For starters, the directing duo were able to get the belovedJack Blackto play their “lovable” Satan.
BOBBY FARRELLY: We love making that kind of movie.
And so he comes and visits, and shenanigans ensue.
Image via Paramount
So, I don’t know.
We loved the idea, and so it was that that drew us in.
PETER FARRELLY: But this movie took forever.
Image via Paramount+
It’s the easiest pitch of all time.
ItsSnakes on a Planeeasy a kid writing a letter to Santa, and it goes to Satan.
But it’s a lot harder to pull off, we found out as we were writing.
Image via Paramount+
This is a 10-year process of trying to get it right.
But you have Satan in there, so you got to get a Jack Black.
There were so many things that had to come together, so it took a while.
Image via Paramount+
If Jack hadn’t said yes, what the fuck were you going to do?
BOBBY FARRELLY: Probably not do it.
I don’t know who else we could have gotten that would have been at the level like Jack.
Image via New Line Cinema
PETER FARRELLY: Maybe Bill Murray.
BOBBY FARRELLY: He ages like a fine wine.
Honestly, he’s fantastic in it.
PETER FARRELLY: Yeah, that’s a good example.
Hes fucking killing people left and right and you’re totally behind him.
[Laughs] Hes great.
Image via New Line Cinema
I love that guy.
PETER FARRELLY: I think it was the other way around, to be honest.Theywanted to call it that.
Satan’s just a character in our Christmas story.
When a young boy mails his Christmas wish list to Santa with one crucial spelling error, a devilish Jack Black arrives to wreak havoc on the holidays.
We’re in no way blowing smoke up his butt, if you would.
We wanted to get away from that, so we went back toDear Santa.
Not for little kids, just to be clear.
Three, four, five, or six-year-olds should not see the movie.
It’s got some, well, spoilers in there.
Actually, at one point it was calledThe Typo.
BOBBY FARRELLY: It was all about the misspelling.
I can understand that title.
I think theDear Satantitle is for the R-rated version, if there was ever one.
BOBBY FARRELLY: Yes.
PETER FARRELLY: Correct.
It didn’t seem right to us.
But actually, the studio wanted it, and we pushed back.
BOBBY FARRELLY: I think it was the right move.
Post Malone Left This Farrelly Brother Thinking, IShould Be a Nicer Person.
How difficult was it to get him, and what surprised you about working with him?
PETER FARRELLY: We were shocked that he accepted the role.
BOBBY FARRELLY: For all the reasons you just said that busy.
He was fantastic playing himself, and he was great in the movie and was so much fun.
We played beer pong with him, we hung out, and man, is he a fun guy.
And a nice guy.
PETER FARRELLY: Very gracious.
BOBBY FARRELLY: So, we were very surprised about just what a gentleman he is.
PETER FARRELLY: Yeah, no airs, didnt come with the rockstar bullshit.
BOBBY FARRELLY: It’s strange how nice he is.
It’s like, Oh my god.
I mean, it’s incredible.
After I left, I was like, You know,Ishould be a nicer person.
[Laughs] He’s so nice to every single person, and I’m not.
[Laughs]
I love talking about the editing process because it’s where it all comes together.
PETER FARRELLY: One thing was there were too many endings.
Werent there a couple of little tags at the end that weren’t necessary?
But that’s what editing is.
Its like, Oh, okay, maybe that’s not clear enough.
So you have to go back and fix it.
There were a few of those moments in this film, but hopefully, we got em right.
PETER FARRELLY: No.
We don’t usually have a lot.
There are a couple of little things we’ll cut here and there.
BOBBY FARRELLY: Filmmakings become so expensive that you do a lot of your deleting before you film.
We did have a lot of deleted scenes.
But now we’ve made enough movies to know that youve got to be economical about what you shoot.
PETER FARRELLY: We didn’t know any better than.Dumb and Dumbernow is an hour and 48 minutes.
It’s our first movie.
He goes, The truth?
He goes, Yeah, I guess worst movie of all time.
And Bobby goes, Fuck you!
And he goes, Oh, fuck you.
He goes, Three hours and 40 minutes?
What the fuck are you guys thinking?
They were yelling at us.
They were friends and they were yelling at us.
So, I’ve never shown a movie again over two hours.
BOBBY FARRELLY: We wanted to know what to take out!
[Laughs] We needed to take a lot out.
PETER FARRELLY: Well, these people weren’t in the business either.
We literally cut it right in half.
It’s, like, half the length of that.
But I learned never to test over two hours from that point on.
Yeah, I’m fascinated by longer assembly cuts.
I like seeing longer cuts, but I’m a crazy person.
Listen, it’s been 10 years since you guys worked together.
kindly tell me you’re planning on doing something else after this.
PETER FARRELLY: Yes, of course we are, but it hasn’t really been because we didLoudermilktogether.
Once we have a good script, we understand what we want to do.
It’s so exactly what I would have done.
That’s the truth.
I’m like, Who directed this?
I have to look for his name.
And so, weve kind of got a good system where we’re doing that.
But yeah, we will definitely do something again.
That’s one thing that we’re doing.
We could never rule out maybe doing anotherDumb and Dumber,and this year’s the 30th anniversary.
We have so much fun making those that we could revisit that, for sure.
PETER FARRELLY: And Jim wanted to call itGum and Gummier.
Dear Santais available to stream on Paramount+.
