Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Zooey Deschanel, Charlie Cox and Director Jessica Swale about their work on ‘Merv’, Deschanel’s first reaction to the screenplay, why Cox wanted to work with her, their experience acting opposite Gus, and the challenges of directing a dog on set.
(L to R) Zooey Deschanel, director Jessica Swale and Charlie Cox star in ‘Merv’.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interview.
Moviefone: To begin with, Zooey, can you talk about your fist reaction to the screenplay and what it was like for you to work with Gus and Charlie on this project?
Zooey Deschanel: Well, I first read the screenplay and I really love the concept. I thought it was so sweet. Then I got to talk to this amazing person here, Jess, and we got along so well, and I wanted to do the movie. Then working with Gus and Charlie was just an absolute dream. What incredible actors. Very different. Different styles. Gus works for sausages and Charlie works for hamburgers. Similar, but different, although I bet Gus would work for a hamburger too.
MF: Charlie, can you talk about Russ and Anna’s relationship, how they come together to help Merv, and what it was like for you working with Gus and Zooey?
Charlie Cox: I think one of the things I found charming about the script was this idea that Merv seems to intuit it early on. He knows what they don’t about each other and about their relationship. It’s really a journey of their discovery that they are perfect for each other. That life is difficult, life throws curveballs at you and that doesn’t necessarily mean that the person that is your significant other is the wrong person for you. Gus is a dream, as Zoe said. He’s a very professional. There’s a kind of a fun anecdote, which is that Gus is so well trained that he can do anything on command that he’s trained to do. But because he’s so well trained, one thing he’s not particularly good at is being very enthusiastic because that’s a trait of an untrained dog. So, when we needed Gus to be like crazy, or happy to see us or happy that we’re together or whatever it was, they would bring in Gus’s stunt double, Captain Chaos, who is untrained. Captain Chaos after a slight beard dying, would do a very good impersonation of Gus being very excited. Zoe in my estimation is the GOAT of rom-coms and this genre. So, to work with her is like an absolute treat and dream.
MF: Finally, Jessica, can you talk about the challenges of directing a dog and how you were able to get such a great performance from Gus?
Jessica Swale: Yes, all my normal techniques of persuasion, like taking an actor for dinner and chatting about the character or do some rehearsals and get to know each other. It’s a bit more difficult when he’s a four-legged dog and he doesn’t speak English. It might be my accent because I was one of the only Brits on set, but it was it was great fun. It’s funny because he’s a key part of the movie, but it is essentially a rom com that’s about two people at a very particular moment in their lives and he’s the conduit. So, whilst he’s on screen a lot, it’s really about the story and the kind of machinations of the relationship and the emotional growth of these two. The great thing about having Gus on set was that he is always a pro and he’s always ready and over the course of the weeks that we were shooting, the more you got to know him, we were able to go, “Oh, that’s how we recognize that he’s sad. He’s good at it and he drops his eye line. He puts his head down or he tilts to one side”. So, I think we had a more dramatic performance as the weeks went on.
‘Merv’ premieres on Prime Video December 10th.
What is the plot of ‘Merv’?
An estranged couple (Zooey Deschanel and Charlie Cox) who learns that the dog they share is suffering from depression following their break-up, awkwardly reconciling over the holidays when they take their dog on a sunny vacation to Florida to lift his spirits.
‘Candy Cane Lane’ is a comedy adventure for the family, filled with holiday cheers, hilarious hijinks, and the importance of communicating and working together as a family. What starts off as a friendly neighborhood Christmas decorating contest quickly turns into chaos as Chris Carver crosses paths with a mischievous elf with a naughty agenda.
Yes, this movie is technically Eddie Murphy’s first Christmas movie. While the actor’s expansive filmography includes titles such as ‘Coming To America’ and ‘Trading Places,’ in which both movies take place during the holiday season, ‘Candy Cane Lane’ fully embraces everything surrounding the holiday and its themes.
