126 – Flower Films: The Ultimate In Depth Guide to Drew Barrymore's Production Company - How Do You Drew

Hey Juby, it's Ashley and Anne here to make sure you know about our Patreon. For just $1.00 a month, you'll gain access to our 16 exclusive episodes deep diving every chapter of Drew's 1990 autobiography Little Girl Lost, and currently we're working our way through coverage of her 2015 book Wildflower. We also share scans of full magazine features and rare photos and content from our massive Drew Barrymore archive. Plus, we snail mail Drew Magazine goodies to those members at the $5 level for those of you who also like collecting and paper like we do.

Yeah, as independent podcasters, we truly appreciate the support and can't wait for you to join us. Patreon.com slash. Hello and welcome to How Do You Drew? This is a Drew Barrymore podcast brought to you by the fans, friends, and historians behind The Drusium. We're drawing on over 25 years of Drewby expertise to dive into all aspects of Drew's world, from her personal life to her professional career. Thanks to our sponsor and friends at Positive Medium. I'm Anne. And I'm Ashley, and this week we are discussing Drew's production company, Flower Films finally.

Yeah, finally. This felt daunting, guys. But I think we like knew all along. We had all this stuff. It just was like, felt scary. But this is big. So we're so excited to be doing flower films. Yeah, as per usual, like with so many of our topics, I go, oh, this is a lot. It's gonna be a lot of work. And then like I start and it's just like, oh, I've got this. She's said so much over the years about it. Yeah. All right, so let's get into some stuff at the top of the episode. So this is kind of a fun.

What do we even? I think we should talk about this. OK, so I don't even know. Is it a tidbit about us? What is this? I got a text message from someone. I didn't quite know who it was. It turns out it was someone that works with Drew on her team and we were asked if we could help donate something for her daughter's school for a charity auction. And so Ashley was able to like, quickly come up with a spare ET lunchbox send on over. I mean by quickly come up with I was like, I know exactly where this is from, where I packed it to go on the Drew Barrymore show.

So here we go. I had to have I happen to have two and yeah, it was just a really neat like I think we've sort of bemoaned the fact on the podcast that we used to like be able to help out with things and like no one's really utilizing us lately, but one of her people utilized us. So thank you. That was. Cool. Yeah, thank you. You know who you are if you're listening. Yeah, I think the auction is tomorrow as of the date that we're recording this. So hopefully it goes for a lot of money. Yeah, that would be really nice.

I mean, it was just cool to be able to leak. Oh wow, like. Yeah, neat. Be thought of and participate. Yeah, our archive is useful. And it was very sweet. We got a little note from this person that works for her. And it says DB is very, very happy about this. So yay. You're welcome, Drew. We want to make her day shine just like, how do I say that? We want to make her day bright just like she makes everyone else's. Like it's cool to be able to like, I don't know, give to this person who gives so much.

To other people. I don't know. We've always kind of done that. That's been our way with her. We're like, you take things like we don't you give us so much already like. It's so true. So we have a few things that Drew has proclaimed her love for recently. I love, love. Yeah, it's a little shorter this time around, but let's get into it. Drew loves her past. We do too over here. Interesting. Spend a lot of time talking about it. She loves her alone. Time like Lucy at the diner with her crossword puzzle in her book.

Totally. She loves a food competition. That's cute. What do they call it on her show? There isn't a silly name. Competition, dish or some dish competition? That sounds right. Something like that. Yeah. And she loves playing the art of chemistry. Yeah, I was just so good at. Does she mean like? ROM com queen. Oh, OK. I was, I was like, wondering if it meant like like. Yeah, chemistry like. Science. I figured it wasn't that but I was like does she mean I don't? She means the scene in Charlie's Angels where she uses all the chemistry set up to make the the hand.

Yeah, she's met in lit in like blue-green and we thought green science lighting. Yeah, we love that too, Drew, when you're playing the art of chemistry. OK, so let's also get into what happened this week in Drew History.

OK, Saint Patrick's Day, same day that this podcast is coming out. Happy Saint Patrick's Day, my green loving friend. I'm. I'm wearing green. Yeah, you are. This has nothing to do with that though. It was March 17th, 2005 and Drew was at Show West in Vegas. So if you guys don't know, Show W was this convention for movie theater owners and they would do this like basically like actors would come and they'd get honored. But a lot of times it was like their studios were also like promoting them. It's it's kind of an interesting thing they changed those like Cinema Con Award.

Ceremony quote UN quote. Yeah, yeah. So. Drew attended a Fox luncheon there with Jimmy Fallon because they were promoting Fever Pitch. There's some really cute photos of them together. And then this is the main reason I wanted to pull this because I kind of forgot about this. She received what was called the Distinguished Decade in Film Award, which I think is like, really neat if you think of the timing of what that decade would have been, 95 to 2005, because that really is like, huge in her career.

Like has she ever been bigger than in those years? That's so cool. I wonder is there like anything like about what she like said when she got the award like. I was not able to find feeling bang like anything. It was very, very difficult. It's like 2005. Internet isn't really. Around anymore? Yeah, that's true. Oh, that's cool. Yeah. And she'd previously won Female Comedy Star of the Year in 2000 for Never Been Kissed. I guess that's where she, like, also debuted the Charlie's Angels teaser trailer.

Yeah. So she was definitely a big part of that scene for a little while. But yeah, I thought that was a cool award. Yeah, that's cool. And she looks beautiful. She's like the dark brown hair, which I know that like, you love her as a blonde. I love her with her dark hair. And this time we like we're around her at least once in this, like, time frame. So I feel like I have like AI don't know, an attachment to it. Yeah, makes sense. Cool. Nice pull. OK, before we get into the topic, let's talk about what's new with Drew.

Here we go with the news, everybody. Well, we got to kick it off with the hugest news is that the Drew Barrymore Show has been renewed not only for season 7 but also for season 8. So we have like 2 years that are guaranteed ahead of us because I don't know if you know, but like Kelly Clarkson and I think somebody else recently, maybe Jennifer Hudson, somebody else's shows got cancelled and everyone was like, oh is talk show? Is it dead like So? I was very relieved when this news came out. Yeah, that's great.

