Fantastic Fest Premiere 'Into the Sky' Proves an 'Indie Blockbuster' is Possible

Recorded at Fantastic Fest 2026 in Austin, No Film School founder Ryan Koo talks with Into the Sky writer-directors Drew Mylrea and Evan Buxbaum about the decade-long path to making their sci-fi comedy. They trace the project from an early script that Evan initially rejected through Black List evaluations, financing, casting Sam Richardson, and an ambitious 25-day production with dozens of locations and hundreds of VFX shots. Drew and Evan also explain how they divided responsibilities as co-directors, used LiDAR scans and Lego figures to pre-visualize scenes, navigated production setbacks, tested unfinished cuts with audiences, and learned to trust their instincts while making an independent film designed to feel like a blockbuster.

In this episode, No Film School's Ryan Koo and guests Drew Mylrea and Evan Buxbaum discuss...

How Drew and Evan became filmmaking collaborators after spending hours together shooting a Method soap commercial in a tiny shower

Evan’s experience making Sun Belt Express and the long gap between his first and second features

Why Drew kept returning to the alien-abduction concept that eventually became Into the Sky

Revisiting old material after years of becoming better writers and filmmakers

How strong Black List evaluations gave the filmmakers psychological momentum to commit to the project

Spending roughly two years rewriting the script and assembling financing

Why casting director Kate Geller became an important part of building the movie’s cast

How attaching Sam Richardson helped the project gain momentum

The pressures created when an in-demand actor gives an independent production a narrow shooting window

Walking away from a “turnkey” production-services solution that would have forced most of the movie onto a single estate