A24 and filmmaker Alex Scharfman are ready to shine a new Unicorn Lore light with the latest release of the Arthouse distributor genre. In Death of a unicorn, Jenna Ortega (Wednesday) and Paul Rudd (Avengers: Endgame) Play a daughter and dad who accidentally runs a baby unicorn on the way to an important meeting-the one who can make or break their family's deal with a father-rich employer. The uniqueness of events leads to a discovery that can change the world, if it really appears in the kingdom of a mansion in a remote magical woods.
Io9 recently sat down with Scharfman to discuss the movie's Genesis, the decision to cast Ortega with some of the funniest actors who work today, and why the world in today's world needs to be fantastical to laugh at it.
Sabina Graves, io9: So, I'm not usually a Unicorn fan, but I think you finally made me a Unicorn girly. So thank you.
Alex scharfman: That's what Jenna said. Jenna is not unicorn. I mean, I wasn't in the unicorns until I started researching the movie. But yes, I think people are getting a layer of depth that we didn't know was there for a while.
Io9: I get it now. They can be metal as hell. Let's start at the beginning. What is the particular backstory of what you are taking on this project? Because it's a wild ride.
Scharfman: Only the idea came to me; Opening the scene was kind of splodged in my head somewhere and I didn't really know where it came from. But sometimes the kind of thing happens, where you think of a scene and like you, “Where is it going?” It is natural to just start pulling the thread like, “Where does it lead?” and “What if someone hit a unicorn in their car?” “What is a unicorn?” Like, what do we bring here as a person?
Io9: When you thought this was happening to a daughter and her father, did you think, “Oh yes, Paul Rudd will be that dad”?
Scharfman: At this time, no, it's new to the actors or characters – it's a scenario. And I don't know what's going on or where they are going or what it is; [it was] Just something that stuck to my mind. It took me a few years to start exploring it.
Io9: Certainly. And it also gave it vibes a short Kurt Vonnegut story that captures incredible elements to tell a true satire.
Scharfman: Can i say i am a big kurt vonnegut nerd? And he really has a story about a father and son in the Middle Ages, which is strange.
Io9: Oh yes, his unicorn hunting story.
Scharfman: Unicorn trap.
Io9: right!
Scharfman: Yeah, okay. So you know the story.
Io9: Did you really think about it as you write it, or did it happen?
Scharfman: That was kind of what happened to be honest. I read and have a whole anthology of vonnegut. I read every short story he wrote. But one is not one that I am actively thinking about, because unicorns are not really big on a central figure in that. It's more about the father and the child.
Io9: Certainly in mind, obviously you were a big satire fan back then. Do you think there are basis for making a satire film like this, especially at a time when literally day -day in real life seems like a satire?
Scharfman: Funny, when I started writing it, I started it like 2019. And I think fall 2019, Knives out came out and I was like, “Oh, cool, satire.” Obviously, we have a lot of satire -just a class of class commentary. I think there is something about it that attracts me, when I started researching unicorn mythology and unicorn lore, which I think at a certain point I realized that kind of natural about the class and about social and strata structures. But especially the upholstery we encounter in the movie referenced throughout, they are about a master who sends his court and his minions to kill a unicorn and return it to him so that he can get it forever.
There is so much about the socialization of the nature and hierarchy of society that allows someone to say, “Go do it for me and bring it back here so I have something,” which I think is starting about class and satire. I thought the story was kind of naturally asking for it. In terms of the context of 2025, I think when you make a dread -dreadful satire, Its satisfaction makes both the dread and satire. [They] are genres that live well in metaphors and I think there is a fun opportunity to align the metaphors.
However, I think there is something intentionally unstable about the movie that I think is because we live in bad times. And maybe that's what we do at the moment is, you know, we live at a time when the richest person in the world has a White House office; It's like all over the surface. Now I have felt things that have previously been more tasted and have some levels of decoration or standards that have since become a window type. I felt suitable for me to do something directly and hopefully cathartic, and I certainly thought about Unicorns with a feeling of violent restoration of justice, which we deserve once we live.
Io9: like whales compared to yachts! Amazing -amazing. No, it was wild it just happened to get to the length of the length, because I was dying from Will [Poulter’s] Performance of Petulant Tech Bro. Because like me, wow, as we see someone like that all the time right now, that is normalized, but he just nailed that paper.
Scharfman: I can't go anymore. Fortunately I was in the movie and delivering the performance he did because I think it was funny and it was wild and over the top and big, but it was also very much in this kind of human psychology that I think was speaking to a larger level of, “How do we get here?” What kind of personality did we make as a society that has been formed and upheld? This millennial man-child tech Bro, the stylish masters of the universe who think they have all the answers through a bravado level and bolstering forward.
Io9: She and all you surround Jenna is the funniest person. So it's kind of wild to see him against Richard's bonkers likes [E. Grant] and Paul [Rudd] There is a straight face. That bit with Anthony [Carrigan] And the damn clock of grandfather. I didn't catch it in the first place until Jenna pointed it out!
Scharfman: That's one of my favorite jokes; It really kills me. The film takes inspiration from many creature features from the '70s to' 90s, but also class satires in the sense of genre, like Luis Buñuel The wiped angel and [Robert Altman’s] Gosford Park. These films are real ensemble movies, which, I like -I like an ensemble movie where you are kind of all these characters standing for archetypes for social structures or things bigger than themselves. And because this is this ensemble in a very content way, they will get a little bigger than life. In the very content ecosystem [of a film] It gives people the opportunity to be a little big from time -time, and the kind of leadership of it in theatricality and the camp's fun dash.
This is just a happy population that Jenna is kind of surrender to the audience. He is our eyes and ears. He is the person who is the amount we agree with. That is kind of nature of the story, [it] is always [Jenna’s character] Ridley is in the middle of this strange world and is talking to these crazy people, with the Leopold family and their schemes. Paul's character really recognizes [they] was mad, but he likes things from mad people, so he acts as if they are not and he doesn't fall into the game.
Io9: Holding your inspiration for the aspect of its creature feature, I'm sure got John Carpenter and Amblin Vibes. What are the mechanics of getting that deep – clearly creating unicorns where they are a combination of practical and CG, and how do you want to fram them in the story? I'm so happy that you're not ashamed of hiding them.
Scharfman: I think in a contemporary feature creature, you have to enjoy that for the audience, and especially in a movie that intentionally recreates a creature. Keeping them in the shadow, keeping them in fog, obscuring them for a while but at the end of the movie they are in the wide sunlight just walking down the stairs, you know, and give you the pleasure to say “We will definitely get a good clean view of this thing.”
Io9: What should the actors do for all the weak -suspected scenes?
Scharfman: This is a combination of things we have. At times when we have live horses set, we have puppets set. We are really big puppets. I love puppets; They are so happy. And as much as possible we use puppets. This is really important throughout the whole process to have more practical elements in the area, not only for actors but for me developing shots, just want to see as much as possible.
There's a definite VFX, but even though we have a VFX, we have puppet heads more than a VFX light reference head. We will have puppeteers who are still walking in shots so that actors know where the creature is, and know what the creature will look like in each position, and how it will move. There is a true flexibility of them; There are just a few shots of puppets, obviously, in the movie. It is always an eager when you can find out that it is part of the puzzle of the film making process for a movie like this.
Death of a unicorn Opens this Friday.
Want more news on io9? Check when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Warsand Star Trek discharge, what's next for DC Universe in Movie and TVand all you need to know about the future of Doctor who.
