The Big Picture

Candy Cane Lane is an original comedy film starring Eddie Murphy and directed by Reginald Hudlin. It brings a new twist to classic Christmas movies. The film follows Chris Carver, played by Murphy, as he makes a pact with a rogue elf to win a decorating contest, but the consequences are unexpected and chaotic. In this interview, Hudlin discusses how the movie features innovative animation by Industrial Light & Magic, what about the script appealed to him most, reuniting with Murphy, and more.

Prime Video’s gift to viewers this year is the Eddie Murphy-led original comedy, Candy Cane Lane. Directed by Reginald Hudlin, who previously worked with Murphy on 1992’s Boomerang, the comedian’s first holiday film takes all the ingredients of a classic Christmas movie and spins a whole new magical family adventure.

In his efforts to have a decked-out house that would rival Clark Griswold for his neighborhood’s annual decorating contest, Chris Carver (Murphy) makes a pact with a rogue elf, Pepper (Jillian Bell). Unfortunately, this elf is playing for keeps and the consequences of this contract will see Chris joining her collection of Christmas ornaments permanently. To make matters worse, Pepper casts a spell that brings the 12 Days of Christmas to life, leaving a trail of seasonal chaos in its wake (12 drummers drumming?!). The only way to stop this devious elf is to join forces with his wife Carol (Tracee Ellis Ross) and their children to set things right again! Candy Cane Lane also features Nick Offerman, Chris Redd, Ken Marino, Danielle Pinnock, and more.

To discuss the making of the movie, Hudlin spoke with Collider’s Steve Weintraub about reuniting with Murphy and the unexpected script that caught his attention. Hudlin reveals how Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness influenced the animation in the movie, discusses teaming up with George Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic, and creating new technology to ensure the actors could improv and joke without worrying about their animated co-stars. Finally, the filmmaker and producer shares a few details about the plot of his next project, Black Cotton Star. Check it all out in the video above, or you can read the full transcript below.

Candy Cane Lane A man is determined to win the neighborhood’s annual Christmas decorating contest. He makes a pact with an elf to help him win–and the elf casts a spell that brings the 12 days of Christmas to life. Release Date December 1, 2023 Director Reginald Hudlin Rating PG Main Genre Christmas Writers Kelly Younger

COLLIDER: You have done a ton of things through your career. If someone has seen nothing that you’ve done, obviously besides Candy Cane Lane, what is the first thing you’d like them watching and why?

REGINALD HUDLIN: That’s tough. I listen to my fans and there’s always, “House Party! Boomerang! House Party! Boomerang!” There’s that kind of thing because those really define my career very early on. But then, in the latter half, you’ve got, “No, Marshall; no, The Black Godfather; no, Sidney…” So, the documentaries and the biopics, that’s a fan base too. I’d leave it up to somebody else.

[Laughs] That’s the diplomatic answer. You’ve also produced a lot of award shows and I’m curious, what do you think would surprise people to learn about what it’s really like producing an award show?

HUDLIN: Well, award shows can be really fun because first of all, you get to work, however briefly, with some of your favorite stars because they’re there to present the award. You’re like, “Whoa, I’m talking to Morgan Freeman. Hey, there’s Chris Evans over there. Oh, here’s Sylvester Stallone. Oh, here’s The Rock.” So, that’s really fun. What’s also great about an awards show is that the minute the show is over, you’re done with your job. You walk away. There’s no editing, there’s no post-production – you get in your car, you go home. There’s all this work up front, and then boom, that’s it.

Reuniting With Eddie Murphy for ‘Candy Cane Lane’
Image via Prime Video

I hadn’t actually thought about that. Jumping into why I get to talk to you, you obviously worked with Eddie on Boomerang in ‘92. How long have you guys been talking about doing something else together?

HUDLIN: We run into each other and I’ll throw an idea out, he’ll throw an idea out. We’ve been trying to find the right thing, and with this one, it just was magical. I was talking to a studio and I expressed my love for Christmas movies, but wanted to find something different, something original, and they said, “Well, we’ve got this script.” I read it. “This is great.” You start, you think it’s one movie, it takes a hard left turn to a whole other movie, and then the third act is this big surprise. I said, “I love this movie,” and they’re like, “Yeah, and Eddie Murphy’s attached.” I’m like, “Oh, we’re done. Let’s start on Monday. Let’s just get to work.”

Exactly. I thought the animation of the animated characters looked great. Can you talk a little bit about pulling that off and the look you were going for with those characters?

