tMF | The Movie-Fanatic

They had so much fun working on the trailer that Oliver decided to create a movie to accompany it. He enlisted Joe, along with film school classmate Mike Pearce and hometown friend Johnny White, to star in the action-comedy feature that was filled with 1970s and early 80s film references. The original Life is Just a Game was filmed in the gaps between classes, at night, and on the weekends. The ambitious 55-minute film was completed in 2003 and distributed in limited edition on DVD.

Following film school, Oliver went to make his first feature film, How to Be, a dramatic comedy starring Robert Pattinson, Mike Pearce and Johnny White, for which Joe Hastings composed an original score. Though the original Life is Just a Game team was again working together, that project was a thing of the past as the success of How to Be took up much of their time.

The Return of Life Is Just A Game: The idea of Life Is Just A Game was revived earlier this year while Oliver, Joe, Mike and Johnny were traveling across the U.S. on a screening tour of How to Be. Together for the first time since How to Be wrapped in 2007, the group talked about the fun they had working on films in the past. Looking for something immediate and fun they could work on together between long-term independent projects, they decided to re-explore Mike Pearce's character through a new serial comedy edition of Life is Just a Game that transported the original premise to an iconic
New York City setting.

Oliver made way to New York where he teamed with Duffy Higgins and A76 Productions to bring Life is Just a Game back as an online comedy series. Original cast members Mike Pearce, Johnny White and Joe Hastings are joined by New York personalities DJ Kiss Taylor and comedian Paul W. Downs, and Greek actress Tonia Sotiropoulou. Pilot episodes were filmed in London and New York City in August, and will premiere online this fall.

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