A GINORMOUS cast including Paul Brittain (Saturday Night Live, Killing Gunther), Adam Herschman (Hot Tub Time Machine 2), Christine Bently (The Perfect Match), Neil Flynn (Scrubs), and Tim Meadows (The Goldbergs) feature in celebrated director Drew Hall's BIGGEST film to date!
We spoke with director Drew Hall who gave us the 411 about the film.
TMS: Where did the idea for the film come from?
DH: You know I’m not totally sure. James Weldon penned it – but it resonated with me in that it reminded me of my childhood. These random adventures in the woods – we were always looking for something.
TMS: What about the script? How did it change, if it all, in the time between that initial draft and the shoot?
DH: The earlier drafts of the script were clearly a hard R rating. There were some absolutely hilariously offensive bits, but we all felt like the tone of the film had this romantic view of our early childhood, so we dialed some of it back a bit. James was amazing to work with. He would take notes and then just comeback with hilarious options. It was truly a beautiful process.
TMS: Did you have your actors onboard first or did financing fall into place first? I guess it’s a bit of a chicken or the egg scenario, that one?
DH: I was able to pitch and secure financing before pulling all the talent in. That said Adam Herschman (Oscar) was the first cast. He was familiar with the material and totally got it. From there we added the rest of the cast – like Tim, Neil, Paul and Christine.
TMS: Who of the cast do you think are closest to their characters?
DH: That’s a toss up cause all of our cast made those characters theirs. I do think that Adam and Paul both really got their roles as Nigel and Oscar. They had this immediate chemistry.
TMS: Is there a particular moment in the film you really, really enjoyed shooting?
DH: Actually if you ask any member of the cast and crew they will all probably have the same answer, which is the entirety of the shoot on top of Mount Cheaha. We all lived together as if we were in some kind of Wet Hot American Summer inspired film camp. We ate all our meals together, hung out together, and of course filmed. That entire process was like a film dream come true. It was drama free and completely enjoyable. I think the fun we had shows up in the film too.
TMS: George Lucas was likely offered science-fiction movie after science-fiction movie after the first Star Wars, have you been approached to direct similar projects to yours since?
DH: I have, but it’s mostly been in the advertising sector. I do a good bit of commercial directing/shooting and we’ve been really tasked with both comedic and docustyle spots. I think my film directing reel is pretty diverse so I get shuffled around in consideration. I’d love to do more comedy but it really is the hardest genre of film.
TMS: Any chance of a sequel?
DH: I really wanna make a series – even animated called Nigel and Oscar vs___________ and we work in a different paranormal entity into each episode. I’d also include Squatchie as a new character – he’s kind of like a 90’s frat boy and less Chewbacca. But I’d take a feature sequel too…
TMS: What’s next for you?
DH: I have a couple of films in development. One is a horror film based on the urban legend of Black Eyed Kids. The other is an insane action/thriller that has these nostalgic flashback sequences reminiscent of various 80’s and 90’s action films: so there’s a heist (Heat), an underground fighting sequence (Bloodsport), car chase (Against All Odds), etc. I’m also developing a Gymkata remake.