So exciting. And that means we have two more years to go visit again. Yay, that's. Such a good point. Like we. Know where she's gonna. Be We know where she's gonna be true. We know where to find you. I'm sorry. That's not creepy at all. No, you don't need to be creepy. We have direct access according to her. Remember, yes, always have, always will. Yes, exactly. That's what she said. Guys, she said. We have direct access. OK, so this was really neat. So on the Drew Barrymore Show, Drew actually spoke for what I believe is the first time ever publicly about her George magazine cover from 1996.

Of course, this is the one where she's done up as Marilyn Monroe and the Happy Birthday Mr. President vibes. We have a whole Marilyn Monroe and Drew episode from last year. We definitely talk about, like, a little more details about this there, so you can go check that out. But it turns out that she'd actually given a small interview for a 2024 book called JFK Junior in intimate oral history. I think Val said, like, she knows the author, and that the author told Val that Drew was the absolute last interview, like barely made it before press.

Yeah, like or printing was happening. That's so cool. They're like, we got to get this in. Yeah, and thank God they did. So I was able to, like, get it from my library and quickly look up. There's only two little paragraphs from Drew, but there's, like, more people talking about the cover. But Drew shared that John JFK Junior had called her and told her his idea. And she wanted to, like, get a clear understanding of what the vibe would be. And when she learned that he wanted to make sure that the dress and the hair were right and that the tone was going to be playful, she was, like, totally into it.

And she says that she was terrified to try to portray Marilyn, which is so funny because it's like not that long after doing sugar in Batman Forever, which is like a Marilyn homage. Yeah. But she tried to channel Marilyn and make it perfect for John. And she loved how the issue came out. So it was just so like, we love that one. It's one of those weird. Like there's literally 2 photos in the magazine and that's all that's ever come out. So it's kind of like it's, I don't know. It's real special.

Yeah. It's like it's own. Thing. Yeah, very much. OK, so a couple other new things before we get into the topic. It's kind of cool. Like, we get a little like, flow of new things because Drews in the, you know, daytime spotlight, she's in the spotlight. So Drew LED a conversation with Valerie Bertinelli with 92 New York to celebrate Valerie's new book. It's called Getting Naked. Yes, yeah, well, you can watch, I guess you can stream it for $25.00. But we're both like, that's a lot of money. But Drew looks beautiful in the pictures that went up on Getty.

I'm guessing they didn't let people bring their phones in because there's no like, tagged. Photos. OK, I'll say something about the look really quick. The shoes look totally like a 1994 and I've seen her on the show wearing them. I love these shoes. These are totally my vibe. Yeah, don't they look like? I feel like they remind me of something from like 94. I think they might look like the ones she wore to that indiscretions play. I just 19. 95 I just like as you were starting to say it, I started like really like think of the blue silky dress.

Yeah, yeah, you're totally right. It looks like those and she I've seen her. I've seen them on the show recently and thought like those look like something else from her past and they love pinpoint it. But yeah, they're very cute. One other thing I just want to quickly say about Val's book is that she's like, you know, they did a whole like 2 part episode on the show promoting it, which is really sweet, right? And you know, Drew was commending her at some point for a lot about the book. And Val says, well, you know, I had a lot of help.

I couldn't have done this without Todd Gold. And then Drew's like, I know it's just crazy. Todd Gold, he wrote Little Girl Lost and I'm like that we just talked to him. That's so cool. Like if you Google Todd Gold, Little Girl lost right now, like our videos come up immediately, which is so neat. I know. I would love to think that Drew's seen our talk with him. I hope. I just like thought about that. I don't know why I hadn't thought about that before. That's wild. And also, I think we knew that Valerie Bertinelli knows Todd Gold, right?

Like did they write a previous book together or they're. Friends, or at least one. Yeah. It was fun to learn that he also did this book, so that's so cool. Go, Todd. That's fun. It's a fun connection for a Druin Val. It is. I'm interested to read it. I mean, I think it sounds like it's like an honest, I don't know. Yeah, I'll probably get to it. I like celebrity memoirs, as I often talk about on the show. In fact, right now I'm waiting for Christina Applegate, so I'm also very excited to read that one.

Yeah. OK, just a couple more things. Hollywood Squares, there's been a little bit of a short break, so just you guys know it is coming back. I think it's actually coming on tonight, the day we're recording this. Yeah. And as of right now, according to like press releases, there will be at least 21 total episodes for the season, and they're currently scheduled to air through May. So we got plenty more to come and we will be doing our fun little segments about those next time. Yay, I just watched the last two that we talked about on the previous.

Episode OK. Finally caught up on those. Yeah. Such, so much fun. Guys. I know we've said it before, but we love having like the daytime Drew and this like, sort of like nighttime Drew. Yeah, she's kind of getting that out of her sometimes. These last two I watched like there were multiple times where like they're like Drew, that's too much for the beginning of the show. Like, I don't even remember what it was, but it was like, this is Drew's outlet. I think somebody says you're someone's mom and she's like forget.

Everything. Oh yeah, yeah, that's right. I remember that. So the last thing that we have is that Us Weekly's newest Love Drew feature is coming. Thankfully, Yay. The Dear Drew column was posted on their website already and includes a question about flirting from our friend Katie. Hi. Katie, Hi, Katie. That's. Cool, I feel like she's. She's like, OK, I guess I have to do that. I'm like, yeah, she's done it before. She had a question in True Magazine too, so that's I know. So potentially this will come out in the May 23rd issue.

It's not like a previous or current issue. It's something that's maybe coming up so. Yay, I'll be watching. And I love that we know it's coming up. Yes cuz we missed them so quickly. I think I got the last 1 I think. I have, I think I've had to get the last three on eBay. eBay because I keep missing it. It's I. Probably missed some, but you know what? They're in the Jerusalem because you have them. Like that's right, all okay. It's all okay, guys. We take care of each other. Right. I'll just say one more thing about that.

