From a $150k Indie to making massive Box Office Hits, Directing Rom-Coms & Making 'You, Me & Tuscany' with Kat Coiro and Will Packer

April 8, 2026·44 min·3 clips

Will Packer snuck into CinemaCon on a press pass, learned exhibition chains needed to fill empty multiplex screens, and personally drove city to city placing flyers on nightclub cars and church cars — often the same cars — to make a million dollars without Hollywood.

The chat starts loose. A wobble over recce, recon, and scouting turns into the sort of room banter this show enjoys before the craft talk settles in. Then Giles Alderson gets to the work. He asks what a producer actually looks for in a director, especially when two experienced people are meeting on a project for the first time. The producer keeps it plain. The job is not only watching the money. It is finding the right people, putting them in the right place, and making sure they have enough support to deliver. Clarity of vision is the phrase that sticks. He also makes the point that fit changes from person to person. A director, producer, or actor can move between comedy and drama, but that does not mean every match works. That is where the conversation gets useful. Hiring comes across as taste, strategy, and responsibility, not a credits checklist. Cat adds the sharper version of the point: coming in on budget does not mean much if the film does not have what it needs and does not work. The producer agrees. He ties it back to his own career and says the bottom line is still whether the films succeed. So the lesson stays grounded. A producer can care about cost, schedule, and delivery while still protecting the creative conditions that make a film worth releasing. You, Me & Tuscany gives them the frame for talking about first collaborations, director-producer chemistry, and how experienced people decide to trust each other. The tone is warm, a little scruffy, and aimed at filmmakers who want the answer behind the answer. Giles closes by pointing listeners toward Ian's low-budget film Undertone, with attention on its sound design, shot design, one-house setup, and path toward A24 attention.

As heard by us

A rom-com conversation that treats taste, collaboration, and budget as one practical question.

Giles Alderson, Kat Coiro, and Will Packer keep the conversation grounded in how You, Me and Tuscany actually comes together. They talk through how they met on the project, what each wants from a collaborator, and why a clear point of view needs to be in place before filming…

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Why you'd press play

When you want rom-com chat that still cares about how the movie gets made.

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