DOWNTOWN Mike Horelick is reliving his childhood, thousands of miles from where it all happened.
And the French are right there witnessing those wonder years.
Horelick just wrapped up an exciting month in his career, the screenwriter just seeing the debut of his new dramedy on French television, a story of two teenage skateboarders coming-of-age on the streets of Paris.
The series premiere of “Ben et Thomas” on May 31 was the result of more than four years of labor since the show was first conceptualized, a spin-off of a feature-length film that was shot in Horelick’s hometown of Santa Monica.
The show focuses on the friendship between two 16-year-old skateboarders from different ethnic backgrounds, Thomas an Arab, Ben a Jew, the young adults navigating through confusing and often trying teenage years, united in their love for skateboarding.
“We try to base it on the dilemma they face of having integrity and keeping their friendship together,” Horelick said. “We call it the ‘Wonder Years’ with skateboarding.”
The story is loosely based on Horelick’s friendship with the show’s producer, Jon Carnoy, both growing up in Menlo Park about a block away from each other, buddies since they were 8 years old.
After graduating from high school, Horelick left Menlo Park to attend Pomona College, transferring to the University of California at San Diego. He received his master’s degree in screenwriting from the University of Southern California in 1994.
While Carnoy went on to New York University after high school and eventually moved to France, Horelick remained in Los Angeles, working as a production assistant and later researcher for reality show,“Best of the Worst,” which was hosted by Greg Kinnear.
Despite the ocean between them, the friends have partnered in various entertainment ventures, Horelick always the screenwriter, Carnoy the director and producer, co-creating independent films including “Mob Queen,” whose cast included several stars from HBO hit series, “The Sopranos.”
The film premiered in small theaters on the Westside, including the Laemmle Theatre on Second Street.
After producing a number of periodic pieces, the film partners decided in 2002 to direct their attention on a smaller project, producing a 25-minute short film called “Ben et Thomas.”
“I said, let’s do something small about two skateboarders, it would cost almost nothing,” Horelick said.
The Santa Monican wrote the screenplay in English, transmitted to France where Carnoy was living, the script translated to French and shot in Paris.
The short enjoyed critical success, prompting the filmmakers to produce a feature-length follow-up based on the same story, titled “Pee Stains and Other Disasters.”
This time the film was shot in Santa Monica where Horelick and Carnoy co-own Tunnel, a skateboarding brand popular in the 1970s. The friends purchased the brand in 2005.
While the filmmakers weren’t able to secure a buyer for the movie, a French television producer took notice, offering to adapt the film into a show.
The friends resumed their roles, Horelick drafting plots from every day observations through his skateboard business, submitting screenplays to France where Carnoy translated the scripts into French, shooting the scenes in Paris.
The show progressed sluggishly from conceptualization to reality, Horelick attributing the delay to production issues.
Several of the characters are based on real people from the producers’ lives. Swedish skateboarder Liselott Karlsson, one of the female protagonists, was slightly modeled after Horelick’s wife, Nicolina Karlsson, who is an art teacher at the PS #1 Elementary School on Euclid Street.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 9, 2008. Read the original PDF.