I love paper. Yeah, yes. Not as weeklies paper though, no. No speaking. Of paper, I'll just say one more thing, actually kind of going back to Hollywood Squares. There was a contestant who was like a map librarian from Los Angeles Public Library. Was still waiting for Drew to say something about. That I was like, especially 'cause he's like, I have a Thomas Guide or like whatever he says, I was like. I like to think that she said something and it just got cut for time. I know. Anyway, I was so like, that's so up Drew's alley of like something she would think was so cool.

Yes, exactly. I thought of her rubbing the. I thought I've is it this? Paper. Paper. Yeah. All right guys, so we're already having fun at the beginning. Let's get into our weekly topic after this message. Hey Druby, we are here to tell you about our website hosts, Positive Medium and they sponsor the podcast. We've been clients of theirs for over 10 years and we use them for all our website needs on the drusium.com. Their services include customized web design, professional coding, search engine optimization and marketing, plus hosting, which has been huge for us for many years.

Plus they're incredible. Customer service has been one of our favorite features. They've literally saved our site quite a few times and they always help with minor troubleshooting in a matter of minutes. So whether that's coding issues or back end questions, etcetera, we reach out, we get help immediately, which is just invaluable. Lucky you to our listeners, Positive Medium is offering 25% off any managed WordPress hosting plan using our promo code Drew. That's DREW. Visit our friends over at positivemedium.com.

Thank you.

I love getting involved creatively in everything I do. I definitely have another side to me that is business savvy and that loves to be able to get in there, you know, with a bunch of men and, and have a group of women that are totally on it and that have great ideas and, and are getting things accomplished in this world. Power to me in this business is not having to crawl and campaign and like, you know, drive yourself nuts every night and take it personally and go home and just feel like awful.

So that was Drew talking in late 1995 about her newly formed production company, Flower Films. And I thought it was just a good way to kick us off because it really, you know, this is like such an old clip of her talking about it. We're really going to talk a lot about the beginnings and the origins of the company. So yeah, let's start there. OK, so a note before we like dive in because there's a lot we could potentially do with this episode. We have episodes that go deeper into the productions of many of Drew Drew's films that Flower was involved in.

So we're just going to list some here because there's a bunch. For more details on those, check out our episodes on Scream, the Wedding Singer, Ever After, Never been Kissed, All of the Other Reindeer, Charlie's Angels, Donnie Darko, 51st Dates, Fever Pitch and Whip it. That's amazing. We've done for all of. I know I was feeling really proud of that too. Guys, we've been around for a minute. I know, but a lot of those we do really talk about those like beginning early production stages and what Drew went through to like, get it off the ground.

So, you know, we could have gone into all of that here. That's going to take too long. But if there's a certain movie that you want to know more about, like what was her involvement or what was she doing or you know what, how did that go? Yeah, head on over to all those episodes and I'll link to all of them on the episode page on How do you. Awesome. Wow. I feel proud. That's cool. OK, so let's get into the beginning. So we're just like literally we're like looking at where the like buds of the of like flower films are.

Yeah. Like it hadn't, it hadn't opened up in bloom just. Yeah, that's just, I didn't. Even realize I said buds and we're talking about flowers. I thought that was intentional, I mean. You'd think I was that clever. Anyways, so the inspiration to start the company, we're starting there. We have talked about this also. So Drew was very inspired by how Linda Opes, which is the producer of Bad Girls, how she handled the production of that movie. She says who I am is because of Linda. She talked about that on the Drew Barrymore Show episode.

Like the Bad Girls themed episode of. That Yeah. And Linda, like, sent a video in. She's since passed away. So it's like. I was realizing that. I'm glad Drew had that moment where she got to like have a little video from her 'cause I remember she was really excited about it was super sweet. Exactly. So a quote from Drew from 1997, she said somehow Linda managed to be holding the hand of stuntwoman who got hurt on the phone with the studio, fighting for what was right for the film and dealing with all the bullshit that would go on between the actresses.

I thought, I don't want to be that that guy who stands on the sidelines and complaints. I want to get in there and make a difference. That's cool. So she was like really inspired by this, like Strong. An awesome lady. Who was, like doing all this and problem solving? It's such an image in my head too, because of like just the production of bad girls. It's just like the turmoil, like, yeah, yeah, yeah. So. It does need to have that and like know a bit. Have we? We've covered bad girls, right? So we no.

No, we haven't. We just have talked about it a lot, right? When, when did we talk about? We must have talked about Linda when she passed. Yeah, we talked about Linda a handful of times. Yeah, OK, so bad girls will get eventually. Event. Yeah, I guess. OK, so let's listen to a little audio from inside the Actors Studio. That was the movie that really changed my life in a weird way. Well, started getting ideas and I started getting excited about the process of like getting involved creatively. And I met a producer on that who I could see her on the phone all the time fighting for these battles and whether she would win them or not.

I thought, Oh my God, what if I was like fighting for battles and I could win some. I know I'd lose a lot, but God like what if I could? And I just all of a sudden everything clicked and I was like, I'm going to be a producer. I love that. I love that. I love the look on her face. Yeah, she like has this like epiphany, realization face. I don't know the like Eureka faded out face. I love that. And it's also just like, so cool, like a badass woman in Hollywood inspiring another badass woman in Hollywood.

Like, yeah, we need more of that, yeah. Totally. Drew has also said, I was like, that's what I want to do. I want to produce. I want to be a problem solver. Yeah. And she's also shared the fact that after losing everything in her career, she's always been afraid that it would somehow be taken away again. Like this is always. Something she still. Talks about yeah, yeah. It's like, thank God the Drew Barrymore Show just got renewed. For two, of course, because she probably was fearful that it. Was like not going to go that.

Way I'm sure every day she's worried that it's going to go. Away totally. She says. That. Yeah, I know. But she also said that she thought, well, maybe if she created things for herself, they wouldn't have the chance to go away so quickly. So totally makes sense to like also, you know, I don't think we really put this in here, but this is at a time where she's being like kind of typecast as these like lethal Lolita's and these types of roles. And she's like wants to create some new opportunities for herself and forge her own path.

