Dream Corp LLC Coming To Your Dreams Sunday, October 23rd at 11:45 P.M.


Dream Corp LLC

If you’ve ever had a nightmare you can’t shake or a dream that rakes your mind, then you need to tune into Adult Swim on Sunday, October 23rd. Doing so may explain a pretty surreal way to deal with them.

Sunday October 23rd, at 11:45 P.M. Dream Corp LLC is opening their doors in a strip mall near you.

We sat down with Creator, Daniel Stessen, and star, Jon Gries, to see what the show is about, and give you a bit of insight.


Nerd News Social: Hey Daniel (Stessen) and Jon (Gries), thank you for taking the time to chat with us today. I just want to say, Dream Corp LLC, Wow. This show is pretty awesome.
Daniel Stessen: Thank you!
Jon Gries: Oh well, you need to talk to the genius behind this, oh wait he’s right here, Daniel Stessen!
NNS: I will say, the use of LLC is brilliant. Hopefully we’ll get to see more use of that through the show.
Daniel: Thank you, exactly.
NNS: Most people watching the show wont understand the beauty of that right there alone, but genius.
Daniel: Dream Corporation Limited Liability Corporation.
NNS: Exactly.
Jon: Yeah exactly!
NNS: Where did the concept for the show come from?
Daniel: Well the concept for the show, well It’s a layered answer. I think the concept comes from the times we are living in now. I feel like this could be a real thing. I had night terrors when I was younger. I also went to a therapist who helped me figure out. I was twelve years old at the time, and he helped me figure out this reacquiring dream that I was having. So then when I started writing I just, that’s a real thing, and that really did happen. So I started reading young and started learning more about Singularity, Ray Kurzweil and people like that. I kinda combined it with the possibility that one day we can put our brains online, and kinda exist in a digital heaven. The answer is long but it’s also just from my past from seeing a dream therapist as a child. It’s a big part of it for sure.
NNS: This is the first time Adult Swim will have Roto-scoped animation in their lineup, but not the first time you have used it. What drew you to this animation style?
Daniel: The infinite possibilities. You can do anything. We can be in a warehouse and all we have to do is draw the characters that are there and then all of a sudden we can be on a mountain.
Jon: I just have to chime in here, because it is unquestionably the most beautiful animation that I’ve ever seen. It rivals those great and beautiful… it looks so good.
Daniel: Yeah it’s gorgeous.
Jon: Anyway I just had to say that.
NNS: How long does the animation take to get from creation to finish for an episode, since animation for this style is different then traditional animation?
Daniel: Yeah were working on the timing on that. It’s tough to say. It depends on the scene. But about a month, all in. All the animation right now has taken us a month an episode. But by the time we are finished, the sixth episode, our work flow, we’ve got it down. It’s our first season but we are working through the kinks. These animators are brilliant.
NNS: I ask this question of a lot of adult swim show creators, does the 15 minute format work well for this piece, or do you feel like you wish you had more time for each episode?
Daniel: I always feel like I would want more time, but given the platform we are on you have to hit really hard. 15 minutes are the classic Daffy Duck, Looney Toons, from back in the day which are some of my biggest inspirations. Those were all 15 minutes. From a story telling standpoint it makes you trim all the fat and get right to the heart of the story. So I learned to love it.
NNS: Was 6 episodes what you wanted, or did you feel like you needed to move to fast to sum up the season?
Daniel: I was just happy for the opportunity.
NNS: Fair enough.
Daniel: To make any episode at all. That’s why Adult Swim is so amazing. They’ve been so good to me, giving me a platform to express myself and these ideas that a normal network would have taken the risk with. I was happy when we made the pilot, and then the next 6. Working with this cast has been like a dream.
NNS: I know you’ve worked with the Office before, but how exactly did you get involved with John Krasinski and Stephen Merchant?
