In early 2023, Hunter Doohan received a surprise text message from Bryan Cranston.
Doohan, best known for his work at Netflix Wednesdayplayed Cranston’s son in the Apple series Your honor. Now Cranston wanted to know if he could share Doohan’s number with Cranston’s Very bad Co-star Aaron Paul. For Doohan, hardcore Very bad Fan, the answer was an emphatic yes.
Doohan and Paul had never met before, but they had a relationship that went beyond Cranston: Doohan played a younger version of Paul’s character in the film Apple. Truth be told.
Paul was producing a small independent film called WildHe wanted to approach Doohan about the lead role. This film takes place in Utah at a wilderness resort for teenage boys struggling with addiction. The program is led by a mysterious program director, James (Sam Geiger), who may have sinister intentions. The feature was inspired in part by the personal experiences of writer-director Spencer King, who asked Paul to arrange a prologue.
King and Doohan hit it off, with the actor becoming a producer and star as well. After a few months, They were in the middle of the Utah wilderness for a shoot that had a summer camp vibe, with the cast and crew staying in cabins.
“Our first day of production was interrupted by this crazy monsoon that came through,” Doohan recalls of the shoot, which included 20 days in Utah and an additional five days in California.
Of that first difficult night, King adds: “I was expecting the crew to be walking at that moment. But they had fun. They were riding a dune buggy in the mud singing songs.”
No matter how difficult the shoot was, what happened next was even harder for Doohan and King. After King worked on his story, they knew that getting distribution or landing festivals would be a challenge.
“We shot it in Utah,” says King, who remembers thinking they would definitely get into Sundance, which has been based in Utah for decades. “We had this amazing cast, and it was an issue-based movie.” It wasn’t to be. “We weren’t getting anywhere,” King says.
Doohan was also frustrated, noting that one festival, which he declined to name, rejected the film without clicking on the screening link to watch the film. “They didn’t even have an intern watch it, at least, or even put it on and go get coffee,” he says.
Ultimately, the film found its home two years after completing production. It arrived at Dark Star Pictures and enjoyed a small theatrical release, earning strong reviews before heading to PVOD.
“The theatrical release felt like a festival,” King says. “We did these Q&As in different cities. We were really lucky with that whole process. But the distribution landscape was very difficult. And I’m not saying we deserved anything, but we were definitely surprised by how difficult it was.”
King has already filmed his next film, Nickelwhich stars Rob Riggle, Odessa Azion and Wild Actor Aaron Holiday.
Meanwhile, Doohan continues his rise after breaking out in the first season of the series Wednesdayin which he plays Tyler Galpin, Jenna Ortega’s love interest Wednesday Addams. Upcoming, he has a lead role in the film produced by Sam Raimi Evil dead burningwhich opens on July 24. King points out that this is taking Wild Throughout the country she guided him to power Wednesday And the popularity of his leading man: “It was just a line of people trying to take pictures with them [Hunter] after that.”
Thinking back to how his relationships with Paul and Cranston had led him Wild“I felt like I won some,” Doohan says with a laugh Very bad Lottery.”