Right. And we talk about this a lot in the Marilyn Monroe episode because of that whole like how connection they have. When Marilyn kind of did that, it was to take control of her career in a way that like no woman had ever done, right? So cool, so cool. All right, so the this is really interesting. Buckle and guys, we have some very weirdly exclusive secret details that we. Just discovered, yeah, this is like public record stuff that Ashley Doug, this is cool. So Jade incorporated what was called Druid Entertainment, spelled DREWID.

Not, not that. Not catchy. No, not really. I I mean I like how it sounds. Druid sounds fun. Druid entertainment in December of 1982. So crazy. ET was out for the summer and then they were like, all right, we need to like put this money into something, I guess, which is like. Yeah, and it's weird, like, I don't, it's not the trust. Yeah, it's not the trust. But the only thing we know about, like, the only place besides the, like, public document I found of the incorporation was that there there was this dispute over something with no place to hide that film.

Yeah. And somewhere in an article about that, it references the contract documents for Drew, say, Druid Entertainment. So, like, interesting her deals were being done through that. I don't really know. I'd love to know. More maybe it's some kind of way like for her to protect something like yeah, amazing. So. So cool. From that, the name was amended to Flower Films in July of 1994, which when you think of it's only 12 years, which that's weird. That it's weird. It's weird, but that's also like a huge amount of her life.

So Drew said that she chose Flower because she's a hippie. I'm a hippie now. She originally wanted Daisy Films, but Marlo Thomas already had that name. I know. And I was like, that's the woman from Saint Jude. Like what a weird full circle moment. I wonder if she talked about. It yeah they had like some event that they did yeah not that long ago Drew decided that it was OK because flower means all flowers she's. Like she never wants to leave anybody out, no. She's like, this is great. It's perfect.

Like flower films, it's so simple. But like, I mean, of course it is that. So how can we imagine being something else but like? No, but it really does. Like, I love how she even talks about her movies as being like these flowers she's planted. Like, it just works on so many levels. And then she was able to like take that name and do flower beauty with it, which was like another amazing way to do that. Also just real like wildflower like just like it's just her vibe, flower beauty perfect like. Yeah, so good.

So cool. So I love I love that transition. Weird transition from this like old incorporated thing to flower films. I know. And it gives us like, the official date, like July 94. Flower Films is legally a company, like, so cool. Yeah. Do we know? OK, Do you remember exactly when Mad Love filmed? Because I'm just curious. Like how soon? Very close to this time. Like OK in that time. It's like during June. July. Oh my God. So she, like, came back. We'll talk about, like, the connection to Mad Love, I guess, Right?

Yeah, I'm sure. So anyway, that's cool. Cool. Cool to think about how quickly that moved. OK, so now we get into like the characters that were involved. OK, so this again is sort of erased from history. People don't really talk about this so much, but originally it was Drew and Kim Greitzer, and Kim was Drew's assistant. She started with her around 1992 and they started flower films, the two of them. And I have a cool quote from Interview magazine 1995. Drew said. It was like this amalgamation of two spirits.

We wanted to work hard and we didn't want our sex or our age ever to be held against us. We just wanted to, like, fucking go forth with our dream. And our dream was to have a production company. It's 2 girlies wanting to make good movies with people who are passionate. And I never thought that I would be into this side of the business, but I found myself really into it. We're very much on the same wavelength in the business sense. We sit down with like our iced teas and cigarettes at our desks and we just plow through the day.

So this is like how it was beginning, Drew and Kim. But during filming of Mad Love in summer 94, as you said, Drew met Nancy Javonin. She was visiting her brother, I think her brother supposedly worked on the film. He doesn't have a credit or anything, but that's what, like Jim. Yeah. Jim Javonin. Okay, like Jimmy. Yeah, and soon after this, Drew called Nancy, left her a voicemail, or I guess it was probably on her old school answering machine and dared her to come to LA and join Flower. So, you know, it was it was Drew and Kim.

And then Drew was like, oh, let's bring this Nancy lady in here, too. And Nancy mainly started as Drew's, like, personal assistant. She was like running errands for her. Nancy did too. Yeah, cleaning the pool like I feel like, I don't think. I remembered that. Yeah, Drew and Kim became the, like, heads of the company, and Nancy was like an assistant. You know, it's crazy. That's amazing. Nancy said she got tired of the grunt work, and she told Drew that she was going to concentrate on reading the scripts that were piling up.

So Nancy kind of went, I think I can bring more to the table than just going and getting your prescriptions from the pharmacy and cleaning your pool, Drew. It's amazing. OK, So I love this like this, these things that get into Nancy's personality. So Drew could describe Nancy as a compulsive organizer. And she converted one of the rooms in Drew's house into an office with a fax machine and a Rolodex, and they were quote, off to the races, UN quote. So she made that like happen. And then Drew also said she said a couple things about Nancy.

So I love these quotes. So a diary which we're dying, dying to get diary dying. For diary. She said. We share a creative brain. She's very organized and thoughtful and meticulous and a great leader. And I'm an emotional, weird actor. And then she also said you can't walk into a room without Nan diagramming it, charting it, and figuring out how it all was supposed to go. I love how well that fits with the compulsive organizer turning this room into the thing. I think it's even more than the room.

It's like she just was like, I feel like she was kind of just sitting back watching. And she has a vision. I can. I can do this, Yeah. I can make things happen. Here, Yeah. And the last note we have about this like crew is that we don't really know the reason why, but Kim stepped down around late 1995, S Drew and Nancy took off from there. So she kind of helped the early, early days of it maybe like pre incorporation, right? That's what we're probably imagining, yeah. I mean, I would love to know.

It has to be. More. But you know, we, we gave Kim the opportunity to comment on it and she has opted not to and that's totally fine. So one day maybe we'll, we'll break her down now. Just kidding. No, we would love to have her on the podcast that we're talking about and we want to know what happened. I mean, we, I don't know, like we know nothing. Yeah. I mean, what we know is probably more than anybody listening has really heard before. Like we've pieced this together very, very slowly over the years.

