When Kyle Marvin made his first movie, he made one big mistake. “I gave up my day job way before I should have,” he says with a laugh.

At the time, Marvin, 40, was working in advertising with his best friend, actor and director Michael Angelo Covino. They shot sketches, produced the occasional project and eventually decided to write, produce and star in their own short film, The Climb , about a friendship tested during a weekend bike ride. “My wife and I had a good life, we were raising two children, and I was like, ‘I’m going to give it all up and go make movies,’ ” Marvin recalls. ” ‘And I’m going to make absolutely nothing — in fact, I’m going to lose money.’ I sold our family car to finance the movie.”

The Climb premiered at Sundance in 2018 and was so well received that it was

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