When asked what it is about this Christmas movie that he loves so much, Murphy said:
Eddie Murphy: I thought that script was unique, and I thought that it had all the elements that you’re supposed to have in a Christmas movie where you could watch it over and over again. I know the movies that I watched, the Christmas movies, we watched them every year all the time, and I thought this could be one of those kinds of movies that families could revisit.
2. Eddie Murphy and Reginald Hudlin reunite 30 years later for ‘Candy Cane Lane’
(L to R) Reginald Hudlin and Eddie Murphy attend Amazon Studios Candy ‘Cane Lane World’ Premiere in Los Angeles on Nov 28, 2023.
The pair first worked together on the 1992 rom-com ‘Boomerang.’ Hudlin had been interested in making a Christmas movie and learned during a meeting with Amazon that Murphy was also interested. Everything aligned for the actor and director to reunion 30 years after their first collaboration.
Reginald Hudlin: Yeah, we had been talking, we would connect and we would throw ideas back and forth. And then, I was meeting with Amazon and I was like, “I really want to do a Christmas movie.” “We have a Christmas movie and Eddie Murphy wants to do it.” I’m like, “Let’s start Monday.” It’s not complicated.
Eddie Murphy attends Amazon Studios ‘Candy Cane Lane’ World Premiere in Los Angeles on Nov 28, 2023.
Eddie Murphy: But actually, he put together this great presentation, the best I’d ever seen anybody put together, and how he would do the movie and stuff. It was like, “Hey, this is a no-brainer. He just saw the whole thing from the beginning.”
3. Tracee Ellis Ross on ‘Candy Cane Lane’ capturing all the elements of a Christmas movie
Tracee Ellis Ross attends Amazon Studios ‘Candy Cane Lane’ World Premiere in Los Angeles on Nov 28, 2023.
Playing opposite Eddie Murphy’s Chris Carver is Tracee Ellis Ross as Carol Carver. During the press conference, Ross talks about what defines an iconic Christmas movie for her.
Tracee Ellis Ross: I think love, family, and a message that’s at the center of it, which we have in this movie, that the family comes together to conquer a bad elf, a rogue elf, so to speak. I think the thing that’s special about this movie is it’s an adventure comedy Christmas movie. It’s funny, there’s adventure. As I said, there’s hijinks, action, children, lots of lights and decorations, special effects, Eddie Murphy. These are a lot of the elements, but it’s a good story that has all these elements on it, and we hope that it becomes a holiday classic.
4. The younger cast was horrified on their first day on set, for the best reasons possible
Genneya Walton attends Amazon Studios ‘Candy Cane Lane’ World Premiere in Los Angeles on Nov 28, 2023.
Rounding out the Carver family are Thaddeus J. Mixson as Nick Carver, Genneya Walton as Joy Carver, and Madison Thomas as Holly Carver. ‘Candy Cane Lane’ isn’t their first acting job, but it is their first time working with a legend such as Eddie Murphy.
Genneya Walton: First of all, I was horrified for the best reasons possible. I was like, “Girl, you better have your stuff together.’ I think my first day was on the track scene.
Speaking to Eddie Murphy and Tracee Ellis Ross, she says:
“I look up to you guys so much, and I’m inspired by all of your work, so getting to work with you guys is wonderful, and I learned so much truly, just from watching you guys do what you do, so it was freaking sick.”
Co-stars Mixson and Thomas express the same sentiment.
Thaddeus J. Mixon: I’ll tell you right now, boy, I was nervous. I was nervous. I ain’t know what, I was just like, man, I was just watching y’all on TV. Now, I’m about to actually share the screen with y’all. It is truly an honor for real. I’m blessed to even have the opportunity to even work with y’all. And also, work with Reggie as well. I worked with him on my first ever movie, so it’s always fun when I work with him, so it’s a blessing.
Thaddeus J. Mixson attends Amazon Studios ‘Candy Cane Lane’ World Premiere in Los Angeles on Nov 28, 2023.
Madison Thomas: Yeah, I was very nervous because I didn’t know what was happening. I didn’t know anything. I’m going to be honest. I didn’t know anybody. But then, we started working more on set and then I kind of felt comfortable, and then that’s how we started building a relationship.