That's true. That's true. OK. So Drew and Nancy, they're ready to like start this company, get it going. They spent like 2 to three years at the beginning was just them trying to learn everything that they could and educate themselves. So they started with a laptop computer and a notebook full of phone numbers. They poured over scripts. They met with agents and studio executives. They figured out what actors they'd want to work with. They thought about what young audiences wanted to see. And I thought that was a really interesting, like, you know, very specific point because I do feel like a lot of their movies are for younger audiences.

And Drew herself was, I mean, she's 19 when she forms the company, right? So she's a young person. She's like targeting to herself, her. Audience It is weird to think about that though, because it's like, but you're right, I mean, she wants people to have fun at her movies, right? That's like always way of her thing. So they had amassed a number of scripts, books and pitches that they wanted to develop into movies. So this was like earlier on they were like things were kind of ideas were coming to them.

In 1996, they took a cross country RV road trip and they dictaphoned or recorded themselves the whole way. Movie ideas and writers they produce. God, I would love to hear those tapes, Nancy had said. I don't know if the tapes produced any real ideas, but they made us feel like we could do it. We can make this happen. I. Love that. Yeah, it's so sweet. And another fun quote from Drew is she said, we just studied, studied, studied. So they're like just working quietly, you know, just the two of them, we think, yeah.

Drew also said everyone wants that producer plaque on their door, but it takes an extraordinary amount of work to get there. It takes education and research and really going to the College of Film and Production, their own version of college. Yes, of course The College of Life or whatever she's called Yeah yes OK, so this is like one of the points while where she's like kind of practicing. They quietly worked on scream the wedding singer and after after without taking credit, but they were quote getting their feet wet and getting involved.

So there we go. They were kind of getting their way. They're making their way. So this is exciting. This is like moving forward. So they signed a first look 2 year deal with Fox 2000 in August of 1997 and we have a couple quotes from people at Fox, which is neat. So Bill Mechanic said that Drew didn't want a helping hand. When I suggested she move Flower over to Fox, she didn't jump at it. So it was like she had to think about that if she wanted to give up any power at all. Right, Makes sense. Yeah, exactly.

And then Laura's, Diskan said. I felt in my bones the first time they came into my office that they knew something. So cool. They've been studying for three years. Laura, they better. They do something. Yeah, I like how Nancy describes it, she said. We pitched them like 9 projects like any other producer would and told them what we were looking at for the future and they invited us to have a first look 2 year deal. So cool. Now now we're really like off to the races. Like truly now things get start getting big and real.

Yeah, yeah, totally. OK, so they start to really, like, get established by the late 1990s, and they get their office on Sunset. By 1998. It's described as MTV meets Romper Room, the walls painted yellow and green and midnight blue and decorated with photos and movie posters and amusingly large 45 RPM record of Yellow Submarine.

And then there's like another really fun description about it, decorated like a funky coffee house with board games on the shelves, bowls of candy everywhere, and a snifter of brightly packaged condoms in the reception. Perfect. Perfect, right? Yeah. So we have seen some photos of this office at Marie Claire magazine did a really awesome spread of Drews bulletin board that she had in her her personal office at the time. Oh my God, it's like the amount of time I've spent looking at those pictures.

I need to be like. But we also got video footage because Ruby Wax, who is like AI think she does like AUK show even though she is very much like East Coast from America. But she's so funny. So she went there in 1998 and did like a tour in an interview with Drew. And then the aforementioned diary from 2001 also did a really great tour of the office. And luckily there is like a separate cut of just the office tour that's on YouTube and we have that, which is amazing. But yeah, this, those descriptions of the way this office looked like feel very accurate.

Like it was very like playful and like kind of messy, but in a really like, fun way. I always think of like Courtney Love. I think it was on the celebrity profile. She's like a little Drew, like, can she get do this? And then she's like, I go up there to get inspired now. Like it's so amazing in there. That's so cool, I love that. And you need a place for all the ideas and the creativity that stirs inside of you. You need an outlet and this is that place. So cute. And so for the first few years they had an all female staff, which we love.

But then Chris Miller came on in 1999, our wonderful friend Chris, and he started as Drews assistant and just like Nancy, he worked his way on up through the company. Like I know he was president at some point. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Talk about an important person in the history of flower films. Like he was hugely important. So important, like we don't have a ton of notes about him, but we have to like note like his coming on was a big. Deal and he ended up like producing things on his own and stuff and it's amazing.

I mean, if you guys don't know who Chris Miller is, we mention him all the time, but he's running this night show now. If you're if you're brand new to this for some reason, we that's where he's gone like he Chris Miller's the best. Yeah, we love him. We owe a lot to him. I was also just realizing met him two years after he had joined Drew. Oh yeah, he was like a baby. That seems so, but it also like kind of explains why like we had such comfort for such a long time because I was like a baby when I met him and he was a baby.

Wow. I hadn't even graduated high school, but anyway. Another person who joined in 2000 was Amber Truesdale, and Amber has worked with Flower on and off forever since then. So like, she's also one of those like mainstays and like we have to mention her and she's even produced some stuff on her own, but like under the Flower banner. So we'll mention those a little bit later on. OK, we went kind of want to just mention what their logo looked like at this time. It was really cute. It was just this like little hand drawn simple flower.

The first time I remember seeing it is at the end of all of the other reindeer and there's like Jingle Bells playing as it like swipes across the screen and it's so cute so. Cute. It's like typewriter font, all lower case. Yeah, and the flower on it. We talked about getting this tattooed for a long time. Oh, I forgot about that. Oh my gosh, I feel. Like we did and I feel like I remember thinking I like I wanted to get it like maybe in white and I was like I didn't want to get it outline and now I don't know tattoos better.

