Tyler Nilson鈥檚 spent a lot of time indoors over the past six months. Ever since his new film聽听飞辞苍听聽at South by Southwest in March, the 38-year-old cowriter/codirector has been chasing festivals through airports聽from Rhode Island to Maui聽or stuck at his desk e-mailing PR departments and pushing clips onto social-media feeds. Most recently, he鈥檚 been watching a lot more TV聽as some of聽his lead stars,聽Shia LaBeouf, Zack Gottsagen, and Dakota Johnson, sit down for morning talk shows and late-night interviews. The spotlight is聽not his preferred setting. (In fact, the lifelong surfer and nature boy went barefoot to his own Hollywood premiere.)聽But聽after spending five years struggling to get the movie made, Nilson鈥檚 happy to be able to milk it. Actually, he鈥檚 happy just to have electricity.

鈥淏y the end of 2016, I鈥檇 stopped making commercials and had been living in a tent in the hills above L.A. for a year,鈥� Nilson says. 鈥淪ix months later, I鈥檇 gone from a being a homeless guy with a dream and a hundred pages [of a script] to a guy who was on set in the Georgia swamp, directing Shia LaBeouf, Dakota Johnson, John Hawkes, Thomas Haden Church, and Bruce Dern in a multimillion-dollar feature film. And it was all because we made a promise to a friend to put him in a movie.鈥�

That friend is Gottsagen, a 33-year-old actor from Florida who happens to have Down syndrome. Nilson and his cowriter/codirector, Michael Schwartz, met Gottsagen at a camp for people with disabilities roughly eight years ago. They immediately recognized his talent. They also recognized that his chances of being a movie star were basically nil. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a part of the population that doesn鈥檛 traditionally have characters written for them,鈥� notes Schwartz.

So聽they decided to write his character into a movie.聽

The Peanut Butter Falcon is the tale of two rebel refugees: Gottsagen plays Zack,聽an out-of-place 22-year-old聽placed in an old-folks鈥� home聽who busts loose with dreams of becoming a professional wrestler, disability be damned. LaBeouf plays Tyler, a troubled crab trapper running from trouble. Thrust together by fate, they chart a course for a fresher life, traveling along a circuitous stretch of fictional marshland based on Nilson鈥檚 coastal home in聽North Carolina鈥檚 Outer Banks. In fact, Nilson goes as far as to call it 鈥渁n Outer Banks fairytale.鈥�

Actually, it鈥檚 more like the Odyssey, as the two misfits sneak their way south, with equal nods to Mark Twain and the Coen Brothers and maybe a touch of Maurice Sendak. There are bonfires. Makeshift boats. Misadventures. A little bit of love interest.聽A bunch of male bonding. Plus聽gobs of gorgeous coastal scenery and enough feel-good magic to secure a national release. (As of August 9, it鈥檚 showing in select cities before a nationwide release starting August 23.) Not bad for Nilson, a guy who moved to California in 2004 with zero Hollywood ambitions.聽

鈥淭here鈥檚 nowhere farther from Hollywood than the Outer Banks of North Carolina,鈥� says Nilson, who, like most year-round residents, spent his formative years surfing, fishing, and slinging food to tourists. 鈥淪o聽making a movie was something where I didn鈥檛 know I could dream that big鈥攐r even think that big. I just wanted to make surf movies.鈥�

Instead, he started acting in commercials. But his real big break came as a hand model. Schwartz and Nilson were neighbors in Santa Barbara. Shortly after they met, Schwartz started working on the first iPhone ads; he asked Nilson to demonstrate how the touch screen works. By 2011, Nilson could palm up to ten grand a day聽just pouring liquor bottles, holding pens, and opening car doors for stars like Brad Pitt. But聽his soul was in storytelling. And as he started writing films, he knew just the place to pull from.

鈥淕rowing up on the Outer Banks was pure poetry,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 a culture of marketing agents and businessmen. It was pirates and fishermen. There were characters. And that鈥檚 who I gravitated toward. I got a job on a crab boat when I was younger, and I always found myself working in places where people had really good stories to tell.鈥�

It鈥檚 this grittier side of the Outer Banks that gives the The Peanut Butter Falcon its texture, not the state鈥檚 miles of sunny beaches that draw millions of visitors a year. Or the 鈥淕raveyard of the Atlantic鈥� wave energy that makes Cape Hatteras a surfing mecca. Or even the legendary sports fishing that fuels multimillion-dollar charter boats to the Gulf Stream and back. Instead, Nilson draws from the barrier-island chain鈥檚 brackish estuaries and blue-collar, commercial-fishing tradition聽and a culture that鈥檚 the century-old spine of backwaters everywhere. One that鈥檚 entirely devoid of glamour聽but where even the double-wides and dive bars get million-dollar views. It鈥檚 no accident 罢丑别听Peanut Butter Falcon boasts possibly the best movie high-speed boat chase聽outside of James Bond films鈥攐r that Zack鈥檚 wrestling hero is named the Salt Water Redneck.聽

鈥淎s far as the plot goes, the boat chase wasn鈥檛 super important,鈥� Nilson admits with a chuckle. 鈥淭hat was just something I really wanted to do. But to get Thomas Haden Church to play the Salt Water Redneck鈥攚ho鈥檚 based on a guy who worked fishing boats in Wanchese and went to wrestling school鈥攐r聽to get Shia LaBeouf to play a crab fisherman from Colington, that was really special for me.鈥澛�

It鈥檚 that same level of humble self-awareness, humor, and honesty that permeates the film鈥攖hat聽and a sincere love of the pure coastal existence. In fact, some of the most delicate moments occur聽when there鈥檚 no real action or dialogue, just the characters moving between the marshland and the sea, appreciating the moment.

In that way, it鈥檚 the opposite of adrenaline-driven, action-sports fluff, where the expert athlete almost dies beneath an avalanche. Or the man-versus-nature聽dramas where some poor city slicker must rediscover his raw animal nature to beat back the elements.聽For Tyler and Zack, surviving outdoors is easy, rain or shine. It鈥檚 society that makes life hard, with things like laws, rules and regulations, and the very concept of limits. It鈥檚聽anything that says, 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 do this,鈥澛爓hether it鈥檚 trapping crabs without a license or dreaming of being a professional wrestler with a disability. Or turning a dream鈥攁nd a friendship鈥攊nto a blockbuster movie.

鈥淚 wouldn鈥檛 go that far yet,鈥� Nilson laughs. 鈥淭his film still could come out and do really bad. I hope not. I pray not.鈥� But, he says, they鈥檙e proud of the story and the message that you can accomplish something that somebody else says is impossible. 鈥淚 believe humans constantly change our reality with our thoughts and stories. And the stories we tell become the world we live in.鈥�

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