Madison Thomas attends Amazon Studios ‘Candy Cane Lane’ World Premiere in Los Angeles on Nov 28, 2023.
5. Jillian Bell as the mischievous elf, Pepper
Jillian Bell attends Amazon Studios ‘Candy Cane Lane’ World Premiere in Los Angeles on Nov 28, 2023.
When Eddie Murphy’s character Chris comes across a mysterious Christmas decor store, he is enthralled by the elaborate and magical items. However, the store was run by Pepper- a mischievous elf who liked to play tricks on unsuspecting customers.
Bell elaborates on what drew her to the character.
Jillian Bell: The first time I read the script, I just kept talking like her out loud, which is a good sign. It’s a bad sign if you’re not an actor. As an actor, it was a good sign to me because I just kept doing her voice. And I was like, “Oh, there’s something here.” And I just fell in love with the world of it. I was so excited for the opportunity to get to work with everybody that was involved and I just think Reggie is one of the kindest, most wonderful directors, and — you guys can attest this too, like, if you have a creative idea and you’re nervous about it. There’s no nerves attached, approaching Reggie with it. So I think I think after our first meeting, I was like, oh, no, I really want to do this film.
Tracee Ellis Ross and Robin Thede chimes in about Bell’s performance in the film:
Robin Thede: The brilliant thing about Jillian Bell is that she does bring that humanity to these characters and exactly what Kelly [Younger] had envisioned, which is that she’s not just a one-note evil person. She truly believes in what she’s doing and like, you get it like. I don’t think that I thought I was rooting against Pepper. I was just like, “Oh, well, obviously you can’t win, but like you’re kind of like misguided. She’s also really fun, and evil and violent, and all of that. But there’s just some really epic acting moments, too.
Robin Thede attends Amazon Studios ‘Candy Cane Lane’ World Premiere in Los Angeles on Nov 28, 2023.
Tracee Ellis Ross: Jillian Bell is… Yes. Seriously, that moment when she appears in this, you’re just like, “What is happening? And why does that twinkle in her eye actually look like evil in her eye?”
And as Pepper says in the movie, “What’s Christmas without a little terror?”
Nick Offerman (‘The Last of Us’) plays Pip, a man who’s been turned into a porcelain miniature figure by Pepper. He stars alongside Robin Thede’s Cordelia and Chris Redd’s Lamplighter Gary, who have also fallen to the same fate.
Offerman was not present at the press conference, but his co-stars praised his performance.
Robin Thede: Nick Offerman talks, everything stops.
According to Hudlin, it was Offerman’s idea to keep his character British.
Reginald Hudlin: First of all, Nick was just like, “You know, there’s always British actors and play American parts. I’m gonna play a British part.” I was like, “Oh, that’s great.” Because again, I just wanted the three village people, as we call you guys as different as possible, right? And it’s just like, I’m like, “Okay, I don’t know, my son’s gonna take this because like, he’s so ‘Parks and Rec.’ He’s so locked in.” I’m like, “But, you know, Nick Offerman’s a genius. We’re gonna let him do this.” And he just found a new hilarious character and the way he played off the two of you was exquisite.
Jillian Bell: His first line was very reminiscent of ‘Planes, Trains and Automobiles.’ And my heart broke for him. And I’m like, he literally has been on screen for 10 seconds. I’m in I’m invested. I mean, I was invested in the tiny version of it, but I’m saying just his face too, like, he is an incredible actor, and he should be in so many.
7. The script is inspired by a personal story, minus the evil elf
(L to R) Eddie Murphy and Kelly Younger attend Amazon Studios ‘Candy Cane Lane’ World Premiere in Los Angeles on Nov 28, 2023.
Writer Kelly Younger based the story on his personal experience as well as the location.
Kelly Younger: It is a personal true story. My parents live on the street that leads into Candy Cane Lane and El Segundo. They’ve lived there for many years. My dad over-decorates every year, goes over the top, much to my mother’s dismay.
