Filmed on location in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jeremy Lalonde, with his cast and crew, flew to the Cayman Islands hauling heaps of equipment and a last hurrah of hope for the future of film with the world around them stopped.

Daniel Powell (Joel David Moore) is the compassionate, loving son of mega-billionaire Edward Powell (Iggy Pop), who makes an interesting gamble on his deathbed with his sizable fortune left in his will. Daniel and his three horrendous siblings (played by Jason Jones, Mary Lynn Rajskub and Carly Chaikin) must spend the weekend together in their family beach house in the Cayman Islands to receive their portion of the Powell Estate with all the activities overseen by Powell’s most trusted advisor, Lawrence (Bob Saget).

It’s all set to go wrong from the beginning because the father knows his children are hopeless heathens who have zero interest in family bonding. Daniel is the only one who hopes to bring his siblings together and have a ‘real’ family, no matter that his fiancé, Emily (Chantel Riley), is ready to start anew with her betrothed.

Daniel’s Gotta Die is a wild ride from top to bottom with an incredible cast of players. I had the privilege of sitting down with director Jeremy Lalonde to talk about his experience making the film.

“It’s funny. Originally, the movie was written to take place in northern Ontario and take advantage of the tax credits. […]And then we just got this rare opportunity where just as Covid was kind of starting to rear its head, I got a call from one of our producers saying, hey, there’s an opportunity for us to make this film in the Caymans. Do you think you and Matthew could rewrite it to take place [there]? Which, for us, made way more [sense] for this movie.”

Even funnier, it wasn’t until the film was set to film in the Caymans that Iggy Pop came on to make his cameo as Edward Powell, being that he was living on the islands at the time.

With some comedy legends on set, it’s hard to imagine there was ever a dull moment. “My rule is always to get what’s in the script. But let’s make sure we have time to play, especially when you have such a great comedic cast. I always want to know what you want to do. What do you want to try? Are there any new ideas you’ve got, especially from the writer too? Because it’s one thing when you’re looking at a scene on a page, but once you’re in the room, you realize, oh, my God, you’re covered in blood.”

Being Bob Saget’s last film, Lalonde and I talk about his character arc in the film and his presence on set.

“[The siblings], they’re already ruined by the time the movie starts. But with Bob, we saw this opportunity for a guy who could have ended up like those other family members but was able to see another path by the end. So, when we cast Bob, he had many questions, comments, and thoughts on that. And so, we made some tweaks just to give another character a little bit of nuance for the end of the film.”

“And, I mean, obviously, we didn’t know at the time that it was going to be Bob’s last. You know, I talked to Bob a couple of days before he passed away because it was such a freak occurrence. And he was in such great spirits. The saddest thing was that he was such a big fan of the film just as we were making it, and he never actually got to see it finished. He wanted to wait until everything was done. And it wasn’t until a week after he passed away that it was finished.”

Be sure to catch Daniel’s Gotta Die in select theatres on March 15th and VOD on April 2nd.

The post Daniel’s Gotta Die | Interview With Director Jeremy Lalonde appeared first on Toronto Guardian.

How do I know this you may ask? I’ve had the honour to produce Jeremy’s last three films and the most recent project had us living in Sudbury together in an Airbnb for 8 weeks, and among his many duties he also took it upon himself to make sure I had a home cooked breakfast each morning. Oh the glamour of being a filmmaker! Jeremy’s also won tons of awards, including two CSAs and multiple Canadian Comedy awards, and had his films screened at lots of prestigious festivals such as TIFF and Slamdance but more importantly he doesn’t throw a fit at the end of a long day when you lose the keys to the Airbnb and have to drive back to set to find them only to realize you actually hadn’t lost them after all… Sorry, Jeremy – and thanks for teaching me how to boil water (that sounds like a joke, but it’s not…).

-written by Jordan Walker

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What ‘hood are you in?

I live not exactly in The Beach, nor Leslieville, nor Little India but in a magic little spot just on the fringe of all of them in the east end of Toronto. I’m fortunate to be in a neighbourhood where my kids can walk to school and we’re surrounded by amazing things like libraries, small-businesses that cover the gauntlet, fantastic coffee shops and eateries – and in the summer we even have a kick-ass farmers market.

What do you do?

I’m a filmmaker. I float between television and feature films. The recent season of Baroness Von Sketch Show was one that I directed about half of the sketches, and I worked up the upcoming CBC series Cavendish. My film The Go-Getters is being released now in a small theatrical release but will be widely available on December 25th throughout North America on the VOD service of your choice!

What are you currently working on? 

Right now I’m finishing up a film that I shot last year – James Vs His Future Self – but also in early prep on another film we hope to shoot in 2019. I’m developing a lot of new material including some projects for television that we hope to get some traction on soon. In addition my hobby and nerdy passion is my podcast Black Hole Films (link below)

Where can we find your work?

You can go to my website – Follow me on twitter  or check out my podcast 

The post “A Day in the Life” with director Jeremy LaLonde appeared first on Toronto Guardian.