Reunion Interview: Director Chris Nelson on Crafting a Murder Mystery

ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke to Reunion director Chris Nelson about the murder mystery comedy movie. The director discussed the film’s cast, his approach to mystery, and more. Reunion is out now on digital via Republic Pictures (a Paramount Pictures label).

“Lil Rel Howery (Get Out), Billy Magnussen (Game Night), and Jillian Bell (22 Jump Street) star in a wild ride of twists and turns where a high school reunion gets cut short by murder. Trapped in a snowbound mansion, they race to uncover which one of their old classmates is the killer before they’re all iced out for good. Also starring Jamie Chung (Grown Ups), Michael Hitchcock (Veep) with Nina Dobrev (Sick Girl) and Chace Crawford (Gossip Girl),” says the Reunion synopsis.

Tyler Treese: Congrats on Reunion. The film is hilarious. Lil Rel really sets the comedic tone that everybody plays off of. How important was it to have him in the center of this story and to have somebody that everybody can really play off of?

Chris Nelson: That’s such a great question and a great way to open. Yeah, Lil Rel was actually the first person who came on board to this project and is also a producer on it. When I came on, the first producer on board, Mickey Schiff, and I were just really talking about the character, and we both were fans of Get Out. It just felt to me like there’s something about Rel’s voice and his style of really enthusiastic comedy that I just thought would be such an incredible new and fresh take on this type of character in this type of comedy.

So, yeah, he was really the sort of first one on. Then Jillian Bell was always somebody that I just had absolutely in my mind for the part of Vivian when I was sort of reading it and casting it, and she was next up. Then the rest of the exciting ensemble sort of came in from there.

You really put together a really strong ensemble here, which is so important for this genre. One of the casting choices that really surprised me was Billy Magnuson because we don’t usually see him play a more lighthearted role. I know he is a straight man to an extent in this, but what made him the right choice for this role?

So I saw him in that comedy Game Night. He plays a supporting role in that comedy Game Night, and I just thought he was so memorable and just stood out in the best possible way in that movie. There was just something about that that I kept thinking about. Then I also, I don’t know if you saw that series Maniac that he was in, he really stood out, and there’s something about him that is really good with comedy even though he’s thought of as a dramatic actor.

So, for me, it just was a really exciting fit and just a really good kind of pairing off of Rel. And same thing I felt like Jamie [Chung] brought on too. I just felt there was something about the chemistry that they would have in a romantic comedy type of way that just felt like it would be really nice.

I like the setting of a high school reunion and the music’s also very much like 25 years ago. We have a rock cover of “Hot in Herre,” which is really fun. I heard some Jamiroquai. How was it just picking out the music for the party sequences? There are some really fun tracks involved.

Oh, thank you. Yeah, it was great. I have Howard Paar, who’s been a long-term collaborator with me as a music supervisor is just great. It was one of those things where we started, I mean, “Hot in Herre” was actually written into the script, so it was something that we knew that we wanted to sort of do and play off of, and then we kind of were like, “All right, let’s also just pepper in music from all times it feels like. It doesn’t have to necessarily be only the time period of them being at high school.” And we just sort of really just looked for known tracks and fun tracks and things that would just sort of feel nostalgic and still contemporary in some way. We just pieced it together like that and just really experimented with things that felt right over the scenes.

When I spoke with Rel, it became very clear that there’s a lot of improv, and those guys really enjoyed playing off each other. He also mentioned it was like a four-week shoot. So when you’re on a very quick timetable, how’s it finding that right kind of middle ground of letting the actors really play, especially when you have such talent, but also making sure you’re staying on schedule and, and getting all of it done?

That’s a great question. We were shooting two with two cameras almost the entire time, so that it kind of was maximizing the amount of shots that we were, we were getting whenever we could. It’s like I personally have just sort of found that with comedy in my personal experience. The more you let it breathe and the more you let really talented actors do improv and do things, just the better off it is.