HUDLIN: It was so much fun. The thing is, you go, “Okay, I wanna see the glass figures like you hang on your tree come to life. No one’s really done that before, right? So, you turn to the greatest special effects house in the world, Industrial Light & Magic. They brought us Star Wars and Jurassic Park, they can figure this thing out. It took a while to figure out the look, but man, they nailed it. I said, “Look, I don’t want it to be perfect animation.” I’m really inspired by Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and that Rankin/Bass-style animation. I said, “I want Rankin Glass. How do we do that?” And there’s a lot of experimentation with that. We didn’t do stop-motion, but I wanted that feeling for the folks who saw the Doctor Strange movie that Sam Raimi did, Multiverse of Madness. He’s a big stop-motion fan and he did a version of it that was really inspirational to me, so I said, “No, it’s gonna work guys. Let’s go for it.” And I think they nailed it.

Image via Amazon MGM Studios

I’m always curious about the editing process because it’s where it all comes together. How did the film possibly change in the editing room in ways you didn’t expect after showing it to people?

HUDLIN: Well, there’s always big shocks. First of all, we shot a lot of movie, so we knew there was gonna be some big, deep cuts, but you don’t always know where they are because you’re having a good time, it’s all funny. And what I like to do, I have little friends and family screenings every other week when I’m still doing my director’s cut. I try to put together the movie really fast. “It’s fast and it’s sloppy, but whatever. Let’s just take a look at it and get some fresh eyeballs on it.”

So I invited my daughter, she’s 18. Normally, she just shows up to the premiere, but I’m like, “You’re old enough. I’m gonna have you go to see a very rough, very not-well-made version of the movie and see what you think.” Afterwards, she goes, “Daddy, thanks for inviting me, but I’ve got a party to go to tonight.” I go, “Well, I appreciate you giving a little bit of your time to dad.” She gives these notes which are brutal, “You just need to cut this, cut this, cut this, and then I think you got a movie.” She left, and they said, “What do you think, Reggie?” I said, “I think we do everything my daughter said,” and they said, “We agree,” and “When is she gonna run a studio?” [Laughs] So, that’s that.

The truth is though, I’m friends with a lot of directors and they say sometimes people show up and they want to be nice at those events and that’s not the time to be nice, those early screenings.

HUDLIN: No. This is my preamble, I say, “This is the time to tell the truth. If I only invite you to the premiere, then only say nice things because it’s too late, but now is the time to kick my butt because I can actually fix it.”

What Is ‘Black Cotton Star’?
Image via Amazon MGM Studios

100%. I have to ask you, a project you’re attached to is Black Cotton Star, and it just sounds awesome, so what can you tell people about it? What’s the status of this thing?

HUDLIN: It’s an awesome story. It’s based on a French graphic novel. It’s set in a Black platoon during World War II, but it has a big historical arc to it. It’s a big kickass action movie, but it also has real big ideas behind it. So, it’s kind of like you have your cake and you eat it, too. It’s really coming along great. We’ve got a heck of a script. We’re starting to put together the team. I don’t know when it’s gonna go, it’s not officially… It’s just something we’re doing in-house, but boy, I’m really thrilled about it. So, hopefully we’ll get that going soon.

It just sounds very, very cool.

HUDLIN: Well thank you. We feel the same way.

So, I like learning the behind-the-scenes stories about making a movie. What do you think might surprise people to learn about the making of Candy Cane Lane?

HUDLIN: It was interesting, we actually invented a new piece of technology.

Creating the “Rudolph System”

This is what I’m talking about. This is what I want to know.

HUDLIN: [Laughs] And I really set out to not do that. I said, “Guys, I don’t want to be so fancy with our effects that we have to go around inventing stuff,” but we ended up going around inventing stuff. And when I say “we,” I don’t mean me; I mean my amazing special effects team. I said, “Look, we’ve got real-life people and we’ve got the figurines, which aren’t real, there’s nothing there, but I don’t want to shoot this in a way that you film one side, then you film the other side, and because of that, the actors can’t interact real-time, improv, come up with new jokes. I wanna shoot this like I would shoot it if there were real people there.” So they were like, “Huh. Well, we’ve never really done that.” I was saying, “Well, we’re gonna do it today.”

So, we had the actors there, they were off-camera in a separate set of booths so we could get their voices cleanly, and they built this amazing device called the Rudolph System. We put little lights where the miniature actors would be, and whenever they spoke, a light would light up so that the real-life actors would know where to look because it’s all about the eyeline. So, we invented this thing and it was a lifesaver. We didn’t impede the creative process of the actors, and at the same time, we were able to get the right looks that we needed when we cut the movie together.

Candy Cane Lane is now streaing on Prime Video.

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