How David Gordon Green Blended ‘Bubblegum and Artsy Fartsy’ for Ben Stiller Comedy ‘Nutcrackers’ | Wrap Studio

One of the buzziest titles premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival this year is “Nutcrackers,” and for good reason. Not only is “Nutcrackers” Ben Stiller’s first starring role in a movie since 2017’s “The Meyerowitz Stories,” but it is also director David Gordon Green’s first non-horror movie since 2017’s underrated “Stronger.”

But from where did “Nutcrackers,” the story of a workaholic (Stiller) who has to travel to rural Ohio to look after his recently orphaned nephews after his sister dies in a car accident, originally stem?

From real life, actually.

At TheWrap’s 2024 TIFF Studio sponsored by Moët & Chandon and Boss Design, Green told TheWrap editor-in-chief Sharon Waxman that he visited his friend Carrie, who is the real-life mother of the four boys in the movie (Homer, Ulysses, Atlas and Samuel Arlo Janson), on their farm and had the idea to make a movie about her family. “And maybe a year ago, we started getting really serious about putting this movie together and sculpted it for them and filmed it on their farm.” The filmmaker’s goal was “to bring some of that authenticity of their spirit.” Stiller, Green added, helped give them “a little focus and inspiration.”

The director continued: “If I’ve done what I’ve set out to do it’s to make something that has enough thematic blockbuster bubblegum blended with artsy-fartsy movies that I love.” Green cited movies like “The Bad News Bears,” “Breaking Away,” “Uncle Buck,” “Overboard” an “Six Pack” — “a great Kenny Rogers movie where he plays a race car driver with these orphans” — as inspiration.

For Stiller, who has spent most of his recent time as a director on projects like Apple TV+’s “Severance,” he was “waiting for something to come along as an actor that I was excited about.” Green, who he had known for a while but never worked with, reached out. “He sends me the script and said, ‘I’m making this movie. We’re doing it in a couple months and I’ve got these four kids who are in it.’ I read the script and was like, ‘Oh wow. This is so sweet and so heartfelt.’”

At first Stiller’s “cynical mind” figured that Green was doing the movie as a satire. But Green assured the actor that, “This is real. This is full-on. We’re diving into this tone.” Green gave him the pitch: “We’re going to shoot at their house, on their farm. And I just want to allow this thing to happen, doing it with one camera, shooting it on film.”

Stiller even remembered thinking, “Oh, David Gordon Green wants to do a movie with me. I’ve wanted to do a movie with him forever. This sounds like an adventure.”

And the rest was “Nutcrackers.”

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