Update: Linda Cardellini, Edi Patterson, Tim Heidecker, and Toby Huss have joined Nutcrackers, which has wrapped production.
With a six-year-long stint in horror recently culminating in one of the very worst films of the century, David Gordon Green’s recent creative stretch has left those who have appreciated his more character-driven work of George Washington, All the Real Girls, Snow Angels, Joe, and even Pineapple Express more than a bit disappointed (though his work on The Righteous Gemstones is certainly worth of praise). The director is now finally returning to his dramatic roots with a new film that’s already in production in Ohio.
Deadline reports Gordon Green is directing Ben Stiller in the actor’s first leading role since 2017’s Brad’s Status and The Meyerowitz Stories––serendipitously the same year as Gordon Green’s last non-horror feature, Stronger––in Nutcrackers. Scripted by Leland Douglas (Call of the Wild), see the synopsis below.
Nutcrackers follows the work-obsessed Mike (Stiller), who must reluctantly travel to rural Ohio to look after his four rambunctious nephews after their parents die in a car accident. What begins as a three-day trip to find foster care turns into weeks of farm-life mayhem – and the realization that he doesn’t need to find them a home, they’ve found one for him.
With production already underway, expect this to show up on the festival circuit next year.