We still haven't gotten a tattoo together that's. We'll get there. We'll get there. But yeah, they're like stationary was very like, what would you call this paper, you know, this kind of stuff better than. I do. It's like craft paper. It's like it looks like a paper bag. Basically recycled, almost left to it. We're lucky enough to have a couple examples of this in our collection, just a few things that were mailed to us over the years. And they also used to do really cool Christmas cards every year.

It was like a different theme. They often featured, like, the dogs of the company. Yeah. And it was just like, this is sort of like the heyday of this, like happy, feel good company to me. Yeah, totally. I just thought it would be fun to mention that some of the Christmas cards were featured on our episode of Collectors Call because we've got some in the Jerusalem. Yeah, they like those. So it's just like a fun, fun little like thing. And I love that we have some like flower films ephemera. Me too, I've always loved it, it's one of my favorite things in our whole collection.

So cool, they're so special. Yeah, they really are. OK, so some of the notable films that they worked on for years but never came to be. This happens all the time in production companies. We just know that these ones like production, production, production hell and then nothing. Got like mentioned for years, yeah. I was. I feel like there's another one suddenly, Dorothy or something. Oh yeah, that one still comes up. Yeah. OK, no idea so. We've got some of these notes on a couple though. So all she wanted is a the story of Brandon Tina, which Boys Don't Cry was made and that ended up being a competing production, like hugely competing.

And if you guys don't know Boys Don't Cry, that's an amazing movie. So that would be hard to compete with anyway. And also, I didn't note this, but Diane Keaton's company was like going to work with them on that. Like I believe her company brought it to flower which is so interesting. Interesting. I think I remember you saying something about that. But it's fascinating. But I remember this being mentioned. I think Drew was thinking about playing Brandon Tina. Absolutely no. The whole time that was the plan.

Wow. I know. Imagine that. I can imagine in 95, I can't imagine in 98 when they were literally like, this is our next movie we're going to do. Right. OK, so another really interesting movie, Frigid and Impotent. So I think we've talked about this a little bit. I think we've talked about this movie more than anyone on the planet has ever talked about this. You know the movie was going to be a dark comedy about a serial killer couple on the run. They would have worked alongside Michael Stipes production company on it with director Gregor Rocky.

Which it would have been so cool if Drew was in a movie directed by Gregor Rocky. This would have been a weird one, but it was one of the projects that Drew originally pitched to Adam Sandler when she met him. Like she thought this would be a great film for them. That would have been such an interesting turn of her career. That is one of those like what could have. Been it would have been. Really edgy. Yeah. And we have learned that there are a lot of documents regarding this movie in the Academy Museum collection at the library, right?

It's called the library. Yeah. And so luckily there's like a good little write up of summarizing what the items are. But there's like, fun. I cannot wait to go see these one day. There's like letters that Drew was writing to Greg Araki. And yeah, you can kind of see like she has like ideas for casting. And then it comes to a point where she's like, for the sake of my career, I have to let this go. Like New Line is not working with us. Like it's not going to happen. It's crazy. I we could do probably a whole episode on that.

And yeah, we haven't even seen them. And yet the archivist who did that, that collection really went extra on describing it. It was cool. God, I know, so cool. So, you know, those are the what could have been, but we all know the first official productions, and there were actually 2, both released in 1999, which I just love that they're like, boom, boom. Yeah. So those are, of course, Never Been Kissed. And all of the other reindeer, again, we have deep episodes on both of those, but let's just talk about Never Been kissed because obviously that was a much bigger deal.

Yeah. Drew said the work was so much fun. It was so great. It takes up every second of your time, and you never get upset for a second. In fact, you're like more more more hours in the day and again from Fox Laura Ziskin said that they were full service producers involved in everything. So like there's a lot of fun stuff that we mentioned, I'm sure and are never been kissed episode about this. But Drew really like she took this one seriously and they the movie came in on time and under budget and it was like we were given a chance and yes, we succeeded and now we can get another chance.

Like it's a really good deal. Yeah. Huge deal. And she was stoked. Yeah, it worked out. And that film, I mean, you'll hear in our episode, but the film was like, well received. People love that filming, yes. So let's kind of jump to the early and mid 2000s. We've got a couple incredible things come out, guys. Quite a few Charlie's Angels, which we just did our episode on and check that out. We talk a lot about the production of that and Donnie Darko, which of course we love. That was like one of the first films we covered on this podcast.

Really, I feel like it was the first year. We've always loved it. You can hear us gash about those elsewhere, but we love both these films. Angels. Charlie's Angels was a huge big budget production with everyone watching tons of pressure and Donnie Darker was kind of the perfect anecdote and reset after that. I love to think about those dichotomy. Absolutely. They're filmed back-to-back. Like I know that Richard Kelly like came to the set of Charlie's Angels to like withdrew in her trailer. Cool.

And it's so they are so different. I love that. Never Been Kissed, Olive, Charlie's Angels, Donnie Darko. Like very different projects from each other, you know? Wide range of yeah. And it's interesting how it sort of felt like that was the way they wanted things to go, but that's not really where things ended up going, I guess. Like, yeah. So over the next few years they had really big releases, but we're we have the sequel, Charlie's Angels, Full Throttle, yeah, Duplex, 51st dates, Fever Pitch and music and lyrics.

And these are all like a little more similar I would feel. Right to each other than like the first few, yeah. And then Drew also executive produced and directed the documentary. The best Place to start. I don't know if it's like technically a Flower Films production. It's not in the credits that way. But she's the executive producer and like her people worked on it. So I'm like it counts. Yeah, those kind of things are interesting where like it'll be a company and not her or her and not the company, right.

She's. Not a producer on that. Movie on her own What? Or nor is Adam Sandler, we realized like neither other of them was on their own. So it's like what did they just give like full like everything kind of fell into the production company. I don't know have we covered? Best place to start in any way? I don't feel like we have No no. I would love to though, it's so cool. It's about, it's all about voting guys. It's very interesting because I remember like watching it, I was, you know, younger than her obviously, and feeling like, feeling like uneducated the way that she did, you know?

