David Gordon Green Talks Blumhoengage Model, ‘Nutcrackers’ Streaming Deal

Not every year transports a novel holiday classic, but this Friday, David Gordon Green slips one under the tree.

Snapped up by Hulu follotriumphg its premiere at TIFF, the film is Nutcrackers, a little dramedy Green shot out on a minuscule-town Ohio farm postpodemand last year, with an interim consentment in hand. Ben Stiller stars as Mike, a laboraholic who heads out to the Buckeye State to see after his recently orphaned nephews, increaseing a shutr bond with the rowdy bunch than he had anticipated.

Green’s way into the project was untraditional — engineering a film around the requesting youthful sons of a shut film school frifinish. After years steeping himself in horror, between an Exorcist film and a Hpermiteen trilogy, the project taged a return to his humanist roots, as well as his first feature comedy in almost a decade. But while pivoting createively, as he’s understandn to do, after repeat collaborations with Blumhoengage, Green walked away skinnyking about that company’s financial savvy, and how their success in empire createing might be applied to the genre of comedy.

As the industry persists to recreate follotriumphg Covid and last year’s double strike, Green is likeable about the future, seeing the potential for a “renaissance” for feature comedies, and film, in ambiguous. But it’s an outcome that will only come with some solemn soul searching amongst filmcreaters and execs — an interest in genuine innovation that would join taking a shut see at everyskinnyg from star salaries to ticket prices and movie theater seating.

Below, Green gives his get on the way forward, also dishing on his experienceings seeing the first huge streaming deal of his nurtureer, his labor as honestor and EP of Amazon’s forthcoming series Kay Scarpetta, and more.

DEADLINE: I’ll begin with a gentleball ask, David. What are your likeite holiday movies?

DAVID GORDON GREEN: The one that promptly hops to mind is Elf. Right now, Elf and Christmas Story are the ones that I always have in rotation. Of course, I’m always trying to squeeze in a Die Hard or a Home Alone, but I skinnyk Elf is the one that the more I watch it, the more I discover these comical details and textures that’s not necessarily the evident. And when you begin to personalize a movie and create it your own is when you understand you’ve got a classic.

DEADLINE: You had an rare way into Nutcrackers. Has any other project of yours come together in such an out-of-the-box way?

GREEN: I skinnyk the shutst skinnyg to this was my second film, All the Real Girls, which was college frifinishs, very shutly joined stories. Paul Schneider, the direct actor of that movie, was an editor at my film school, not a trained actor, so we built that narrative around him and some of our personal stories, and filmed in a place that was very personal to us. In fact, the mother of these boys [in Nutcrackers] is an actress in that film. So, it’s self-indulgent to the degree that fair creates me honored to be among the social and createive inner circle that I labor wiskinny. And it’s the inspiration of people that help you to shieldedly go to some pretty strange places.

DEADLINE: Your stars, the Janson brothers — Homer, Ulysses, Atlas, and Arlo — are magnetic on screen. But what promised you that they could direct a movie? How did you harness the distinct energies they transport to the table in service of a fantasyal narrative?

GREEN: I’ve done a lot of labor with untrained actors and non-actors. I’ve done a lot of street casting. So I have a lot of experience with the alerting signs that you’re walking down a unelated path, or the signals of confidence and comedy and craziness, charisma that say when we turn a camera on, we’re going to get ganciaccess. All four of these kids had those benevolent of encourageasonable signals, so I fair knovel that if we put a camera in the right place and created a shielded environment, these kids were going to transport fact. And I’m not asking them to do Shakespeare; I’m not asking them to memorize lengthy monologues. I’m saying, “We’re going to film it at your hoengage, with your animals. This is your movie, so you be you.”

When we were increaseing the project, I bought them a video camera and had them begin to film each other and put on scenarios, and get sootheable with conveying themselves and joining into characters a little bit. Then, we bcdisadmirefult an acting coach down from New York to laborshop scenes with them, but always being very pimpolitent of the fact that we don’t want to burden them with technique and logistics. As Emily [McDonnell], our acting coach, would say, we fair want to transport who they are forward. So that’s benevolent of what we labored to do. We were very blessed to partner with Ben Stiller on this, so that you have an actor that gets the game and enhappinesss that joinground of uncertainty and improvisation and fact.