He continues:
Kelly Younger: I wanted to bring in magic and mischief and to have lot of fun, but it was really important to me that it was grounded in a real family. And I think especially what Eddie and Tracee did, how they captured what felt like a very real relationship. And this family felt very, really real. To have these folks bring it to life is just wonderful.
8. The process of blending live-action and CGI together
Inside Pepper’s shop, Chris Carver comes across a miniature Christmas town, along with miniature figures – Pip, Cordelia, and Lamplighter Gary, who come to life. The cast talks about the process of making those scenes come together.
It took the special effects team from ILM and teamwork from the cast and crew to blend the human actors and the porcelain figures together in the final product. Hudlin talks about working with ILM:
Reginald Hudlin: They had face references but not body references, and [the actors] came up with all this fantastic physical comedy on top of the great verbal comedy, and that was amazing. It was a great collaboration working with them on that.
Eddie Murphy: Yeah, when you see the special effects shots and stuff like that, those things are really time-consuming and it’s awkward, and it’s just a lot of work doing a sequence like that. It’s really putting a jigsaw puzzle together when you’re doing those sequences, so it was just long and frustrating.
(L to R) Eddie Murphy and Tracee Ellis Ross attend Amazon Studios ‘Candy Cane Lane’ World Premiere in Los Angeles on Nov 28, 2023.
Tracee Ellis Ross: Yeah, because you’re acting with an imaginary thing, and it requires a different kind of acting.
Although Offerman, Thede, and Redd are playing CGI characters, Murphy wanted everyone on set together for every scene to make it more authentic.
Reginald Hudlin: The very fact that I didn’t intend for us to have to invent some technology, but we did. We had this reindeer system so that the actors, the villagers, and the live-action actors could act in the same scene at the same time and improvise.
Reginald Hudlin attends Amazon Studios Candy ‘Cane Lane World’ Premiere in Los Angeles on Nov 28, 2023.
Chris Redd: We were in these little booths. And like, so the animators could create, like, animate while we talked, and that was some different ways to see each other, so we were just riffing the whole time.
Chris Redd attends Amazon Studios ‘Candy Cane Lane’ World Premiere in Los Angeles on Nov 28, 2023.
Robin Thede: The cool thing about the process, which was so fun, is that Eddie was really like, “No, I want them on stage with us rehearsing in person”, right in our full size, although I’ve not much taller than my ornament. But that was really fun. So I was saying earlier, like, we were really involved in most of the scenes in the movie, even if you don’t see us on screen, because it was really important to Eddie and Tracy and the kids and everybody that we were there and bouncing off of them just in case we were going to jump in. So all those conversations where we’re at the house or they were at their house or whatever, we were there for months because it was important to really get that vibe, and I think you feel it because they were looking at just lights or like little monopoly pieces. So we would rehearse in person, and then we would be banished to our little sound booths, but we could see them on a monitor, and they could hear us in their IEMs. And then they would shoot our faces with like a GoPro.
9. The cast on working with Eddie Murphy
(L to R) Eddie Murphy and Tracee Ellis Ross attend Amazon Studios ‘Candy Cane Lane’ World Premiere in Los Angeles on Nov 28, 2023.
The cast talks about being fans of his work and about their experience working with him on ‘Candy Cane Lane.’
Tracee Ellis Ross: The thing about Eddie is he’s hilarious. But, what makes everyone hilarious around him is he’s a really generous actor. For Eddie, it’s about the groundedness, which is the reason that I have loved his comedy for so long. It’s not based in being funny. It’s based in being real. And so, there’s a connection that has to be there for it to come across in the right way, and that’s what he does. He’s not sitting there trying to get you to set up his funny and his jokes. He’s actually in a scene playing with you. That’s what makes it fun, and that’s what makes it work. I think, I mean, I don’t know about you guys, but that’s what I experienced, and what a treat and an honor at this point in my career to be able to work with somebody that you’ve admired, whose work you’ve known and grown up with to a certain extent.