So, in my mind, it’s like as long as we were getting the intention out and the scene and the murder mystery really gives you a roadmap that you can’t veer off of too much. So then it just becomes about like allowing people to play. But we, a lot of times, what we would do is we would kind of do things sort of a little bit more by script for a couple of takes and know that we had it, and then we would sort of, you know, loosen up and play from there.

One of the aspects I like is that there are the breadcrumbs, and everybody’s acting a bit suspicious. How does it work with collaborating with the actors? Is it mostly in the script and the editing, or do you kind of have them add in some suspicious elements in their acting as well? How do you kind of balance that?

There’s a lot of discussions that we have. When I’m sort of casting, I like to have a period of time with each of the actors. A lot of times, it’s in our initial Zoom when we’re talking through the character to really sort of talk about various references for the character to talk about what’s happening. One of the things that I said with this was that this is so much about people’s paths kind of simmering up, uh, and which is part of also a reunion, what you wanna keep hidden about your past, and everybody has their own past moment.

So, for me, it was sort of leaning into what are these individual characters’ secrets and things that they’re carrying with them and what they’re playing. And I think the actors just did a really good job. Paying attention to that and when to let that little piece show and when to keep it hidden. That was part of just how we steered it.

Jillian Bell is just hilarious throughout this whole film. Uh, she has this great line, she’s like, look at me now. I’m successful. I’m wearing $62 shoes. . Uh, when you’re, when you’re working with somebody that’s so naturally, uh, talented as a com a comedian, uh, how does that kind of just help you as a director because, uh, like you kind of talked about before, you can kind of just let them play and you know, you’ll have something at the end of the day that’s usable.

Yeah, I mean my style of directing is generally to like just really support the, the, to cast, right, to have the discussions up front and then support it and only sort of step in and steer when something feels like it’s going off track. Because I feel like so much you put together, especially with comedy and the edit and sort of what’s working in choosing.

So for me, especially when you’re working with a large ensemble of people, it was really about kind of keeping it going, keeping people feel like they have the ability and empowered to kind of do what they want to do and then only stepping in in moments where it felt like we really sort of need to or have to. So yeah, to your point, like working with these great actors, and they had so much to bring to the table, and for me, it was just sort of encouraging them to do it.

Murder mysteries just seem like a really good, uh, pairing with humor. We’ve seen it with Clue and we’ve seen different varying degrees of humor. Why do you think it blends so well? Why do you think these genres kinda really have a sweet meeting spot in the middle?

That’s a great question. Sometimes, it might be because making a comedy in terms of coming up with concepts for comedy, comedies sometimes, like honestly, don’t need a ton of structure. Because if something is funny they work, but at the same time, I think we’re always searching as directors for concepts or structures that give you some kind of a story or a plot throughline that can kind of anchor the movie so you’re not just a complete mess of just joke to joke, to joke to joke.

I also think that comedy loves character, and so when you can really kind of be in a situation, especially like this with a reunion comedy where everyone really has their own distinct characterization and their own real personality, it just gives you a lot of fun to be able to bring humor out from that. I think humor through character is the best type of humor.

I love the high school mascot being used as the disguise for the killer. It keeps the identity hidden. It’s a fun throwback. How was it coming up with the design for the tiger there?

It was good. It was one of those things where we did kind of look at various designs of things and sort of what was available and what could be made. It was actually the costume designer Ernesto Martinez, who’s fantastic, that ultimately found that Wildcat.

Thanks to Reunion star Nina Dobrev for taking the time to speak about the movie.

Tyler Treese

Tyler Treese is ComingSoon and SuperHeroHype's Editor-in-Chief. An experienced entertainment journalist, his work can be seen at Sherdog, Fanbyte, Rock Paper Shotgun, and more. When not watching the latest movies, Treese enjoys mixed martial arts and playing with his Shiba Inu, Kota.