Brothers Chapman and Maclain Way, the sons of screenwriter Rick Way, grandsons of actor Bing Russell, and nephews to Kurt Russell (that one you know), have some obvious Hollywood pedigree. They also have a Primetime Emmy for 2018’s “Wild Wild Country” and Sundance status for 2014’s “The Battered Bastards of Baseball,” both of which were distributed by Netflix. (Grandpa Bing owned the team chronicled in “Bastards,” the Portland Mavericks; Uncle Kurt was the designated hitter.)
With the Tuesday return of their best-in-genre sports-documentary series “Untold,” the guys also have a legitimate claim for Top Netflix brothers. Sorry, Duffers; and Joe and Anthony Russo, you had better make something really good out of that “Gray Man” universe.
“Untold: Volume 3” debuts with a doc about the rise of yet another pair of bothers, Jake Paul and Logan Paul. “The Problem Child,” directed by Andrew Renzi (“Pepsi, Where’s My Jet?”) is Jake’s (pictured above) story. And though Chapman, 36, and Maclain, 32, didn’t direct any of this season’s four “Untold” installments, their style can be felt throughout the season.
The Way Brothers told IndieWire they plan to return to the director’s chairs for one story in the yet-to-be-announced “Untold: Volume 4.” The rest of the current season, which will break from Netflix’s tradition via a weekly rollout, was by Ryan Duffy (“Johnny Football,” about Johnny Manziel), Bryan Storkel (“Hall of Shame,” about the BALCO steroid scandal), and Katharine English (“Swamp Kings,” a four-part series about the Tim Tebow Florida Gators).
Duffy was the Volume 3 showrunner; the Ways came into the edit bay “after Cut 1s, Cut 2s,” Maclain said, to “really help shape the story.”
Mac and his big brother Chapman (who is actually the middle Way boy; biggest brother Brocker does the music on “Untold”) have also helped shape the present-day documentary industry itself. Since selling “Battered Bastards” nine years ago at Sundance, the Ways have been at the forefront of the shifting marketplace.
These days, by their count, distributors are mostly buying documentaries out of five buckets: celebrity, sports, food, true crime, and music. Wisely, “Untold” installments contain at least one of those first two — and crime comes into play on more than one occasion.
“It’s simple math: those are the stories that perform really well on these (streaming) services,” Chapman said.
Even though their “Wild Wild Country” helped kickstart a sixth option, cult stories (“How to Become a Cult Leader” currently trending on Netflix!), the fellas don’t think it would get a six-episode order today — and today is just five years removed from the docuseries winning Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series. (Still another set of brothers, Mark and Jay Duplass, got much of the Emmy recognition as the “Wild Wild Country” executive producers; the Ways, who produced, were nominated for — but lost — Outstanding Directing for a Documentary/Nonfiction Program to Brett Morgen for Nat Geo’s “Jane.”)
“To me, that’s kind of sad,” Chapman said. “There are incredible strengths in long-form storytelling. I know there are often a lot of complaints about things being too bloated and too redundant… but if you’re a sharp storyteller and you’re aware of those pitfalls, there are incredible advantages to long-form storytelling.”
The guys know incredible advantages — they were practically born with a RED camera in their hands.
“Growing up, there was a lot of film in our household,” Chapman said. “There were a lot of conversations around the dinner table about story arcs and character arcs and first acts and all these kinds of interesting things that at a young age got us interested in filmmaking.”
It helps when your collaborator is just one bedroom away. And if he or she have many of the same chromosomes? Bonus.
“We tend to gravitate toward liking the same things; maybe because we share some of the same DNA,” Chapman said. “Could be a thing.”
Maybe that’s why we’ve referenced so many brothers already in the piece. (The Ways say another pair, The Safdies, are the fellow filmmaking siblings they most align with in style — “Guerilla, run-and-gun, and maybe break a few rules to get shots, and make art that is hopefully a little provocative and complex,” as Chapman described it.)
What is definitely a thing is having the built-in trust of — and free labor — of family.
“The most important thing is having a collaborator that you can be fully honest with and not have to worry about if you’re going to be offending that person,” Chapman said.
“You’re starting with limited resources in a way, so it’s like who can you convince to come work for nothing and be a part of the band of pirates that it takes to make this?” Maclain added. (Keeping it in the family, Chapman’s wife also produces with them.)
Beyond all that pragmatism, it was the little bro who provided perhaps the sagest answer: “It’s such a practical reason to talk every day and be around each other every day.”
“We’d still be close as brothers, but working together is truly a reason to text nonstop, email nonstop, call nonstop, and be around each other a lot because there’s a lot of work to get done,” Mac continued. “It’s been a really fun ride so far.”
“Untold: Volume 3” premieres Tuesday on Netflix with “Jake Paul the Problem Child.”
