EXCLUSIVE: Trent O’Donnell is on a break from taking pictures an episode of Ghosts when he speaks to Deadline, becoming a member of the decision as temperatures hit minus-18°C in Montreal the place the U.S. model of the comedy is shot.
Sunny Nights, in the meantime, is ready and was filmed within the hotter environment of Sydney, Australia. O’Donnell directs and exec produces. It follows Vicki (D’Arcy Carden) and Martin (Will Forte) as an American brother-sister crew organising a twig tan enterprise within the metropolis. An unseemly blackmail incident and a urgent want for money imply, nonetheless, the siblings get entangled within the metropolis’s murky underworld, organising a collection that’s equal components drama and comedy.
Having labored with Forte on No Exercise and Carden on The Good Place, O’Donnell says he scrawled their names on the script proper after studying it for the primary time throughout lockdown. He put in calls and labored some again channels and managed to get each on board. “You couldn’t get me to Australia quick sufficient,” Carden tells Deadline. “It solely took 4 years and a 15-hour flight.”
4 years was the time between her listening to in regards to the present and it filming, however Carden stored the religion: “Ever since Trent informed me in regards to the present all the best way again in 2020, I knew it might occur,” she says. “I learn it and fell in love. The characters have been so distinctive, and I had by no means gotten to play a personality like Vicki.”
Forte’s inclusion helped swing it for her: “All this and getting the chance to work with a comedic hero like Will Forte, who’s now my buddy for all times.”
Forte returns the praise to co-star and director: “Trent put collectively this amazingly gifted and super-friendly crew, and I set to work with D’Arcy who now’s like household,” he says. “I had labored with Trent earlier than, so I wasn’t shocked by how a lot enjoyable I might have with him or how good the present would prove.”
Sunny Nights was written by Ty Freer and Nick Keetch and is an unique for Australian streamer Stan. It’s produced by Australian indie Jungle, during which O’Donnell is a associate, and Echo Lake Leisure.
The collection treads a line between comedy and drama. O’Donnell needed to dial completely different components up or down accordingly.
“I wished greater than something for this to be a narrative the place folks have been invested within the characters and considered them as actual folks,” he says. “I needed to regulate what was going to remain true to the story. What makes these folks really feel actual, and when am I simply having fun with comedy bits.”
O’Donnell helmed and EP’d Colin From Accounts and that present’s star and co-creator Patrick Brammall turns in a cameo look in Sunny Nights. “It’s a prerequisite that I put him in all the things I do,” O’Donnell says with a smile. “He actually flew in from LA and did his half on Sunny the identical day.”
Different notable casting casting contains Willie Mason as a former sports activities star turned heavy. It was the ex-rugby league worldwide’s first appearing gig. The Sunny Nights crew really had Mason on a pre-production temper board, O’Donnell says, as they seemed for “a sort of monumental particular person, with monumental arms and massive fingers, the kind of particular person that appears like in the event that they punched you, it might actually, actually harm.”
As with Carden and Forte, O’Donnell went direct. “I bought his quantity and texted him chilly and was principally like: ‘I’m making a TV present. Have you ever ever considered appearing?’ From the second he mentioned sure, he was extremely devoted. I feel he began appearing classes the next day.”
From Australia To The U.S. And Again
O’Donnell displays on the distinction between making reveals in his native Australia and the U.S. the place he now spends loads of time.
“While you get to an American community present there’s such a security internet and an infrastructure. Everyone seems to be so seasoned and the crews are simply larger. There’s extra money, the manufacturing simply has extra issues.
“If I’m taking pictures in Australia it’s just about a 24-7 job, it’s all fingers on deck. You additionally get that beautiful kind of indie film vibe, there may be loads of freedom with it as nicely.”
With the collection within the can, how does the director really feel earlier than it premieres on Stan and launches internationally? “I’m glad simply to push it off a cliff into the world after which see who picks it up and enjoys it.”
Cineflix Rights is throughout that half. It’s distributing and the collection is a precedence at its London Screenings occasion later at this time.
