Producer Lauren Shuler Donner is best known for big budget spectacles like the lucrative X-Men series, Constantine and Timeline. This holiday season, she takes on more family fair in the tradition of her Free Willy movies. Unaccompanied Minors sets a group of teens loose in an airport over a snowy Christmas Eve.
Interview: Laruen Shuler Donner on Unaccompanied Minors
"Certainly it was easier than X3 because X3 was a nightmare in terms of just physically production," Shuler Donner said. "But it was hard. It had its own set of problems, trust me. We started off shooting in six degree nights, ski mountains."
Also, unions limit the hours kids can work. "But they're easier because they don't have the egos yet. Kid are easier than movie stars."
Shuler Donner loves her superheroes but it's important for her to branch out and maintain her other sides too. "I love comedy. I love comedy. And I love family movies so for me it's a treat to go from the X-Men series to a night, small comedy where you're laughing every day. It's really a different set. Although that's not true. The X-Men sets are great because we all love each other. The cast, we're a little family by now and we do laugh a lot."
Unaccompanied Minors filmed in the glamorous location of Utah. "We went to Utah for two reasons. One was we could not film in an airport. After 9/11, there are security issues. There was the Salt Palace which looked like we could transform it into an airport which we did. And the other reason was the unclaimed baggage warehouse, the conveyor belt, those are impossible to find. And [director] Paul [Feig] had a vision which was sort of old and rusty and UPS is what we used. This is the only place in the country where there was such a conveyor belt and UPS very kindly let us use their conveyor warehouse. And snow, definitely. And you get a tax rebate."
The wife of director Richard Donner, Shuler Donner has also had a chance to see her husband's new cut of Superman II. "It's so good. I remember seeing Superman II and thinking it was really stupid. Then I saw his and it's oh my God, it's just so good. Margot and Chris are so, so good. It's so much Dick's personality up there. It's just great."
Unaccompanied Minors opens to theatres on December
8th.
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