'Chocolate Lizards': Rudy Pankow To Star In Indie Dramedy

EXCLUSIVE: Rudy Pankow (Outer Banks) will play the lead role in Chocolate Lizards, an indie dramedy based on Cole Thompson’s 1999 novel of the same name, which also stars Carrie-Anne Moss and Julio César Cedillo, as well as Oscar nominees Thomas Haden Church and Bruce Dern, and is currently in production in Texas.

The film centers on Erwin Vandeveer (Pankow), a Harvard-educated actor just recently fired from the first real acting job he’s ever had in New Orleans, who hits the road back to Los Angeles, only to have his car break down outside Buffalo Gap, Texas. There, he meets roughneck Merle Luskey (Church), who is about to lose his oil drilling operation in 30 days, unless he can come up with the money to pay off his bank note.

These two down-and-outers at the end of their ropes subsequently join forces with Faye (Moss), the manager of the local cafe and unofficial mayor of Buffalo Gap, in an unlikely scheme to avoid disaster and try to hit an oil bonanza before Merle’s time runs out. With a little comical cunning and a lot more luck, the two just may pull off a last-minute miracle.

Mark Lambert Bristol is directing the film from a script by Julie B. Denny. Bristol and Denny are also producing with Melissa Kirkendall and Koen Wooten.

Pankow is best known for his starring turn as JJ in Netflix’s popular teen drama Outer Banks, created by Josh Pate, Jonas Pate and Shannon Burke, which returned for its second season in July. The actor recently finished work on two films, including independent comedy The Crusades.

He is represented by Ideal Talent Agency and Jackson Entertainment Management.