Tracee Ellis Ross attends Amazon Studios ‘Candy Cane Lane’ World Premiere in Los Angeles on Nov 28, 2023.
Reginald Hudlin: This is the thing. The thing is, I’ve always said that Eddie deserved an Oscar for his performance in ‘The Nutty Professor.’ Because it’s like there’s no acting school that says this is how to act against a tennis ball, but he did that. He played two different women that were completely different women, but because people go, “Oh, it’s just laughs. It’s not funny. That’s not hard.” It’s incredibly hard. He was a pioneer in that style of performance, which he doesn’t get credit for.
D.C. Young Fly attends Amazon Studios Candy ‘Cane Lane World’ Premiere in Los Angeles on Nov 28, 2023.
D. C. Young Fly: If you sit back and watch all the different elements and understand like, just Christmas, and specials, and understanding that Eddie is an icon. It’s just being around that it brings that out of us, you know what I’m saying? I feel like everybody was just trying to be on their A-game because this is an Eddie Murphy movie. Why wouldn’t we come here and not be on our A-game?
Chris Redd: I swear to God, the first day, I think I wrote fifteen jokes on the way to set, just like “I might use them.”
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What is the Plot of ‘Candy Cane Lane’?
A local neighborhood hosts an annual contest over who has the best decorated home for Christmas; desperate to win, Chris Carver (Eddie Murphy) makes a deal with a charismatic stranger, Pepper (Jillian Bell), for the use of magic to make his home the most festive. He soon learns that Pepper is an evil elf who has made similar deals in the past, with her victims being transformed into plastic dolls. Chris must rally his family to stop Pepper from unleashing misery upon his friends and neighbors and break the deal before he loses everything.
‘Candy Cane Lane’ starring Eddie Murphy premieres on Prime Video on December 1st.
Premiering on Prime Video December 1st, ‘Candy Cane Lane’ sees Eddie Murphy leading a Christmas story with a magical twist. This fitfully funny comedy represents the company’s attempt to keep tapping the festive family movie market, something that competitors such as Netflix and Disney+ are also targeting.
Yet there’s a certain something missing here, and it isn’t Christmas spirit. It’s Eddie Murphy’s subversive brand of comedy.
There is, as mentioned, a lot of competition in Christmas movies these days for those who don’t want the saccharine romantic antics of Hallmark and Lifetime’s concoctions or dig through apps to find classics to watch.
Amazon Studios, which has a deal with Eddie Murphy to make at least three movies (long-awaited comedy sequel ‘Coming 2 America’ was the first), has well and truly hopped on that holly-festooned bandwagon with this new offering.
But while it’s looking to channel the likes of ‘Deck the Halls’, it never quite hits the right gear. Though certainly better than some of the turgid family-friendly output Murphy has been part of in the past, it’s still lacking some of that essential magic. And that’s because the leading man tones down his wackier side to mostly play a stalwart family man who gets wrapped up in comedic Christmas oddness.
Written by Kelly Younger, a veteran of Disney and Pixar animated movies and live-action Muppet outings, ‘Candy Cane Lane’ takes some fairly obvious routes to its predictable conclusion. There are some well-used themes such as learning that family is more important than shiny gifts or winning competitions.
Murphy’s character is written as a fairly straight-ahead guy, dealing with kids of different ages and facing a big new problem in that he’s been let go from his job.
Younger has a good time writing for Pepper, who is mischievous and odd when the moment calls for it, and the magical creatures who appear from the 12 Days of Christmas tree that forms the major McGuffin here do offer some entertainment value (the concept of six geese carpet bombing unsuspecting pedestrians with eggs from the sky is a good one, and plays well into the finale, for example.)
And there are, at least some fun diversions, including a group of characters who have previously fallen foul of Pepper.
It’s just whenever the story cuts back to family time, the feeling is of Christmas joy leeching from the movie, no matter how much the script or actors try to enliven them.
Director Reginald Hudlin, meanwhile –– working with Murphy for the first time since 1992’s ‘Boomerang’ –– largely leans on his cast effects team to do the work, finding and few solid shots here and there.
