With Crystal Lake ties, Maddy Curly brings 'Chalk It Up' comedy to Netflix

When friends and family in Crystal Lake ask Maddy Curley about her film career, she can tell them to head to Netflix, where the movie she co-wrote, produced and stars in, "Chalk It up," has found an audience.

Curley, whose mother, Marilyn McDermand, has lived in Crystal Lake for the past 16 years, recently spent Christmas here and talked about her latest success, which combines two of her passions – acting and gymnastics.

“It’s been incredible,” said Curley, born in Tallahassee, Florida, and now living in Los Angeles, where she also coaches CrossFit.

With an action slant, the comedy – www.chalkitupmovie.com – tells the story of Apple, played by Curley, a fashion-forward university student determined to get married. To draw back a boyfriend, she makes it her mission to build a women's gymnastics team at her university, which has no gymnastics. She forms a makeshift team out of a bunch of misfit athletes, soon discovering there's more to life than finding a husband.

As Curley puts it, “It’s ‘Legally Blonde,’ but with gymnastics. It’s like a girlie girl trying to find herself, and she realizes that teammates are really what makes life worth living, especially college life.”

Curley herself competed in gymnastics nationally, both in high school and with the North Carolina Tar Heels, after earning a full scholarship to the University of North Carolina for gymnastics. Her first acting gig was a co-starring role in 2006’s gymnastics comedy “Stick It” with Jeff Bridges.

She since has appeared in numerous television shows, including “The Office,” “Cold Case,” “The Event,” “CSI: NY” and most recently NBC’s “Grimm” and “Casual” on Hulu.

Curley began working on the concept for “Chalk It Up” nearly nine years ago with her writing partner, Brooke Buffington. The two met doing gymnastics at the University of North Carolina.

Their goal was to make a family-friendly film in a similar vein to “Stick It,” a teen comedy-drama that tells the story of a woman forced to return to an elite gymnastics program after a run-in with the law.

“We grew up loving movies like ‘Bring it On’ and ‘Clueless,’ so we wanted it to have that sort of feel,” Curly said of “Chalk it Up.”

“We had to learn to actually become writers,” Curly said.

By the time “Chalk It Up” was filmed – in 12 days – as an independent film, it was on its 26th draft. It found its home on Netflix, iTunes and Amazon several months ago and recently has been released internationally on Netflix.

“To have an indie film and be able to pay back your investors,” Curly said, “only 4 percent of [independent] movies do that. We feel very pleased we’ll be able to do that.”

Curly said she and Buffington have written numerous films and a television pilot since co-writing “Chalk It Up.” She describes the pilot as “sort of like a ‘West Wing,’ but set in an athletic department.” Similar to “Shakespeare in Love,” another comedy film they’ve written tells the story of Michelangelo’s relationship with The Pope at the time of the painting of the Sistine Chapel.

As for Curly, she said comedy is what drew her into the film industry.

“It’s funny because I feel like I’m better at drama,” she said.

“But I love comedy. Nothing makes me happier than making people laugh.”