EXCLUSIVE: Nutcrackers opened the Toronto Film Festival and now is poised to become the first splashy acquisition deal on the ground since the festival began. Hulu is in final talks to pay eight figures for the family comedy directed by David Gordon Green and starring Ben Stiller, Linda Cardellini, Edi Patterson, Tim Heidecker and Toby Hussles. Producers are Rivulet’s Rob Paris and Mike Witherill, and Rough House’s Nate Meyer. Hulu will release it for Christmas.
The Leland Douglas-scripted comedy stars Stiller as a work-obsessed city slicker who is forced to move to rural Ohio to take care of his sister’s children after her sudden passing. To his astonishment, these blue-collar kids are skilled ballet dancers, and he finds an outlet for their endless energy. What begins as a short trip to find them foster care turns into a gradual realization that this is where he belongs.
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Newcomers and real-life siblings Homer, Ulysses, Atlas and Arlo Janson play the youngsters. The pic was shot on the Janson family’s Ohio farm. Green is longtime family friends with their mom, Karey Williams, from film school, and he was inspired to create the film based on their lives. It was shot in their house, with their animals and at their dance studio.
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Nutcrackers got a rousing audience reaction, and it marks the first film in seven years that Stiller has starred in. He has busied himself producing and directing the Apple TV+ series Severance and the Showtime limited series Escape at Dannamora, for which he won a DGA Award for directing. It also takes Green off a recent horror track that included the Halloween and Exorcist revivals.
UTA Independent Film Group reps worldwide rights on the film. Rivulet Films fully financed, and Rough House developed it with the scribe.
RELATED: ‘Nutcrackers’ TIFF Red Carpet Premiere Photos: Ben Stiller & More
Deal making at TIFF has been slow going, but many titles are in play, and I believe most of the films will find homes, but maybe not until after the festival concludes this weekend. But sometimes, a splashy sale breaks the logjam.