Anyway, it's really good. I loved that and it was very personal. I got to see a lot of like personal footage of her. OK, so late 2000s, early 20 tens, they moved to an office on Santa Monica. That's an office we got to visit, which is we went to sunset too, I guess. Do we even? See that? You're right, We didn't even mention that We were a little more invited to the Santa Monica 1 though. Yes, yes. So the office on Santa Monica had this beautiful red door. Oh yes. It was very nondescript though. It was just like a white building with a red door.

Yeah, it wasn't labeled at all, but I feel like I feel like it's very how do I wanna say this? Like the old office is like dorm room, kind of like fun and hungry hanging hippos games and stuff like that. And then the office on Santa Monica is like the grown up, more mature, beautifully decorated, still all the like, fun photos and stuff like that on the walls, but like it's the more sophisticated version of flower. Fells yes. I mean, one of the things I remember about that office, they had these chairs, these like beautiful yellow chairs that were like upholstered and I had one in my bedroom that was almost exactly like that.

Do you remember the like? Pictures. I actually pulled a picture of the yellow bathroom with the chair because it had John Barrymore's photo on it. I pulled a picture for the episode. OK so I completely forgot about this but the office was featured in Domino magazine in April of 2008 and also it was seen on 60 Minutes. We do know that a lot of the furniture pieces in this office building were sold. You did this like sale that I still don't understand or remember why we missed out on this, but a lot of the pieces that you can see in the domino feature were sold and like where did they all go?

None of them have ever come back up for sale anywhere. Like, yeah, it kills me. Those chairs with the FF calligraphy, those were sold. I'm like, I would give anything for those. Like who has those? I want that I know what the hell. Hopefully someone with the initials or something or like. I just hopefully not somebody reupholster. Them. I was just going to say that. OK, So some new faces who ended up becoming kind of important longtime employees came into the picture at this time. So Kelly Smith, Omar Lagda, Mason Hughes and Tony Craigo, who we have two episodes with.

So we got pretty friendly with Mason and Tony when they were working with Drew. They were all just such like mainstays. Omar still does like video stuff with Drew every once in a while. But yeah, they were both just, I mean, they were all just like so important. Like any, any of the films. You can see them on the set, you know, they were just like a part of. It's so funny how it went from like an all female staff to like all gay guy staff. Basically female they're e-mail Jason. So also they had Brent Kyle who joined and we believe that Brent designed the current the new and current flower films logo because he did a super similar design for Drews tattoo on her arm for breeds.

So if you see it, it's got the same kind of outlining font and he did the Whippet title graphic. So we think he was responsible for their new look of their thing and it's stuck. Yeah, it's still there. It's really. Cool. Yeah, Jimmy Fallon. I feel like more than once I've seen pictures of him wearing T-shirts with the new Flower Films logo on. It I want AT shirt. Me too, I'm like how do we get 1 T? Shirt Come on, Jimmy Fallon, you're listening, right? Just because you're married. To one of the Co founders.

Come on. Yes, so well, some other big things that they did at this time, they did the huge ensemble piece. He's just not that into you with like it's kind of crazy when you think about some of the star power of that movie, like right part is so small. I don't really think about it that often. I probably seen it like. Ben Affleck in. It Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Scarlett Johann Scarlett Johansson. Yeah. I know I feel like I've only seen it once, maybe twice at the best, but it's I remember it being kind of enjoyable.

But it is a huge ensemble. You're right. And like, what A what a big deal for them. Like, that's amazing. I think it made money. And then more importantly to our hearts, Drew's feature directorial debut, Whip It. Yeah, Whip it. It was. It was literally the first movie we ever covered on the podcast. Yes we did over 2 episodes. Yeah. It's so cool that this like producing for a while and then finally she got to produce and direct. I know. And just, like, imagine the whole crew, like helping her out with it.

It's just so, yeah. I mean, one thing I thought of just like going back to like Domino because there were there were pictures where you could see like her, like the wall. Of yes, her inspo picture. Yeah. And I think about when I think about with it, I think about her like putting together her so like vision boards and all that. Totally cool to like see it in the office, in Domino, like in the background. Like so neat. So so neat. I also drew directed a music video slash short film for Best Coast called Our Deal, and a bunch of the flower people worked on that as well.

Again, I don't know if it's like technically a Flower Films production, but I'm counting it as well. Yeah. And it's so fun. We've also covered this. We did an episode on on the music videos. And then we did get a bunch of productions that are not starring Drew. So this was like a little kind of like run of stuff. Yeah, I don't think I've seen, I've seen these things. None of them. OK, so just admitting this guys, we love horror films. We absolutely love Drew. We just haven't watched all their projects.

So they did some small horror films called happy Camp an animal and they did a ROM coms called How to be single. And then for TV, they did a Charlie's Angels reboot, which is so interesting. A couple reality shows called Tough love and knife fight. So haven't watched any of them, but they were doing work. So I feel like it's this is a lot of like Chris Miller time, right? Yeah, definitely Miller Time. I think I actually did watch Tough Love. That feels like something I had on my TiVo and it I don't know, it just it doesn't have that like flower film stamp on it.

I'll just say that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then like this is the reason that this episode was so like origin heavy is like the last few years or even gosh, more than that, like the late 20 tens to now. Yeah, it's sort of like what is flower films these days? It's not as clear of an entity as it used to be. They did release a couple more things without Drew. There was a movie from 2017 called Freak Show that Drew, Nancy, Chris and Amber all have producing credits on. Is that? Another horror movie.

No, it's it sounds pretty cool. It's like a very like queer friendly movie about like a boy who runs for homecoming queen or something. Oh, cool. Yeah. And then like I said, Amber on her own did a skateboarding documentary called Stay on the Board, The Leo Baker story that came out in I want to see this. Yeah, I remember we would talked about wanting to see it. We haven't yet, but I think it's on Netflix so cool hard, but that's like under their banner. And then for TV, there was a Food Network show called Star Plates.

