After successfully reviving and failing to reboot the legendary horror franchise with another installment, David Gordon Green needed “a little palate cleanser.”
since halloweenGreen, who remade John Carpenter’s horror film in 2018, has become a go-to for mid-budget horror masters Blumhouse, launching a full new trilogy halloweens——with Halloween Kills 2021 and Halloween is over 2022—and last year The Exorcist: The Believeran unsuccessful attempt to bring back the spinning world of demonic possession created by William Friedkin in his 1973 classic.
But after six years of screaming and jump scares, “it felt like a time to start over,” Green said. “After doing a series of horror movies, I wanted to go in a different direction.”
What Green did next was nutcrackerA family-friendly comedy starring Ben Stiller as Mike, an uptight workaholic forced to take over custody of his irascible newly orphaned nephew. The holiday plot revolves around Mac slowly discovering their artistic talents – their mother is a gifted ballet dancer – and then deciding to help them stage an original version of this nutcracker For towns. nutcracker The 2024 Toronto Film Festival will open on September 5.
Ben Stiller plays a workaholic who is forced to take in his orphaned nephew.
Courtesy of Nutcracker LLC
“I have 13-year-old twin boys who always bug me because they’re not allowed to see the movies I make,” Green said. “So I started thinking about movies that I liked when I was 13, like uncle buck and Falling into the water. The impetus for this film was trying to connect with the mindset of my children through films of my own youth.
but nutcracker It’s also a sly attempt to test whether Blumhouse’s formula for horror movies—strictly keeping a tight budget but giving the director creative freedom—works for comedy.
“Jason and I have a wonderful relationship [Blum] And the team there, they really opened my eyes to the value and marketability of independent horror films,” Green said. “Now, I don’t want to make horror movies for the rest of my life, but maybe I can apply a lot of the same methods of making movies that are both commercial and creatively free to other genres. [Blumhouse] Comedy doesn’t do that; no one seems to do it.
There is a comedy gap in the market. Focus Features does well with Woody Harrelson’s sports comedy champion (Domestic $16 million), and selmaThe aging action spoof earned Magnolia a respectable $8.7 million at the box office, but breakthroughs from low-budget indie comedies have become rare.
Testing will be conducted at TIFF nutcracker First screening in front of a real audience. “I’m very excited about Toronto as a launching pad for a film like this,” Green said. “Audiences are the ones who really love movies. I’m very confident that TIFF audiences will respond. And then we’ll see how the industry responds.
This story first appeared in the September 4 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
