After successfully reviving one legendary horror franchise and failing to revive another, David Gordon Green needed a “little palate cleanse.”
From HalloweenWith his 2018 reboot of John Carpenter’s horror film, Green has become something of a benchmark for mid-budget horror masters Blumhouse, delivering a full trilogy of new Halloweens — with Halloween Kills in 2021 and Halloween is over in 2022 — like last year The Exorcist: Believera failed attempt to bring back the swirling world of demonic possession created by William Friedkin in his 1973 classic.
But after six years of screaming and jumping, “I felt like it was time to start over,” Green says. “After watching a bunch of horror movies, I wanted to change gears.”
What Green did next was Nutcrackera family comedy starring Ben Stiller as Mike, an uptight workaholic who is forced to take over the care of his rambunctious and recently orphaned nephews. The holiday plot revolves around Mike slowly discovering their artistic talent – their mother was a gifted ballet dancer – and then deciding to help them stage an original version of THE Nutcracker for the city. Nutcracker opens the 2024 Toronto Film Festival on September 5. UTA Independent Film Group sells worldwide.
Ben Stiller plays a workaholic who is forced to take in his orphaned nephews.
Courtesy of Nutcrackers LLC
“I have 13-year-old twins, and they’re always bugging me about not being allowed to see the movies I make,” Green says. “So I started thinking about the movies I liked when I was 13, movies like Uncle Buck And To the seaThe idea of this film was to try to connect with the mindset of my children, but through the films of my own youth.
But Nutcracker It’s also, slyly, an attempt to test whether the Blumhouse model for horror films – tightly controlling the budget but giving directors creative freedom – can work for comedy.
“I had this wonderful relationship with Jason [Blum] “I’ve learned a lot about the value and marketability of independent horror films,” Green says. “I don’t want to spend the rest of my life making horror films, but maybe I can apply a lot of those same methods, making films that are both commercial and creatively liberating, to other genres.” [Blumhouse] don’t do that with comedy; no one seems to do that.
There’s a lack of comedy in the market. Focus Features did good business with Woody Harrelson’s sports comedy Champions ($16 million domestic) and Thelmathe action movie parody starring elderly people, grossed a respectable $8.7 million for Magnolia, but successful low-budget independent comedies have become rare.
The test will take place at TIFF when Nutcracker is being screened for the first time in front of a live audience. “I’m excited about Toronto as a…
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