Rob Williams and Rodney Johnson's Success Story

Founders of Guest House Films

Nowadays, anyone can make a film, said Clerks filmmaker Kevin Smith recently at Sundance 2011. Smith is most well known for putting New Jersey on the map way before Snooki and her bronze and buff cohorts even had their driver’s licenses.

While that may be true, only some can make a film, and have it reach a major audience.

It takes a special combination of raw talent and business savvy to create a feature film that appeals to a sizeable number of people.

Writer/director Rob Williams and his partner, writer/producer Rodney Johnson, of Los Angeles-based Guest House Films, have that unique blend of talent and business smarts.

Not only that, but they also have the rare ability to weave together insightful stories that appeal to all different groups of people, and they share these stories with the help of sometimes local, sometimes notable actors -- namely those they know can realistically portray complex characters.

But Williams and Johnson weren’t always filmmakers, nor were they entrepreneurs.

Johnson interestingly enough is a descendant of both Chief Sitting Bull and Edith Wharton. Prior to forming Guest House Films, he had achieved success as a published author and produced screenwriter. Johnson is the author of the Rinnah Two Feathers mysteries, a young adult series featuring a Lakota teen solving mysteries on the Rosebud Indian reservation. As a screenwriter, he worked on the cult hit Wasabi Tuna and the Lifetime Original Movie “Queen Sized,” starring Nikki Blonsky and Annie Potts. As a freelance writer, Rodney also worked for such clients as Disney Channel, Toon Disney and Jetix.

And Williams, prior to launching his filmmaking career, graduated from Texas Christian University with a degree in finance, and received an MBA in marketing from the University of Texas. Following a move to Los Angeles, he worked in the public relations field for over a decade. But when he realized the industry seemed to be lacking in creativity, he began studying screenwriting at the Twin Bridges Screenwriting Salon.

History was made shortly after, when Rob’s script for Long-Term Relationship received the best feedback of all of his scripts. With the help of Johnson and good friend and acclaimed actor Matthew Montgomery, who exclaimed, “You need to make this film, and I need to star in it!” the film immediately went into production in early-2006, and Guest House Films was formed.

Guest House Films has now produced five films in just five years, an astounding feat for any independent production company, and a business success story.

Its debut film, Long-Term Relationship, stars Montgomery and Windham Beacham as two gay men living in Los Angeles and looking for love through the help of personal ads. When they meet, it’s instant attraction. But as they soon come to realize, there are differences between the two that they must work out if they are to maintain a loving relationship.

Long-Term Relationship debuted on here! TV in August 2007, and was soon after released on DVD in November. The movie won six awards and screened at dozens of film festivals.

With the success of their first film under their belts, the duo then moved on to their next motion picture, Back Soon, a supernatural love story that once again paired Montgomery and Beacham. Back Soon tells the story of an aspiring actor who finds himself inexplicably attracted to a reformed drug dealer, despite their different backgrounds, and the fact that they are both straight.

Back Soon ended up winning multiple awards and again screening at countless film festivals. The film was then released on DVD through TLA Releasing in May 2008.

Once again Williams and Johnson saw their risk paying off, as the reaction they were receiving from the public, namely that of the gay and lesbian community, was so positive. In fact, the mission of Guest House Films, since the beginning, has always been to make movies they themselves would want to see, and to share stories that usually cannot be found in other productions.

For their third feature film, 3-Day Weekend, Williams and Johnson decided to change things up a bit. Not only did they decide to film the movie in only one location, a cabin at Big Bear Lake in California, but they also brought in an entirely new cast.

The film portrays an ensemble cast of eight men who escape to a mountain cabin for a relaxing weekend. But what they don’t expect is how this combination of new friends and old tensions will play out. And by the end of the weekend, a new couple has formed, while another has parted ways.

Around the time of its release on DVD, Rob and Rodney were named to Instinct’s “Leading Men of 2008” list for their contributions to indie cinema.

And little did Williams and Johnson expect, but for their fourth film to shatter sales records and launch the Guest House Films name in to a completely new territory.

Their next film Make the Yuletide Gay put Guest House Films on the map as an indie film company to be reckoned with.

For Make the Yuletide Gay, Rob and Rodney enlisted the help of a number of noteworthy actors, including Degrassi: The Next Generation’s Adamo Ruggiero, Little House on the Prairie’s Alison Arngrim, Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Gates McFadden and Emmy winner Ian Buchanan.

Make the Yuletide Gay is a cute and romantic Christmas comedy about an out-and-proud gay college student, Olaf (Keith Jordan), who crawls back into the closet to survive the holidays with his quirky Midwestern parents, played by Derek Long and Kelly Keaton.

But Olaf isn’t ready for the Christmas surprise he soon receives, when his flamboyant boyfriend shows up at his family’s doorstep unannounced. For the next couple of days, Olaf must decide whether to continue playing charades to keep the relationship a secret, or finally share his secret with his parents.

Throughout 2009, Make the Yuletide Gay sold out multiple screenings at large film festivals such as Outfest and Qfest, and took home dozens of awards. To date it is the company’s most successful film.

But the guys weren’t willing to yet rest on their laurels, as they once again got started on another film.

In May 2010, Rob and Rodney shot their fifth film, Role/Play, on location at the Alexander Inn in Palm Springs, Calif.

Role/Play stars Steve Callahan (East Side Story, Nine Lives) and Montgomery, an off-screen and on-screen couple. Callahan played Graham Windsor, a popular daytime soap actor recently outed in the press, while Montgomery starred as Trey Reed, a gay marriage activist trying to survive the media backlash following his divorce. The two characters cross paths at a quiet Palm Springs resort, where they find common ground as they discuss their individual quests for fame and the fickle nature of what it means to be a gay celebrity.

The film also stars Brian Nolan (“The Lair”), David Pevsner (Pornography: A Thriller), Matthew Stephen Herrick (Daydream Obsession: Legacy) and TV icon Jim J. Bullock (“Too Close For Comfort,” Spaceballs).

As part of their ongoing efforts to have greater control over their careers, Williams and Johnson self-distributed Role/Play through Guest House Films. This decision has been a financial and creative success for the company, and it offers numerous opportunities for the future, such as the possibility of distributing movies from other filmmakers as well as their own productions.

The unstoppable team of Guest House Films already has numerous projects in development, including the sequel to Make the Yuletide Gay, and The Mystic Chord, a big-screen adaptation of the Jim Tushinski novel, Van Allen’s Ecstasy.

For more information on Guest House Films, visit www.guesthousefilms.com.