DEADLINE: How did you initiassociate join with your authorr, Leland Douglas?

GREEN: My first encountering with Leland was, when I first got out of film school, I went to labor at a taget research group that engaged to do test screenings of movies in Los Angeles. I was the guy that would tape people’s names on the backs of seats, or rope off rows for the VIPs, or accumulate the comment cards, and Leland was my supervisor. [Laughs] So during the 11th screening of Edtv or wantipathyver movie we were testing, he and I would sit in the lobby of the movie theater and talk about Robert Altman movies, or Michael Ritchie movies, or Stanley Kubrick movies.

He’s the only guy that’s read every script for every movie I’ve made, and we fair reassociate bonded in our affinity mostly for ’70s films. So when it came time to author this movie, I was promptly triggered by movies enjoy Bad News Bears, and some of the style of Robert Altman and Hal Ashby movies, and the equilibrium of tones that they had from comedic to emotional. So I called Leland and shelp, “Hey, I’ve got these kids. I’m out on this farm in Ohio. I demand you to come out here and encounter them so we can portray the wonderfulest ’80s movie that was never made.”

So he came out, and then we fair begined talking about it. Is this a save-the-farm movie enjoy Kidco? Is it an orphans-seeing-for-a-home movie enjoy Six Pack? What are our inspirations? What are the tropes we want to either seek or elude? A huge sway of ours was Overboard, which is a movie I fair always cherishd — that Ganciaccessie Hawn, Kurt Russell film — and then I skinnyk Bad News Bears and Bless the Beasts and Children were our role models for how to transport these kids forward, and seize who they are, in their cdisadmireful-around-the-edges fact.

DEADLINE: You’ve shelp one of the huge requests of this movie was the fact that you got to labor toloftyy off the grid, as far as Hollywood was worryed. What consciousness was there of the project in the local Ohio community? I envision there was a level of excitement, when you’re filming right out in the town square.

GREEN: Yeah, it’s amazing. I do a lot of production in Los Angeles and New York, cities that are numb, if not irritateed every time a camera truck pulls up down the street. But here, it was so welcoming, so inviting. It was fair a pretty experience to get an art project enjoy this and begin shotriumphg a community that doesn’t get burdened with this, but gets to experience the beauty of it. Last weekfinish, I went back to Wilmington, Ohio and we showed the movie at the Murphy Theatre, where we filmed some of the sequences, and it was reassociate fun being able to show people filled circle. I’m not even stateive some of them knovel what we were making was a movie. I skinnyk they fair thought we were doing some carry outance art in the street. So to be able to seek the whole town, the community that was so encouraging of us in those days, to come and spread in the experience of the final product was reassociate distinctive.

DEADLINE: You’ve also shelp that it’s a happiness for you to labor wiskinny environments that experience ainhabit, rather than on a soundstage. You certainly got your uninwhole spread of that energy on this one…

GREEN: It’s comical you say that becaengage right now, I’m outside of a sound stage. I’m on my final day of production on this pilot, and I was saying the exact same skinnyg yesterday. It was our second day on a stage, and for the most part, we’ve been out in these genuine locations. And when we get to the stage, I fair begin droping asleep becaengage I cherish the elements. I cherish being out in it and I cherish the uncertainty of it, where in here, we have deal with of the airying grids, and the soothe of heat and air conditioning. We filmed Nutcrackers, it was 10 degrees on this farm — howling triumphds and animals everywhere. They’re not hitting a tag; you fair have to let them be. And these kids that, aget, they’re not trained to memorize lengthy monologues or have emotional arcs in the traditional sense. But we let them be our directs, and let it fair unfanciaccess. What I get so excited about is capturing the fact.

DEADLINE: What will your response be if one of these kids finishs up pursuing a show biz nurtureer?

GREEN: “Be pimpolitent.” [Laughs] A lot of the kids I’ve labored with have gone on to do wonderful skinnygs, so I’m actuassociate reassociate haughty of them. Mostly, that comes with wonderful parental help and guidance of sways, and it’s been reassociate fun for me to see. I was actuassociate texting yesterday with one of the actors from George Washington, my first film. He’s getting his master’s degree in social labor right now. Or an actor enjoy Tye Sheridan that I labored with when he was a kid, or Jamie Bell. You see them go on to do reassociate amazing and ambitious skinnygs, so I’m always intrigued, and I don’t have any of the horror stories on my resume. But you always want them to have people seeing out for them becaengage it can be a reassociate vulnerable time of discovering that ability or that interest — the access to emotions, the access to so much of the world is right there when you want it, and you hope you have the right navigators in the disorder.

