'Dear Santa' Interview: Bobby Farrelly and Peter Farrelly

Moviefone speaks with director Bobby Farrelly and screenwriter Peter Farrelly about 'Dear Santa'. "It's a movie that we worked on for many years," Bobby said.

(L to R) Director and producer Bobby Farrelly and screenwriter and producer Peter Farrelly talk 'Dear Santa'.

Premiering on Paramount+ and digital platforms November 25th is the new Christmas comedy ‘Dear Santa’, which was directed and produced by Bobby Farrelly (‘Champions’) and written and produced by Peter Farrelly (‘Green Book’).

The new movie reunites the Farrelly brothers with ‘Shallow Hal’ star Jack Black (‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’), and in addition features Robert Timothy Smith (‘Star Wars: Skeleton Crew’), Brianne Howey (‘Batwoman’), Hayes MacArthur (‘The Way Back’), Keegan-Michael Key (‘Wonka’), P.J. Byrne (‘The Wolf of Wall Street’), and Post Malone as himself.

Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Bobby and Peter Farrelly about their work on ‘Dear Santa’, developing the screenplay, getting the movie greenlit, reuniting with Jack Black, directing children, the movie’s tone, P.J. Byrne’s unusual performance, casting Post Malone, and their favorite Christmas movies.

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(L to R) Director and producer Bobby Farrelly and screenwriter and producer Peter Farrelly talk 'Dear Santa'.

Moviefone: To begin with, Peter, can you discuss developing the screenplay with the other writers and the themes you wanted to explore with this movie?

Peter Farrelly: Well, it wasn't my idea. It came from Kevin Barnett and Pete Jones, guys we collaborate with a lot. They just came in and said, "What about this? A kid writes a letter to Santa, but he misspells it and instead writes it to Satan." I was like, "Yeah, let's do it." That's a good movie. It's a comedy first. It's like there was a devil in ‘Damn Yankees’ but it never got dark, and that's what this is. And no better person to play the devil than Jack Black who's innately lovable. You know his heart is in the right place. I'm not saying Satan's is, but this Satan's heart is in the right place.

MF: Bobby, is a Christmas movie about Satan a difficult project to get greenlit?

Bobby Farrelly: Well, it is a movie that we worked on for many years. It took 10 years to get the script right. So along the way, we did have studios who were interested in the concept, but we never felt like it was at the right place. So finally, Jeremy Kramer, over at Paramount who had been working with us for years on this, shepherding, got Pete's and Ricky Blitt's new script, and he thought, "You know what? This is it. The time's right, let's do it." So, Paramount did it, and here we are. The trick is doing it in a way where it's fun and it's not too dark, and it's a Christmas story, and then it has a nice happy message and that sort of thing. We didn't want to turn it into a horror movie by any stretch of the imagination.

Paramount Pictures presents a Farrelly Brothers / Kraymation Films production, a Bobby Farrelly film, 'Dear Santa'.

MF: Peter, was it more difficult to get this movie made than some of your past films?

PF: They're never easy. There are no easy movies to make. But Jeremy Kramer, he took the bull by the horns and really made this thing happen because it wasn't easy. After ‘Dumb and Dumber’, you would've thought we could walk in anywhere and make a movie. No. They're like, "Yeah, well that was a Jim Carrey movie. You guys are lucky to be at the party." So, you're still going to fight to get your next movie on, which was ‘Kingpin’, but it's not easy. They're never easy. So, no matter what you do, it's hard in this space.

MF: Peter, can you talk about creating the right tone for the screenplay?

PF: I don't think the tone is dark. I would never describe it as dark. I mean, it's a light telling of the thing. It's slightly edgy for a PG-13 movie and this is a goofy Satan. This isn't ‘The Exorcist’. This is a goofy Satan who's moved by a kid's niceness to become nice. The message is quite uplifting, I think, at the end.

(L to R) Director Bobby Farrelly and Jack Black on the set of Paramount Pictures presents a Farrelly Brothers / Kraymation Films production, a Bobby Farrelly film, 'Dear Santa'.

MF: Bobby, can you talk about finding the right tone for the movie on set?

BF: It feels like when (Satan) shows up, it feels like this might get dark, but it's Jack, and he plays it in a way where he's very likable and you go with him. He's won over by the kid and what a nice kid he is and the spirit of Christmas and all that. So, he changes much more than the kid changes. The kid doesn't get swayed at all by him. In fact, to the contrary, Jack's character has an arc to him.

MF: Bobby, what was it like directing young actor Robert Timothy Smith, and is there a trick to getting a great performance from a child actor?