Daniel: John Krasinski and I have been friends for a long time, we were actually roommates in theater school. This just came about recently, he asked me what I was working on, and I had made a pitch deck and I showed it to him, and he was like ‘Can I product this?’ and I was like ‘Ah yeah.’ From there, Steve came on, because we have been friends for a while through John. We became really close friends back when John and Emily had their baby, because they stopped hanging out with us. So we just started hanging out a lot. Both of them have been amazing mentors through out the way. Him jumping on as an executive was organic. He was the voice of T.e.r.r.y. at first in the pilot but he didn’t move around. So when we started rewriting, I wanted Steve Merchant to be able to go anywhere in the building. So I made him a little bot. As I was writing, I asked him for some help, and I asked him if he would join as an executive, and he asked me ‘What would my responsibilities be?’
NNS: So it was your idea to have Stephen Merchant voice a T.E.R.R.Y. the office robot?
Daniel: Yes!
NNS: What does T.E.R.R.Y., an acronym stand for?
Daniel: Dr. Roberts just likes the name. It doesn’t stand for anything. It’s just for there for Terry to feel like a robot. He just likes the name.
NNS: Stephen Merchant voicing a robot. I’m always down for that. It always ends up well.
Daniel: It’s never wrong.
NNS: Jon, I grew up watching The Pretender as a kid, and I loved Broots on the show. Just wanted to put that out there.
Jon: That’s what you were doing on Saturday nights? Staying at home? What was the deal?
NNS: I was a kid.
Jon: Oh that’s true? That’s good.
NNS: I wouldn’t have been good if I went out. This character is a very interesting one. What drew you to this role?
Jon: What drew me to the role originally? Daniel asking me to play it. He originally contacted me with ideas of playing different roles. I read a four or five page, the script wasn’t done yet. The pilot was done a year and a half before. Wasn’t it Daniel?
NNS: Yeah.
Jon: When he approached me, I was like ‘Okay yeah! I’m up for it’ I loved the way it read. I knew it was my sensibility right off. I totally jived with this genre. This confluence of really dry quick humor and psychedelic transformation. Then he called me back and asked me what about Dr. Roberts. I got scared, if my back against a the wall I’d have sucked out a brick. Then I said ‘Okay yeah I’ll do it.’ Then I became a dog with a bone, what am I going to do, how will I play this.  We would talk on and off up until we got to the point when we were doing the first pilot. We would talk about character bouncing back and forth slowly whittling down to where we felt he should go.
NNS: Did you find inspiration for this character in any of your prior works?
Jon: No it’s funny. There was a question where someone asked if he was like Laslo, he wouldn’t be able to run rough shot over anybody or everybody. Laslo from Real Genius was painfully shy, and painfully sensitive. That’s why he went underground because he deal with having the knowledge he had, and it was being used for potentially horrible things. While this character had that knowledge he’d be running … the whole part of the LLC is he want’s money. He is looking for more investors to get him out of a strip mall and into Silicon Valley
Daniel: Roberts in Silicon Valley what an image.
Jon: Of course, that’s his dream. I don’t want to judge him, cause he’s not a neerdowell cause the technology is real it works, at least in the confines of the show. But he definitely feels like he’s the guy who is misunderstood and he doesn’t understand why people don’t get it. I don’t call from any character, that’s for sure.
NNS: I know you guys have only 6 episodes and asking to pick is like a favorite child. So do either of you guys already have an episode that stands out of what you love of this show?
Jon: I’m gonna go first, but it keeps changing. He lives with them but I get to come in and see them. It has changed 4 times in the first 5 episodes. It’s continuing, it’s a testament to the fact that the essence of what this show is from the nuances to the incredible animation to the mind expanding psychedelic psychological stuff. I just think it’s brilliant. I think it’s art and it stands on it’s own. I told the people from Adult Swim, if we don’t go any further fine then it’ll just be showing in MOCA or LACMA somewhere in a museum. That’s how I really feel about it. I sincerely feel that way and I’m proud to be a part of it.
Daniel: Thanks Jon.
Jon: Top that Daniel.
Daniel: Thanks man.
Jon: Now you have to tell your favorite episode.
Daniel: Kinda the same feeling, everyone has a moment that I love. This cast, every single person. Jon is the captain of this amazing ensemble. Every episode I am impressed with another character for another reason. In the edit, everyone is so fun to edit. I have had an amazing time working on it on the whole.
NNS: Well I can’t wait to see more of this show. Thank you guys for your time!
So once again, don’t forget to watch Dream Corp LLC on Adult Swim, Sunday October 23rd, at 11:45 P.M.

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