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EXCLUSIVE: Emmy winner Ben Stiller has taken on his first lead film role in six years in Nutcrackers, a new title from David Gordon Green that’s currently in production in Ohio.
In addition to starring, Stiller is producing the pic through his Red Hour Films banner. Other producers on the project include Rivulet’s Rob Paris and Mike Witherill, John Lesher for Red Hour, and Rough House’s Nate Meyer. Rivulet is fully financing the film, with UTA Independent repping North American rights.
News of Stiller’s new film project comes amid a period of some change at Red Hour. EVP Richie Schwartz has departed the company after heading up development for a little less than two years, with Stiller now being joined in running Red Hour by former UTA partner and Paramount chief, Lesher. Lesher’s work overseeing film and TV alongside Stiller is a natural extension of the duo’s relationship going back more than 25 years, we’re told. Prior to Nutcrackers, Lesher served as a producer on Michael Mann’s long-gestating passion project Ferrari, which is out in theaters on Christmas day.
Written by Leland Douglas (Call of the Wild) and developed by Rough House, 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.
Devoting himself in recent years to work behind the camera, Stiller most recently directed and exec produced the first season of Apple TV+’s Severance, an acclaimed workplace thriller which won two Emmys from 14 nominations in its first go-round, also securing a Peabody, two WGA Awards and numerous other accolades. Prior to this Adam Scott-led dystopian series, heading into a second season, he won a DGA Award for directing all seven parts of Escape at Dannemora, a limited series for Showtime which he also produced.
Putting in minor appearances in such recent films as Bros and Hubie Halloween, Stiller’s last lead roles came in Mike White’s father-son drama Brad’s Status and Noah Baumbach’s Netflix family drama The Meyerowitz Stories, both of which were released in 2017.
Most recently setting out to helm a new trilogy of Exorcist films for Uni & Blumhouse, including this past October’s Believer, Green prior to that put out a trilogy of Halloween films, culminating in 2022’s Halloween Ends. He’s also a director and EP on Danny McBride’s HBO comedy series The Righteous Gemstones, which aired its third season over the summer and has been renewed for a fourth.
Stiller is represented by UTA and Gang, Tyre, Ramer; Green by CAA and Cinetic Media.
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