From the directors behind Blades of Glory and The Switch, comes a completely different take on the traditional Christmas movie. When his high-strung CEO sister (Jennifer Aniston) threatens to close his branch, the branch manager (T.J. Miller) decides to throw an epic Christmas party to land a major client and save the company. Things go awry when the party quickly spirals out of control, wreaking havoc onto the streets of Chicago. I sat down with the directors Will Speck and Josh Gordon to chat about their new film.
They first crossed paths while studying film at NYU and were instantly friends. “At first, it wasn’t long term. It was just helping each other with projects, and then we decided to make a senior film together,” Speck says about their decision to work together. “We both had day jobs, but we both wanted to make movies.” Their hit films, Blades of Glory and The Switch, were both projects that they had come onto as directors and developed alongside others. With Office Christmas Party, “it really came out of our own minds and is a film we developed from scratch.”
The directing duo, wanted to venture into new territory with this film and develop it from the ground up. “We wanted to make a movie that was an R rated comedy, but still that had a little bit of a Christmas movie at its core,” Speck states. “In this film, we wanted to work with a big ensemble. We also wanted to do something we’d never done and make a movie that’s set over one night.” The Christmas party doesn’t just stay confined to the walls of the office building, so Speck and Gordon knew they had to choose the perfect location.
“Chicago is an important city for us. A lot of movies that we grew up loving were set or filmed in Chicago, such as Risky Business and The Blues Brothers, ” Gordon says. “It’s such a formal city that’s so beautiful. It’s great to sort of bring chaos into it because the juxtaposition is amazing. To watch cop cars rip down Michigan Avenue, or a minivan hurling towards this beautiful bridge that looks like something from the turn of the century is quite amazing. There’s just something great about taking something so traditional and flipping it on its ears,” Speck adds.
Besides the beautiful cinematography, the film features an all star cast. Jason Bateman and Jennifer Aniston have worked with Speck and Gordon previously on The Switch. The directors definitely feel that there is a sense of common ground upon working with them again. “There’s trust, which is the most valuable commodity between an actor and a director. You learn what they’re capable of and what you want to see them do. For us, having made a romantic comedy with Jason and Jen, it was really important that we do something different with them,” Gordon says.
The character that truly is the heart of the film is portrayed by T.J. Miller. “We wanted somebody that felt like they weren’t too familiar so that you hadn’t seen their moves a million times,” Speck explains. They had previously worked with him on a Motorola commercial campaign and thought he was “brilliant and improvisational.” It was then that they knew he should be the lead in their film. “We were excited to make him different from his character on Silicon Valley or Deadpool by giving him a real heart and sweetness. For us he was a little bit like Elf. He doesn’t have a sexual side, and he’s not degrading to people. He’s really just a little kid,” says Gordon.
“The people that you work with, love them or hate them, are another version of your family,” Speck says, referring to the message of the film. “There’s one time of year where it feels like you can take a moment out of your day-to-day life and actually pay attention to the people that you work with.” As showcased in the film, that time spent bonding with each other really brings people closer in the end.
The holiday film opens in theaters on December 9.