As mentioned, this is Eddie Murphy on all-audiences autopilot, bringing another staid parental man to life who sees his carefully curated world start to unravel. There are lessons to be learned, and chaotic elves to deal with, but Murphy largely treats it all like another day at the office.
Of course, he’s fun, but it’s not the sort of passion he displayed in the past, coming across more as a “one for them” performance. You might try to point to a legendary comedy creator slowing down as he ages, but he put more drive into the likes of recent movies such as ‘Dolemite Is My Name’ and ‘Coming 2 America’ than he does here.
If there is a comedy MVP of the movie, it’s Jillian Bell, who has the role of miscreant magic user Pepper, who after being banished from the North Pole, is convinced she has to punish mankind’s wicked ways, and does it through dodgy deals. Bell, who has been good in the likes of ‘Godmothered’, ‘Rough Night’ and ‘Brittany Runs a Marathon’ and runs with the character, breathing real life into Pepper.
Alongside her are the poor, unfortunate souls who have agreed to her deals in the past and are reduced to being living figurines in the village display in her Christmas shop, who all make small supporting roles work. That includes the likes of Nick Offerman, a proven comedy talent who is inexplicably lumbered with (or perhaps he chose to try) a cod-British accent. Still, he generates some good laughs.
Around Murphy is his family unit, played by Tracee Ellis Ross, Genneya Walton, Thaddeus J. Mixson and Madison Thomas, who are all perfectly fine in their roles but (aside from Thomas) are mostly there to be stock characters in a movie like this. Ross in particular did so much with a driven career woman in ‘Black-ish’ on TV but is saddled with a much less impressive part here.
While its delights are of the strictly standard variety, ‘Candy Cane Lane’ ends up a suitably enjoyable Christmas movie if you’re not particularly demanding.
Boosted by Bell and her comedy support in particular, it’s watchable enough, and is seemingly made for the family to watch on the sofa with mugs of hot cocoa in hand.
‘Candy Cane Lane’ receives 7out of 10 stars.
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What’s the story of ‘Candy Cane Lane’?
After Chris (Eddie Murphy) inadvertently makes a deal with a mischievous elf named Pepper (Jillian Bell) to better his chances of winning his neighborhood’s annual Christmas home decoration contest, she casts a magic spell that brings the 12 Days of Christmas to life and wreaks havoc on the whole town.
At the risk of ruining the holidays for his family, Chris, his wife Carol (Tracee Ellis Ross), and their three children must race against the clock to break Pepper’s spell, battle deviously magical characters, and save Christmas for everyone.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with director Reginald Hudlin about his work on ‘Candy Cane Lane,’ his first reaction to the screenplay, reuniting with Eddie Murphy and if his process has changed at all since ‘Boomerang,’ the challenges of mixing live-action with VFX and animation, making a Christmas movie and if he is ready for the film to become a holiday must-watch.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews with Hudlin, screenwriter Kelly Younger, and Production Designer Aaron Osborne.
Moviefone: To begin with, what was your first reaction to Kelly Younger’s screenplay, and can you also talk about the challenges of making a Christmas movie?
Reginald Hudlin: When I first read Kelly Younger’s script, I loved it. My only real note was, as crazy as this is, we don’t go far enough. So, I said, “Let’s make it even crazier.” We had a great time. Whenever you make a Christmas movie, there’s certain expectations, right? So, you’ve got to have great Christmas music, you’ve got to have an emotional impact on people, and you’ve got to have amazing decorations. So, I doubled down, if not tripled down on all that stuff. Then we added elements that you would never normally see in a Christmas movie to make people go, “Whoa, I’ve never seen anything like this before.” So, have your cake and eat it too.
MF: What was it like reuniting with Eddie Murphy, what does he bring to a role like this, and has his process as an actor changed at all since you worked with him on ‘Boomerang’?
