Happily is a sci-fi thriller inspired by the AAC parents, director says

Here’s How Hollywood Works: Writer-director BenDavid Grabinski moved to Los Angeles in 2005 hoping to break into the industry. Six years later he made a slick short film, Cost of living, a calling card that immediately landed him appearances writing blockbuster-sized films. A few scripts got attention – his name is on one Adventure Time movie script somewhere in the Warner Bros. archives – and Paramount even looked to him to direct a “big expensive action movie.” But in 2018 he still hadn’t actually made a movie. Nickelodeon gave Grabinski the keys to reboot Are you afraid of the dark? yet it was not a movie

Adrift, he wrote Happy, a sci-fi thriller rom-com (?) mystery box that defies all conventional wisdom about the kind of movies really made today.

‘This is the only thing I’ve ever written not have an explosion in that, ”admits Grabinski. But it’s the movie that people with money in their pocket finally got him to make.

“I had tried to write movies where I thought, ‘Well, what would other people like to make green?’ And this is what I wrote where everything was focused purely on your gut, from writing to casting and directing to finishing it. [it took off] because it was so specific. It was one of those things where when you read the first 15 pages you either go, ‘What the hell is this?’ or in a positive? ‘What the hell is it? thiiiis

Happy stars Joel McHale (Community) and Kerry Bishé (Stop and catch the fire) as husband and wife who, years after their marriage, still bring the voluptuous fire into everyday life. They love each other – and their grumbling married friends are all sick of it. What happens next is the genre twist: a mysterious cop arrives at their door to ‘cure’ the couple, someone gets dead, and becomes a previously planned vacation destination extreme uncomfortable when suspicions arise about what is really going on.

Grabinski says that while the film is very personal, it also started with a gnawing element from so many movies and TV shows he loves.

“The way my dumb brain works is that I combine things in very strange ways,” he says. “The original origin of this idea was that I really liked the parents The OC Friday night lights, or Poltergeist – these truly loving, conflict-free couples – and who want to make a movie about such a couple. ”

Image: Fox TV

And let’s be clear: Grabinski loves him, a little bit Sandy Cohen The OC“As much as you want to love Ryan Atwood, he packs way too much to leave for Chino, and Sandy doesn’t pack to leave, man. […] They’re just the shit, you know? But like Stephen Root [who plays Happily’s shady agent Mr. Goodman] came to their door and said there was something wrong with their marriage I should have seen that season The OC

As Grabinski worked his way through the day to “ make it ” in Hollywood, his hunger for watching and re-watching classic films only grew. You can see that Happy, who nods to everyone from Brian De Palma to Dario Argento to John Carpenter. There are also several MacGruber Easter eggs. “I couldn’t manage without some blatant references to it MacGruber, “he says.” But[thereferencesarealsofilteredbyaveryenhancedtheatercinematographicdeliverysystem”[thereferencesarealsofilteredthroughaveryheightenedtheatricalcinematicsillydeliverysystem”[dereferentieswordenookgefilterddooreenzeerverhoogdtheatraalfilmischdombezorgsysteem”[thereferencesarealsofilteredthroughaveryheightenedtheatricalcinematicsillydeliverysystem”

On top of all visual references, Happy is also the output of a style student. Grabinski admits that he carefully planned his shootings to give his directorial debut high production value – from vibrant widescreen compositions to moving camerawork and the kind of lighting you don’t normally see in an indie film – and the result is a movie full of comedic actors (Paul Scheer, Breckin Meyer, Natalie Zea, Natalie Morales, Jon Daly, Kirby Howell-Baptiste and Charlyne Yi complete the cast) which is framed as if it were a paranoid thriller.

Nevertheless, he still hopes to make it something explode at some point on the screen.

The next thing I wrote is weirder and has a lot of action sequences. So let’s go. ”

Happy is currently for rent on Amazon Apple, and other services.