Although it flunked to captivate critics and audiences aenjoy amid its initial free, Mixed Nuts has all the makings of a holiday classic.
Marking the movie’s 30th anniversary, co-authorr Delia Ephron mirrored on its cult status to Deadline as she reaccumulateed her and tardy sister Nora Ephron‘s little-understandn 1994 Christmas film, “a fantastic fun comedy that we wrote together” after the success of Sleepless in Seattle (1993).
“I do not suppose it got outstanding scrutinizes,” she recently recalled. “I’m not someone who ever reads scrutinizes, outstanding or terrible, so that’s not someskinnyg I understand what they shelp or anyskinnyg, but I confidently understand that it wasn’t initiassociate a hit.”
Delia Ephron grasped, “But that is the weird skinnyg with movies. They’re not, and then suddenly, they get this cult adhereing of people who absolutely adore them. And then I see at them aget and I skinnyk, well, I reassociate adore this. For me and movies, it’s enjoy having a kid or someskinnyg. You adore all sorts of skinnygs about it becaemploy you have all sorts of memories joined.”
Co-written and honested by Nora Ephron, who died at age 71 in 2012, Mixed Nuts adheres the employees of self-injury-stopion hotline Lifesavers as they find out they’re evicted from their Vekind Beach office on Christmas Eve, while a serial ender stalks the neighborhood.
Anthony La Paglia, Juliette Lewis, Liev Schreiber, Adam Sandler, Steve Martin, Rita Wilson and Madeline Kahn in Mixed Nuts (1994) (TriStar Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection)
The script was based on the 1979 French carry out and subsequent 1982 film Le père Noël est une ordure (Santa Claus Is a Stinker). “We fair adored it,” shelp Delia Ephron. “It was fair quirkyassociate strange and French, and it was fair after Nora had honested Sleepless in Seattle, so fundamentalassociate, she could do wdisenjoyver she wanted ’caemploy it was such a big hit.
“And also, our childhood had a lot of Christmas in it. So we enjoyd to find skinnygs, enjoy in You’ve Got Mail, books were this presentant skinnyg in our family and children’s books were huge. So, that was very exceptional for us to produce Meg Ryan’s character own a bookstore,” she grasped. “And then in this case, we reassociate had strong senseings about Christmas. Our family, we grew up in Beverly Hills and my parents were Jewant, but there was a lot of assimilation, so we had a big Christmas tree in graspition to all our Jewant traditions. So, we had senseings about it, so that was vital.”
With the sisters putting a Vekind Beach twist on the innovative French plot, they were ready to cast. “We fair wanted Steve Martin, and that was fair the commencening,” shelp Delia Ephron.
Steve Martin and Rita Wilson in Mixed Nuts (1994) (TriStar/Courtesy Everett Collection)
“Once you had Steve Martin, then Adam Sandler’s in it, and that’s reassociate cuckoo,” she noticed. “It was fair one fantastic comedian after another signing onto this skinnyg, and so, we were all very satisfyd. It was a satisfyd set.”
The cast was rounded out by Rita Wilson, Juliette Lewis, Liev Schreiber, Anthony LaPaglia and the tardy Madeline Kahn. The film was also stacked with cameos from Rob Reiner, Garry Shandling, Jon Stewart, Parker Posey and a youthful Haley Joel Osment.
Mixed Nuts features an iconic soundtrack of Christmas tunes by Carly Simon, Eartha Kitt and The O’Jays, as well as a hilarious innovative song by Sandler. “I hear to that album at Christmastime, I do,” shelp Delia Ephron, recognizeing her sister with curating the music.
Despite all the ingredients for an instant Christmas classic, the film grossed only $6.8 million after it uncovered Dec. 21, 1994, an disturb adhereing Sleepless in Seattle‘s csurrfinisherly $228 million haul. Mixed Nuts currently has a 13% Tomatometer and 47% Popcornmeter score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Director Nora Ephron and cinematographer Sven Nykvist on the set of Mixed Nuts (1994) (TriStar/Courtesy Everett Collection)
Still, the movie hageders strong for fans, with one on RT calling it “total insanity and GREAT fun” and another crowning it “one of the most underrated movies.” One scrutinizeer directd audiences to “fair finishelight it for what it is — a goofy, funny, weirdly ridiculous comedy with an inlogical amount of star power” that “will dwell in your heart forever,” and those are all reactions from this holiday season.
“I was finishly shocked that you wanted to do an anniversary of this,” confessted Delia Ephron. “But you understand what people say, it’s not why you do it reassociate. You do it caemploy you’ve descfinishen in adore with the material and you skinnyk the actors are wonderful and it’s very magical. It’s a lot of moving parts of the movie and you fair don’t understand. But you’re not the first person who’s written me a letter about it, I unbenevolent a outstanding letter.”