RH: Eddie was perfect for this because he’s a family man. He’s like the rest of us. He’s decorating the house and making sure that all the family have great presence. So, we were both very much in the same mindset of we love Christmas, we love Christmas movies, and here’s our contribution. So, we’re doing it from a point of view of, we relate to this character 100%, which is key to me when you make a movie like this. Eddie just keeps getting better, honestly. When you’re sitting in the editing room and you’re watching his performance, both comedically and dramatically, you just go, “Boy, he’s great at his job.” Eddie Murphy is an amazing actor. When people do comedy, they go, “Oh, that’s easy.” It would be the opposite of easy. It’s harder.
MF: Can you talk about your use of VFX in the movie and mixing live-action with computer animation?
RH: It was so much fun. I’ve been dying to work with ILM, Industrial Light & Magic, all those amazing folks. Man, they had so much fun. We were just feeding off each other like, “What about this? What about that?” We had these great vocal performances from these world-class actors, Nick Offerman, Robin Thede, Chris Redd, and then they took that stuff and then added the physical comedy on top of it. So, we were just like, “Oh my God.” We’re all having the best time.
MF: Finally, how do you feel about the idea of ‘Candy Cane Lane’ becoming a holiday tradition and a movie that audiences watch year after year?
RH: When we made the movie, we were like, “Look, let’s pack it with so many jokes, so many visual things going on that you’ve got to see it more than once just to catch all the stuff.” So, it’s all there for you. We start December 1st, but you can watch it all 25 days.
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What is the plot of ‘Candy Cane Land’?
A local neighborhood hosts an annual contest over who has the best decorated home for Christmas; desperate to win, Chris Carver (Eddie Murphy) makes a deal with a charismatic stranger, Pepper (Jillian Bell), for the use of magic to make his home the most festive. He soon learns that Pepper is an evil elf who has made similar deals in the past, with her victims being transformed into plastic dolls. Chris must rally his family to stop Pepper from unleashing misery upon his friends and neighbors and break the deal before he loses everything.
Eddie Murphy is starring as a man looking to win a holiday house decoration competition.
Jillian Bell, Tracee Ellis Ross, Thaddeus J. Mixson, Ken Marino and Nick Offerman co-star in the new film.
The new movie will see Murphy working with director Reginald Hudlin and producer Brian Grazer for the first time since 1992’s ‘Boomerang’.
Outside of the ‘Shrek’ world’s TV specials, Eddie Murphy hasn’t exactly been known for his holiday output.
That’s all set to change this Christmas as he debuts new family comedy ‘Candy Cane Lane’ which finds the star fully embracing the warmth (and in this case, chaos) that is usually associated with thoughts of Santa, reindeer and elves.
And the world of competitive home decoration is also a rich one to explore, featuring plenty of rivalry (heck, there’s even a whole TV reality series about people looking to put up the best display).
Which means that unless you’re of a grinchy disposition, you’ll welcome the first batch of photos from the movie, featuring Murphy dealing with the unique blend of a magical deal and a very famous Christmas song.
Murphy stars in this holiday comedy adventure about a man on a mission to win his neighborhood’s annual Christmas home decoration contest.
After Chris (Murphy) inadvertently makes a deal with a mischievous elf named Pepper (Jillian Bell) to better his chances of winning, she casts a magic spell that brings the 12 Days of Christmas to life and wreaks havoc on the whole town.
At the risk of ruining the holidays for his family, Chris, his wife Carol (Tracee Ellis Ross), and their three children must race against the clock to break Pepper’s spell, battle deviously magical characters, and save Christmas for everyone.
For fans of Murphy’s past output, there’s something of a reunion behind the cameras too. ‘Candy Cane Lane’ is directed by Reginald Hudlin and produced by Brian Glazer, who worked with the star on 1992’s ‘Boomerang’.
The script, meanwhile, comes from Kelly Younger, a veteran of Disney and Pixar animated features who also wrote on various Muppets projects including ‘Muppets Haunted Mansion’. He’s reportedly based this new movie on his childhood growing up on a real Candy Cane Lane in El Segundo, California.