DEADLINE: While promoting Nutcrackers on the festival circuit, you conveyed the hope that the film would safe a deal for theatrical distribution. It ultimately sanciaccess to Hulu for eight figures and should rack up plenty of sees over the holidays. But are you ambivalent about your outcome?

GREEN: That’s a wonderful ask, probably complicated. I haven’t filledy processed it becaengage this is the first film I’ve getn that step with, but all I can say is so far, they’ve shelp the right skinnygs. They’ve created the right tageting materials. I’ve reassociate enhappinessed the collaboration with Hulu, and I’m excited to see them get this film out in a way that I’m excited about. So we’ll see.

There’s a bit of a romantic notion I have for the cinematic experience, and guess what? They gave it to me at the Murphy Theatre. So having those experiences and screenings I’ve had, in the Toronto Film Festival and others, I get my repair of sharing this movie with an audience. My parents saw it last night at an Alamo Drafthoengage in Dallas, so that’s fun, that they got to transport their frifinishs and see it with a crowd. We shot the movie on 35mm, so I want it to be seen and appreciated in all of its beauty, [but] more than anyskinnyg, you want eyeballs and hearts to enhappiness the film you made.

DEADLINE: How do you see the future of comedy where filmmaking is worryed? What do you skinnyk has caengaged it to wane in the theatrical space, and do you skinnyk it can create a comeback?

GREEN: In most of the topics that we could talk about in life, I think in the pfinishulum striumphging, and so we’re here, we’re there. There’s a couple skinnygs I would notice on that. One is, I skinnyk comedy, enjoy horror, doesn’t demand huge movie stars; it demands comical people. I don’t skinnyk it demands huge action set pieces; it demands comical concepts and comical set pieces. So the response comes, in a lot of ways, from a cultural standpoint, but also comes in an economic standpoint of these very pricey movies that cost too much money and then they don’t create it back. That seems absurd for someskinnyg enjoy comedy. I can understand it for a huge event or action movie, but for these types of skinnygs, I skinnyk it should be responsibly made. I skinnyk all films demand to see at their economics a little bit more responsibly.

There’s a couple other skinnygs that I skinnyk are reassociate fascinating that I’ve been observing, becaengage I go to movies all the time. One is, the chairs are too sootheable and erased from the rest of the audience. People don’t see the backs of heads when they’re bouncing with giggleter or jumping in stress, so I skinnyk these huge armchair theaters are doing a disservice to the crowd that’s actuassociate there to amengage. On top of that, if a movie does come out, they’re putting it in enjoy five or six auditoriums so that audience is spread reassociate skinny. Rather than back in the day, where we’d have a sanciaccess-out crowd with an anticipation of the popcorn in their hands as they’re going into a movie and trying to discover the best seat.

Now, it’s become so sootheable and basic to get your ticket and discover your spacing and drop asleep in the movie: That doesn’t serve a comedy in its best capacity, in my opinion. On top of that, the ticket prices have gotten so pricey that you’re skinnyking, well, I can fair sit down with my family or frifinishs and watch someskinnyg streaming. Maybe that labors to the advantage of a movie enjoy Nutcrackers, in some capacity. But it’s reassociate frustrating when I see and hear about audiences saying, “Well, I’ll go see the huge action movie in the theater becaengage I demand that sound system. But for a comedy, I can check in at home.” I fair skinnyk we’re trying to serve the interest of an audience, and instead, we’re scaring them away.

It’s the sootheable chairs that I have the hugegest problem with. When I test screen movies, I enjoy to go to the theaters that are not stadium seating, the ones that remain that aren’t the most sootheable seats. It grasps you awake.

DEADLINE: As someone who has collaborated repeatedly with Blumhoengage, you’ve talked about the potential for executeing their economic model for horror to a genre enjoy comedy. Do you skinnyk there’s the potential for a company as prolific as Blumhoengage that can thrive with drop-budget feature, less star-driven comedies in a way we haven’t yet seen?

