Aaron Seltzer

Their first five directorial efforts between 2006 and 2010 received wide theatrical releases to mostly commercial success, but were universally panned; their films Date Movie (2006), Epic Movie (2007), Meet the Spartans and Disaster Movie (both 2008) are considered among the worst ever made. Following Vampires Suck (2010), their subsequent releases in the 2010s garnered less attention, largely due to their limited theatrical distribution.

• Name — Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer • Born — Jason Friedberg 1971 10 13 Newark, New Jersey, U.S. Aaron Seltzer 1974 01 12 Mississauga, Ontario, Canada • Education — University of California, Santa Barbara • Occupation — * Directors • screenwriters • Years Active — 1994–present • Parents — Rick Friedberg (Jason's father)

Interviews with the duo are rare, but in an exclusive 2014 interview with the publication Grantland, their background was discussed: Seltzer is part of a Canadian shoe salesmen family from Mississauga, Ontario, and Friedberg, who was born in Newark, New Jersey, was raised in Paterson, New Jersey and is the son of director Rick Friedberg. Seltzer and Friedberg met at the University of California, Santa Barbara and bonded over their love of film, especially comedy. Both are Jewish. They did not attend film school, with Seltzer majoring in art history and Friedberg in history, but decided to try a career in the film industry after attending a class about Martin Scorsese in their last semester.

While writing screenplays at night, both spent the day attending jobs to pay their tuition, selling homemade T-shirts, starting their own food delivery service, and opening shoe shops in Los Angeles. When Rick Friedberg made the comic instruction video Bad Golf Made Easier with Leslie Nielsen, he showed his son's script for a spy film spoof to him. Nielsen approved, and this led to 1996's Spy Hard. Friedberg and Seltzer then spent some years as screenwriters for hire, with Seltzer estimating the duo sold "upward of 40 scripts". The only finished project was an uncredited rewrite to the Jean-Claude Van Damme film Maximum Risk (1996), while an unproduced Liberace biopic (unrelated to Steven Soderbergh's TV movie Behind the Candelabra) introduced them to future collaborator and producer Peter Safran. In 1998, Safran managed to sell to Miramax's Dimension Films division a horror film spoof spec script of Friedberg and Seltzer's named Scream If You Know What I Did Last Halloween. Shawn Wayans and Marlon Wayans, with Buddy Johnson and Phil Beauman, developed a similar project and, thanks to a WGA decision, all six writers were credited on what became Scary Movie, despite Friedberg and Seltzer not actually working on the final script. The film was a sleeper hit in 2000, bringing much attention to Friedberg and Seltzer.

Tired of unmade projects as screenwriters, and with Regency Enterprises unable to find a director for their romantic comedy spoof, Seltzer and Friedberg opted to direct Date Movie (2006) themselves. Date Movie opened with $12.1 million and earned $48.9 million overall. Moving forward, they would direct their own scripts, leading to a long tract of parody films, spoofing major blockbusters. Disaster Movie opened with $5.8 million and earned $14.2 million total in the United States. Vampires Suck, which opened on a Wednesday, earned an estimated $19.7 million in its first five days.

In May 2014, Friedberg and Seltzer announced their intention to release Who the F#@K Took My Daughter?, a parody of Taken. In February 2017, they were reportedly developing a parody of Star Wars titled Star Worlds Episode XXXIVE=MC2: The Force Awakens the Last Jedi Who Went Rogue, whose filming was scheduled for late 2017.

Crista Flanagan and Nick Steele have been the duo's most frequent collaborators, appearing in five of their films, followed by Carmen Electra (4 films) and Tony Cox, Ike Barinholtz, and Diedrich Bader (3 films each). • Actor — Date Movie — Epic Movie — Meet the Spartans — Disaster Movie — Vampires Suck — The Starving Games — Best Night Ever — Superfast! • Nick Steele • Carmen Electra • Tony Cox • Adam Campbell • Jennifer Coolidge • Fred Willard • Crista Flanagan • Jareb Dauplaise • Jim Piddock • Tad Hilgenbrink • Ike Barinholtz • Diedrich Bader • John Di Domenico • Nicole Parker • Matt Lanter • Amin Joseph • Nick Gomez

• Year — Film — Directors — Writers — Producers — Rotten Tomatoes Approval Rating — Metacritic Score — Budget — Worldwide Gross • 1996 — Spy Hard — 8% — 25/100 — $18 million — $84,960,191 • 2000 — Scary Movie — 51% — 48/100 — $19 million — $278,019,771 • 2006 — Date Movie — 7% — 11/100 — $20 million — $84,795,656 • 2007 — Epic Movie — Executive — 2% — 17/100 — $86,865,564 • 2008 — Meet the Spartans — 2% — 9/100 — $30 million — $84,646,831 • Disaster Movie — 1% — 15/100 — $20 million — $34,816,824 • 2010 — Vampires Suck — 4% — 18/100 — $80,547,866 • 2013 — The Starving Games — 0% — $4.5 million — $3,889,688 • Best Night Ever — 0% — 17/100 — $289,511 • 2015 — Superfast! — N/A — $2.1 million — $2,075,731