BF: Well, we've directed some kids in the past, but never this many. What I learned about kids is first, you treat them like everyone else because they are just as talented as any adults we've ever worked with. It's a shorter day. There's a lot of things that must happen. They must go to school, and you can only work so many hours and all that. But boy, they're good actors, and they can keep up with the adults even if they improvise or go off the page. It was a joy. It was a lot of fun working with this talented young actor and the kids around him. Kai Cech who plays his girlfriend and Jaden Carson Baker, who plays his best friend, Gibby, those guys were all great, and they're nice kids too, so it was a lot of fun to work with.

(L to R) Jack Black and Robert Timothy Smith star in Paramount Pictures presents a Farrelly Brothers / Kraymation Films production, a Bobby Farrelly film, 'Dear Santa'.

MF: Peter, why was Smith the right young actor for this role?

PF: That kid, he reminded me of a young Albert Brooks. His delivery is very adult, but it's like a nebbish kind of Woody Allen. I thought the kid was good.

MF: Peter, what was it like working with Jack Black again after ‘Shallow Hal’ and can you talk about what he brings to this role?

PF: Well, again, because he's supposed to be like a goofy Satan, you want somebody who's lovable and not dark and somebody who everybody is familiar with. He's the way he was in ‘School of Rock’ where he was a little edgy, and he is dealing with kids, but he's also adult because he's trying to teach the kids something, but he's not teaching in this one. But in any case, you need somebody like that, and that openness and that likability carries the movie. I hate to think what would've happened if we'd made the movie with somebody who has a dark element.

(L to R) Robert Timothy Smith, Jaden Carson Baker, Jack Black and Post Malone star in Paramount Pictures presents a Farrelly Brothers / Kraymation Films production, a Bobby Farrelly film, 'Dear Santa'.

MF: Bobby, what was it like working with Post Malone and when you cast a popular musician in a movie to perform one of their own songs, are you able to request the song they sing or did Malone choose the song himself that he performs in the concert sequence?

BF: Here's the thing. You can write him into the script, but he's probably going to be out touring or doing something. Those guys are busy. But we were able to get him to come in and he was touring, but we were able to get him to come for three or four days into his schedule, because he read the script and he said, "This is going to be fun." So, he came and totally delivered it. I love that song that he plays in the movie. It's called ‘I Like You’, and it was perfect for what we needed our young Liam character to be dancing to on stage. So, it was the perfect song. He was more than happy to do it. We were super lucky to get him. And boy, was he fun to work with. He's like, "You guys all have to play beer pong with me." All right. Everyone's playing beer pong. We worked it into the movie with Robert Timothy Smith's character. It was a lot of fun. Post, that's a thing that he does. Anyone he meets, he wants to (play beer pong) after the show. He wants to just do a little bit of that. That's his version of shooting pool or something. He wants to play a little bit of beer pong, and so we worked it into the story when he was there.

MF: Bobby, actor P.J. Byrne’s gives an unusual performance with a very specific accent and almost speaks like an English gentleman from the 1800s. Did you direct him to speak like that or did he come up with that on his own?

BF: You know what? I got to give P.J. his due. He came in with that sort of take on the professor, and as soon as he did it, I was like, "I love it. Absolutely perfect.” P.J.'s, that kind of actor. He has a definite defined take on how he's going to play it. It wasn't necessarily how we saw it, but that’s why we hired him. We knew he'd deliver.

(L to R) Jack Black and Robert Timothy Smith star in Paramount Pictures presents a Farrelly Brothers / Kraymation Films production, a Bobby Farrelly film, 'Dear Santa'.

MF: Peter, what is the secret to making a great Christmas movie?

PF: Well, I would say the secret is heart, having heart, but then ‘Bad Santa’ is one of my favorites, and it didn't have a ton of heart. But it did have some. I guess I'd have to say my favorite Christmas movie is ‘Elf’. I loved ‘Elf’. I could watch ‘Elf’ every year. It's a fun one to watch. In fact, when we were making ‘Green Book’, we were doing it in December. Viggo Mortensen rented out a whole theater and the whole cast and crew went to watch ‘Elf’ because he loves that movie. It's interesting, if you look at ‘It's a Wonderful Life’, there's some dark little bits in there. Yet ultimately, it's an uplifting movie, and that's what we wanted this to be.

MF: Finally, Bobby, what is your favorite Christmas movie?

BF: I loved ‘It's a Wonderful Life’, which is one of the original Christmas classics. But I just loved the way it did have some real drama in it, and real storytelling. It wasn't a comedy for most of it, but boy, it had a sweet, happy ending. That's the formula I wanted to follow with ‘Dear Santa’. It's a tight balance between telling a dark story here or telling a story that's got a lot of heart and a lot of happiness and ends with a big up note.

Dear Santa

"Jack Black is NOT Santa."

PG-131 hr 48 minNov 25th, 2024

Likeable 6th grader Liam writes to Santa asking him to prove that he's real. But Liam is dyslexic and accidentally sends his letter to Satan instead, who shows up... Read the Plot