monday comes and everything is gone. That was what happened to Skyward. He said the pilot did great and was even received two Emmy nominations.

“We were going to get picked up and then they [Amazon] wiped out the entire live-action kids department,” he said. “Even with two Emmys it didn’t matter.”

He said even if Skyward the series did not take off, those in Hollister who voted for it mattered because, as he explained, streaming companies like Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, and YouTube know when people log on and how long they stay on, which is taken into consideration in determining how popular a show is.

“It was a blow because we really wanted to do the show and people really believed in it,” he said. “It’s a strange thing to go to the Emmys knowing your show is not going to be picked up. But we took it out and shopped it around. We got interest from Netflix, but it was too similar to Stranger Things. Then time goes by and you’re moving on to other projects.”

When a new writer, Shawn Simmons, came into his production office and pitched Wayne to Ward and his partner, they were immediately onboard. Ward loves revenge films and Wayne struck a chord. The comment that landed the deal was, “Imagine what Charles Bronson (Death Wish) was like in high school.”

“We knew it was something special because Shawn was so passionate about it,” Ward said, “and it was so unique to Brockton, Massachusetts.”

Because he was not familiar with Simmons’ writing, he wasn’t sure how the script would turn out. But while on a plane to Nashville to star on Billy Ray Cyrus’ show Still the King, he received it on his computer and read it during the flight.

“I started reading it and it was one of those rare moments that I knew it was unbelievably special,” he said. “I was so excited and so sad because I couldn’t share it with anybody on the plane.”

He said the next question was what streaming company to take it to. He knew he needed some industry muscle to back it, so he went to his friends, Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, the writers of the Deadpool franchise and the reboot of Pirates of the Caribbean.

“Imagine what that was like because Deadpool had just made $800 million and everybody in town was calling them,” he said. “They read it and wanted to meet one morning. When they came onboard that’s when our opportunities took off.”

They took the project to Hulu, Amazon, and YouTube Premium. It turned into a bidding war between YouTube Premium and Hulu. YouTube guaranteed it would produce the pilot. Ward said they would go with YouTube only if it promised not to change a single word of the script. In only a few months, they were shooting the pilot and 10 episodes in Toronto.

I had the opportunity to view six episodes of what Ward calls a “very raw and very real story.” Each episode begins with a warning that it may not be suitable for all audiences and each lives up to that warning. It is very dark in places, extremely violent in others and nearly always profane. 
Ward said the language is strong, not to be edgy or cool, but to accurately reflect the way people near Boston talk to each other.

The main character, Wayne, is perplexing because it’s hard to figure why he does what he does. He’s willing to take a brutal beating to make a point, he’s loyal to a fault, he’s a smoldering, off kilter kind of guy who will take untold amounts of punishment, but once he does decide to take action he’s more than a bit terrifying. The picked-on kids at school idolize him because he is their protector and bullies turn the other way when he walks down the hall. All this lethality is packaged into a skinny teenager who mumbles most of the time, but comes alive when he meets a girl named Del, who tries to sell him stolen cookies.

Ward wrote two episodes and was on the writing staff that tweaked all 10 episodes. He said the hoped-for audience age ranges is between 16 and 44, adding that his 84-year-old mother, who still lives in Hollister, saw the pilot and said she related to it the most of everything he has been involved with.

“I’m 48 and my generation will be nostalgic about this comparing it to Death Wish,” he said. “Today’s generation will compare it to John Wick. Younger kids will think of him as a superhero who stands for justice. Personally, I think people well relate to Wayne in this day and age because he is a character who truly believes in justice and standing up for what is right, even if he looks bad or gets hurt. There’s not a lot of people in the world who do that.”

Ward said he will be home in Hollister when Wayne premieres on YouTube Jan. 16, watching it along with his family. Ward’s brother, Kip, who is principal of Ladd Lane Middle School in Hollister, will be right there binge watching the series with the rest of the family. Kip told me, while at the Hollister School District board meeting Jan. 8, he had already seen the pilot and episode two he was proud of his brother and liked the edginess of Wayne.

“It’s going to strike a chord with a lot of people who grew up that way and can relate to that toughness,” he said. “I’m excited he was able to get a hold of a project like this. He’s just a grinder. The fact that this is working for him makes me proud as a brother.”

The one local connection to Wayne that Ward did in a wink to an old friend is that when he appears in two episodes as the villain, Calvin Clay, he is unrecognizable at Kirk Ward. He is, for all intense and purposes, in looks and attitude, Alex Naccarato, who still lives here. He said because he is from a small town, like the main character in Wayne, he wanted to base his character on somebody who he knew was real, who he knew was tough.

“I shaved my head and put on a handlebar mustache based on his Facebook picture in the makeup trailer and said, ‘I want to look just like this guy. All of my friends who saw photos of me knew who it was. Alex got word about what I did and loved it.'”