Nerdist Gets Into Film Distribution With SXSW Darling ‘Zero Charisma’

Nerdist will be at the helm of YouTube’s upcoming Geek Week, but Chris Hardwick‘s channel also has big plans beyond YouTube. Nerdist Industries and Tribeca Film will team up to distribute Dungeons and Dragons-focused dramedy Zero Charisma.

Zero Charisma received a very positive response when it debuted earlier this year at SXSW. Among those in the audience was Nerdist’s Jonah Ray. “[Ray] saw Zero Charisma at SXSW and immediately texted me to say it was one of the best movies of the year,” explained Hardwick. “When I saw it, I knew I had to tell as many people as I could about it. It’s hilarious, touching, beautiful, authentic and an eerily accurate echo of my first D&D group in the 80’s. I think the character of Scott will become a cultural hero. He is the personification of the nerd rage that boils in all of us when PEOPLE. DON’T. FOLLOW. THE. RULES. OF. THE GAME.”

Zero Charisma follows Scott, a stereotypical nerdy shut-in who clashes with the newest member of his D&D group, a slick, cool “neo-nerd

.” Some of the commenters on the film’s trailer have accused it of featuring a stock portrayal of nerds, but it seems more like a careful examination of different types of nerds. Other commenters have complained that a person with zero charisma would actually be a braindead lump, so the comment section is really breaking down the Nerdist stereotype right there.

To distribute the film, Nerdist will work with Tribeca Film, which has already already made an impact in the online video community through The Picture Show, its collaboration with Maker Studios. Tribeca and Nerdist will release Zero Charisma though several online platforms on October 8th and will begin distributing it in theaters three days later. To build hype, Nerdist showed a few clips at Comic-Con. Zero Charisma seems like the perfect fit for Nerdist, and it’s an ideal way for the company to jump into film distribution.