Ira Glass, Movie Producer

A few years ago, NPR’s This American Life highlighted comedian Mike Birbiglia’s struggles with sleepwalking. This summer, that report has morphed into the semi-autobiographical feature comedy Sleepwalk with Me, produced and co-written by show host Ira Glass. The film opened in New York last week and expands tomorrow to LA’s Nuart Theatre and several other cities.

As Glass and his star tell LA Times reporter Amy Kaufman, there was a key difference between the radio and film production processes. The decibel level:

“We turned a corner where you felt comfortable shouting at me,” Birbiglia said. “And vice versa,” Glass added with a smile.

Yelling at his star is not the only hallmark of our industry town adopted by Glass. According to the article, he’s also been taking various meetings to discuss the dozen(!) other This American Life movie projects currently in development. Welcome to Hollywood, Mr. Glass.

Meanwhile, at the top of the film’s Twitter page, Sleepwalk with Me is billed as “A comedy as good as the best episode of This American Life, but funnier. Seriously.” Count us in.