Opening in theaters on March 31st is the new movie ‘Spinning Gold,’ which tells the story of Casablanca Records founder Neil Bogart and was written and directed by his son, Timothy Scott Bogart.
What is the plot of ‘Spinning Gold?’
‘Spinning Gold’ depicts the life and career of record producer and Casablanca Records founder Neil Bogart, who was credited with discovering many iconic musical acts such as Donna Summer, Kiss, and the Village People. Along with a rag tag team of young music lovers, Neil and Casablanca Records would rewrite history and change the music industry forever. The movie also examines Bogart’s own personal love triangle with wife Beth Bogart (Michelle Monaghan) and manager Joyce Biawitz (Lyndsy Fonseca).
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Jeremy Jordan about his work on ‘Spinning Gold,’ playing Neil Bogart, being directed by his son, the artists Casablanca Records discovered, and why Neil believed in them.
Jeremy Jordan as Neil Bogart in ‘Spinning Gold.’
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews with Jordan, Jay Pharoah, Tayla Parx, and director Timothy Scott Bogart.
Moviefone: To begin with, how much did you know about Neil Bogart and the history of Casablanca Records before joining this project, and what did you learn about him that really helped you play this role?
Jeremy Jordan: I knew absolutely nothing about it, to be honest with you. I knew some of the music that came out of the recording studio that they’d formed, and that was pretty much it. I really approached it from the perspective that I’m working with this guy’s family. Tim Bogart wrote and directed it, and he gave me so much incredible insight, and really allowed me to find my own way into my version of his dad without trying to be a carbon copy of this guy. It was nice because he’s not a really widely known figure, and there’s not a whole lot of video that people can be like, “Oh, you’re not doing exactly the thing.” But even so, we didn’t really focus on that in the film, even with the more famous characters. We really just got to figure out who these people are and then go from there. That was a really liberating experience. I didn’t feel like I had to do exactly this perfect impression, you know what I’m saying?
(L to R) Jeremy Jordan as Neil Bogart and Michelle Monaghan as Beth Bogart in ‘Spinning Gold.’
MF: Was it weird being directed by the son of the person you were playing?
JJ: It was weird in my head, but in execution, it really wasn’t, except for every once in a while when Tim would be like, “Hey dad.” I was like, “That’s weird. Don’t do that.” But no, I really felt supported a hundred percent all the way through it. If there was ever any guidance, it was done with a really loving hand. One of the things that I was really lucky about is that Tim said one of the reasons that he chose me to play the role was that I had a lot of the essence of his father, and he allowed me to find that version of it within myself. So I never really felt like I was under a microscope or anything, so it was liberating in that way, and I didn’t have to be self-conscious.
(L to R) Tayla Parx as Donna Summer and Jeremy Jordan as Neil Bogart in ‘Spinning Gold.’
MF: Finally, can you talk about the relationships Neil had with musical artists like Donna Summer and Kiss, and the way he discovered them and really believed in them when no one else would?
JJ: He saw things before everybody else. So he saw Kiss and saw Donna Summer as this incredible thing that was going to change music. He was so far ahead that everybody just kind of thought he was crazy and nothing hit for years with both of them. But he continued to believe in them, almost to a fault. Just tenaciously throwing money at it until some people finally figured it out, or he actually figured out the best way to present them to the world. But he never gave up on them and he never faltered in his belief in them, or never really second guessed any of those decisions. He knew that he was right, and he 99% of the time was. It’s tough to find people like that, especially nowadays. Nothing like this story could ever happen today. I’ve recently tried to join the music business. I started a band and they’re like, start your own TikTok, release your first couple albums and then talk to us. There’s no sending your record tape or your demo and someone saying, “if I believe in you and I think I can make you into something, let’s do it.” If there is, then I don’t know. It’s rare. It’s cutthroat nowadays much more.
(L to R) Casey Likes as Gene Simmons, Sam Harris as Paul Stanley and Alex Gaskarth as Peter Criss performing as Kiss in ‘Spinning Gold.’
