Director John McPhail’s intent for his film “Grow” is to create a family-friendly movie that has audiences leaving theaters feeling joyful this Halloween season.
“GROW” stars Nick Frost (“Hot Fuzz,” “Shaun of the Dead,” “How To Train Your Dragon”), Priya-Rose Brookwell (“The Lazarus Project”), Golda Rosheuvel (“Dune: Part One,” “Bridgerton”), Tim McInnerny (“Notting Hill,” “Gladiator II”), and Jeremy Swift (“Ted Lasso,” “Downton Abbey”).
“Welcome to the pumpkin capital of the world, where the pumpkins are epic, the rivalries are fierce, and the competition is anything but garden variety,” the film’s synopsis reads. “Dinah Little, a no-nonsense farmer with a tough-as-a-pumpkin exterior, reluctantly takes in her abandoned niece, Charlie.”
“Dinah is not quick to affection,” says the synopsis, “and Charlie is not one for sitting still. So she throws her into farm life, sleeves rolled up and hands in the dirt.”
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The film takes audiences on a fun, emotional ride involving friends and family that results in a hilarious story of crazed competition.
“The unconventional mother-daughter story between Charlie and Diana was just like, was too good to pass up,” the award-winning writer and director McPhail told ChurchLeaders. “I’m always kind of looking for that in a film, because I just feel like it’s the characters that take us through the story.”
McPhail shared how important it was for him to make a film that the entire family could enjoy. “I grew up watching films with my parents,” he said. “I have the one of the best jobs in the world, which is I get to make films. And it’s for people; it’s for audiences.”
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It was important for McPhail to portray a theme of family throughout the film. He shared that one of the central sets of “Grow” is the kitchen. “It’s a family room. It’s a place where, like, everybody all comes together,” he said.
With a cast of characters this large, some might think there would be some dominant egos on set, but that wasn’t the case, McPhail said. “It was a genuine pleasure working with this cast, because a lot of them are like absolute heroes of mine,” he added. “None of them had any egos—none of them—they never went to the trailers. They just wanted to hang about on set and have a laugh with the crew.”