Crazy. Didn't even know. No TLC had a show called Rattled About like new parents, and Netflix had the animated Princess Power that Drew did with Savannah Guthrie. Yes, of course. So they had, I think sure Drew did the voice in a couple episodes. I think it's like a one episode thing. I still haven't. Watched that yet either. OK, so let's get into like the final thing. So final credits that Drew acted in are the three seasons of Sam accorded diet, which that was like tons of content, which is so great.

We will get into that at some point. I know I keep, every time I think about it, I'm like, how are we going to approach this? It's like a such a different thing for us to cover because it's like so much content. You might have to do like, I don't know, like similar to how we did 2000 Malibu Rd. Except that was 6 episodes period. Yeah. Yeah, we might have to like do it like in bigger chunks with something like that it. Might be our summer series, you never know. Anyway, Speaking of things, we I haven't watched The Stand in.

I will get to it eventually, but that's the last film that Drew released and starred in and it never went to theaters. No it never went to theaters. Came out during COVID. I watched that movie and could not believe it was a Flower Films production. It just makes no sense. It's a really weird project and it just doesn't feel like them. I will eventually watch it, but there's still exciting things going on. The flower films world. It's just sort of like really different, like you said. So Drew's businesses started to operate under the Barrymore brands, quote UN quote.

So Chris Miller, Tony Krago, Mason Hughes and others like worked under that name. So they became like the Barrymore brands kind of team, but the like presently the Flower films productions does the Drew Barrymore show. So we're, you know, we've got six seasons going on eight seasons of that. But that's also like hugely, you know, CBS. So like, I don't know beyond the name what what Flower films does and her team and then Hollywood Squares, which of course we love. So we're stoked on like the other things they're doing.

But TV, of course, is so much different than like, producing film. So I mean, she'll get back there. I know she will. The other big question, though, was like, where is Nancy in all this? Like, right, you know, we have this 2017 movie that she has a credit on, but other than that, it's like, I have no idea if she's even technically part of Flower Films anymore, which is so weird. When Drew talked about her really recently, like there was that clip, did she kind she still call her her partner? I guess she's saying her best friend.

She, well, I think she said both. And that is crazy that that clip came out like as you're getting ready to do this episode and like, how does this happen so often? So fun. I know. So we, you know, I think that's maybe maybe that's why we kind of like held off. We're like waiting for like flower films to like, yeah, have some like finale or, I don't know, finale, but like have like have like have a wave. I don't know. They made an Instagram account like 4 years ago and there's like nothing on it except like their projects in the highlights.

Like it's all so mysterious these days. It's. So interesting. I'd love to know like what's in the Flower Films archives, you know, beyond just a million scripts that were sent to them. But like, you know, I don't know. It's fascinating to think. About that, yeah. We used to remember. We used to just imagine they had like a room of movie memorabilia cuz they would like they would give us stuff. It's like, where's this all coming from? They must just keep it all somewhere. Have a room full of it. I mean, probably, you know, they get like a.

Bunch of promo stuff, so let's just wrap this up with a little clip of Drew explaining why she loves producing. I love having creative control. I love being in charge of my own destiny. There was a few years where I made a few films that I thought, oh, this is different than how I thought it would be. I had this original intention in my mind and it's it's quite different than that. And, and I sort of got obsessed with the idea of, well, what if I could see that vision through. And I love problem solving.

I feel so good about the end of the day if I've done something to make someone happy, but I also feel really good that I have a place to put what keeps me up at night, which is this fuelled creativity. I don't know if it's good, but it's inside of me and I have to have somewhere productive and cathartic and healthy to put it out. And so producing enables that for me a lot. I love that. I love that we've finally gotten through flower films and blossomed out the end. The garden is blooming well, and it's just so freaking cool that 19 year old Drew just decided I'm going to do this.

I want to be in charge of my own destiny. I am going to figure out how to do it all on my own without any real help except from like, other cool women. And yeah, like, look at what they've done. Yeah, I like. That's one thing Drew says on that. It really recently she's like, we've been doing it 30 years. Like, you know, it's amazing. Like that's that's cool. Like she like made her own destiny. Like her having done that, I'm sure is why she has the career that she has now. It would be a little different if Frigid and Impotent happened, but.

And boys, don't cry Slash all she wanted, yeah. Yeah, all of that like that different, I don't know, but it's it's cool. This is this is an important era that continues in Drew's life. Yeah, and we're so proud of her. Yes, we are. We are so proud of our of our girls. Inspired by. So if you guys are feeling inspired by this reporting and you're like, wow, I learned so much cool new stuff. I didn't know you should go leave a review saying that. Or you could give us some stars or you could subscribe to us wherever you're listening.

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Like go look at these pictures. Always, always really fun. There'll be, I'm sure there'll be tons of fun ones for this that we didn't even like. Yeah. I've been gathering them, yes. And also while you're there, peruse the Jerusalem are Drew Barrymore Museum. We I feel like we don't talk about that nearly enough, but that's one of the things that we do here, y'all. And also, don't forget to sign up for our Patreon. Patreon.com/patreon. Where we are currently working through the chapters of Wildflower so.

Yes, I'm excited. The next one is Joshua Tree about Drew's dad. And I've been like putting it off because again, I'm like, oh, this is a lot. This is going to be hard. But I know once I start, it's just going to be that's going to be a really interesting and really like, I feel like it's going to be a pretty heart wrenching one, but I'm excited to do it. Yeah, we love when Drew talks about her parents, the very complicated relationship he has with. Them no one ever asks her about that. What do you mean every article ever?

And don't forget to send listener mail to [email protected]. And thanks for being here, guys. I guess we'll see you all next Drew's day. I guess so. Thanks for being here. Yes. OK, bye.

This episode of the How Do You Drew podcast was researched and produced by Ashley and Ann from thedrezium.com with help from our sponsor, Positive Medium. Special thanks to Matt Costa for our lovely theme song, Roxy Prima for our adorable logo, and last but not least, Drew Barrymore and all the Drew Bees who love her. We do this for you. Thank you.

126 – Flower Films: The Ultimate In Depth Guide to Drew Barrymore's Production Company

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