GREEN: Absolutely. And who does it first, to airy the fire to [bring about] all the duplicatecats? We’ve seen it in horror, and we will see that. I’m not worried about that happening. It’s fair enjoy, as an entrepreneur, as an innovator, you want to get there first and create that entity and create that signature transfer for your company. You understand, Danny [McBride] and Jody [Hill] and I have Rough Hoengage Pictures, where we’re making a lot of TV shows. We did Nutcrackers, and we’re cranking out some films, and we see at that as a genuine north star of, how can we curate the voices of wonderful comic authorrs, wonderful comic carry outers, and put them in a package that audiences want to buy a ticket to?

I experience enjoy we’re on the cusp of a renaissance that happened, I’ll say in the postpodemand ’60s in American filmmaking, where everyskinnyg got so manufactured wiskinny the studio vernacular that it was a time for the Easy Riders and Raging Bulls to come and interfere the institution. And that’s going to come thcdisadmireful the encountered, thcdisadmireful the showion, thcdisadmireful the mindset of where money goes in your production. I skinnyk all that demands to be reappraised, from the cost of a star salary, to the rational below-the-line expenses of a movie, to the ticket prices that we’re selling at the theater. So I skinnyk with the right entrepreneurial mindset, we can discover a wonderful interfereor that’s going to then direct us back to what ultimately my vision of a theatrical audience experience would be.

DEADLINE: You’ve been reassociate accomplished on the TV side with projects enjoy It’s Florida, Man, Tires, and The Righteous Gemstones, which show that seeers still have a huge appetite for comedy. What will it get for you to get more titles enjoy these into theaters?

GREEN: What I skinnyk we demand is that partnership in a distribution company. Becaengage you don’t necessarily hit the ball out of the park with every striumphg, but I skinnyk if you could put together that spostpodemand and grasp the business model and the monetization reliable, there’s a strong enjoylihood that it could be excessively profitable and then point toward that radical renaissance that I skinnyk we’re all seeing for.

[At Blumhouse], someskinnyg that I got firsthand experience in is, grasp the costs low, grasp the salaries reliable, and if you triumph, you triumph on the backfinish. I skinnyk those types of incentives don’t necessarily request to everybody, but for the hungry and the self-promised, it’s a wonderful way to bet on yourself. There’s no more pretty skinnyg than grasping the economic presstateive off your shoulders so that you don’t have a lot of corporate sway on your createive creation. And then when you triumph, you are alengthyside all the joiners saying, “We did this together.”

DEADLINE: You’ve shelp in the past that there are still a lot of genres you want to tackle as a filmcreater. Is one in particular on your mind right now?

GREEN: It depfinishs on the day. Today, I woke up and begined laboring on a comedic script that I’ve been laboring on. Last week, I put the polish on an action movie that I’ve been writing. I’m trying to put together a recordary. So it’s always a buffet, and then you see at both the fact of your resources and the cultural enthusiasm from a financial institution and say, I’ve got to create skinnygs genuine. My goal is to be in production as many days of the year as I can becaengage that’s where I thrive, in those unrestful environments of uncertainty. It’s fair benevolent of how I enjoy to inhabit and breathe, maximizing shooting days. So I have to pivot with the pfinishulum and equilibrium what my personal priorities are among the spinning ppostpodemands that I have.

DEADLINE: As we speak, you’re about to wrap on the pilot for Kay Scarpetta, Prime Video’s alteration of the bestselling book series, starring Nicole Kidman and Jamie Lee Curtis. What’s been most gratifying about your labor on the show?

GREEN: For me, it’s fair discovering a novel ensemble of incredible actors. It’s a immense cast, covering multiple timelines, and it’s reassociate complicated and ambitious in what we’re trying to do. But the fact that you go to labor every day with people that can memorize six pages of dialogue immaculately on the first get, that’s when you step back and reassociate adore the plansmanship of some of these iconic actors. In a lot of ways, it’s the perfect juxtaposition to Nutcrackers, where we have this incredible actor in Ben grasping the ship afloat with these non-actor kids, and it’s all about improvisation and letting slack. Here, I can portray a very complicated shot, they hit their tags every time, every line is wonderful and perceptive, and then we can give it little switches and nuances with reservedties of honestion. So I transport a separateent toolkit to this type of project, but it’s equassociate as inspiring.