It took more than a decade for producer Matthew Baer to make “Merv,” the new holiday romantic comedy starring Zooey Deschanel, Charlie Cox and Gus, the adorable mutt who plays the titular dog being co-parented by his recently broken-up humans. “Eleven years ago, this was a novelty, but now, the idea of people sharing custody of their dog is somewhat of a societal norm,” Baer tells Variety. “The relevance of the movie is kind of a miracle.”
Once the head of motion pictures at Brillstein/Grey Entertainment, Baer transitioned to independent producing in the 1990s, helming projects like “Jack Frost” and “City by the Sea.” In 2014, Universal Pictures released Baer’s biggest movie to date: the Angelina Jolie-directed World War II drama, “Unbroken.” It was around this same time that he first read the script for “Merv.”
Delighted by the sweet story penned by Dane Clark and Linsey Stewart, Baer brought the project to MGM and attached director Jessica Swale. Shortly thereafter, however, Amazon acquired MGM and the project entered a state of limbo. Happily, Amazon eventually decided to move forward with the film. Baer casted Deschanel and Cox as the leads and production began in Wilmington, N.C. Now, the film’s long road is finally reaching its destination, as “Merv” debuts on Prime Video on Dec. 10.
Baer was involved with “Merv” at every step of its lengthy journey towards distribution. Because that journey spanned two decades and involved a studio acquisition, star attachments and an eventual streaming release, it serves as a poignant case study in independent producing today.
Variety caught up with Baer to discuss his new film, the debate of streamers versus theatrical, the process of casting a canine and the role of an independent producer in the modern Hollywood landscape.
What attracted you to “Merv” and how did you become involved as a producer?
“Merv” is an 11-year journey from the time I first read the script up to its release. It was a spec script that the writers’ managers had given me, and I was immediately attracted to the concept of doing a romantic comedy with a twist that the couple had split, but they share custody of their dog. The irony of being a film producer is that you never know when your movie will come out, let alone if it gets made. During covid, there was an abundance of dogs that were adopted and then, when those couples split up, it resulted in a lot of people sharing custody of their dogs. So the relevance of the movie is kind of a miracle. Every once in a while you touch into some kind of zeitgeist.
How did the movie find its home at Amazon?
I developed it for a couple of years. There were some people that were interested and it got close to a greenlight a couple times. Then what happened was that [fellow producer] Roma Downey had her Lightworkers Company at MGM, where she was able to make films for under $15 million. She responded to the purity and the emotional uplift of the movie, so MGM bought the script and we continued to develop it. We brought on Jessica Swale to direct. Then, Amazon bought MGM and we had to wait for Amazon to decide whether they wanted to move forward with it. At the same time, there was Covid and the strikes, so there was a lot of waiting in those years. But when Amazon officially decided to make the movie, we were off.
At what point did you attach Zooey Deschanel and Charlie Cox?
Once the project was at Amazon, we hired casting director Laray Mayfield, who was brilliant. Laray was a big champion of Charlie’s, because she cast Charlie in the “Daredevil” pilot. And in the case of Zooey, her agents had suggested her, and we all thought it was a great idea. The two of them had their own differences that perfectly matched the characters’. Not only are they great actors, but they have tremendous chemistry.
Greenlighting a project like this— a romantic comedy based off of an original spec script—seems like such a rarity nowadays. Usually, this kind of project would have to settle for smaller talent or a smaller distributor or navigate the festival circuit to get acquired. What was the secret to “Merv” getting a greenlight?
At one point, there was an independent financier who had expressed interest in financing the movie and doing it in Canada for a very low budget. This was during the time where I was waiting on Amazon, though, so I had to hold out for the possibility of producing a studio movie in the genre with potentially stars and a real budget. I had to hold onto that hope because it was the only way for the movie to exist in a meaningful way. The resources and reach of what Amazon could do in terms of informing the audience about the movie is a blessing. I always believed that the odds were high that a family friendly holiday movie with a dog and Zooey and Charlie could do well, so I just held on to that belief and fortunately, it’s come true.
Did you ever fight for “Merv” to have a theatrical release?
There’s no veteran producer who isn’t thinking about theatrical, but it didn’t really make sense. The studio heads explained that three times as many people watch Amazon movies at Christmas. Also, the expense of marketing a holiday movie would be more than what the movie was made for. Of course, everybody wants to have their movies released theatrically, but in this case, streaming felt completely natural.
Throughout “Merv”‘s long development, did you have other projects in the works? What does being an independent producer look like right now?
I made the movie “Maggie” for Lionsgate and then I made a movie called “The Bachelors” starring J.K. Simmons and Julie Delpy. It took five years to finance, and I am incredibly proud of it, but we did not end up getting real distribution. Right now, I still have a slate of about ten projects in different stages of development. The reality of being a movie producer has radically changed with the advent of streaming. I am an old fashioned producer in the sense that there isn’t anything I do that I haven’t been a part of from the start and I am heavily development-oriented, especially with young writers. The problem with streamers is that they took away the way that independent movies were traditionally financed with foreign pre-sales, because once the streamers decided that they wanted to keep international rights to their projects, it put a real dent in how every producer functions. And now streamers won’t really take a project seriously unless it’s packaged, so you’re faced with the dilemma of how do you get the cast if you’re not offering them a greenlit movie. Also, the quality of streaming television and limited series has become so off-the-charts good that you have huge stars willing to do them, so producers are faced with a lot of issues that have made the process of getting anything made as long and as challenging as its ever been. It requires a tremendous amount of patience.
Given that you’ve had success with both streaming and theatrical films over the years, what has been your reaction to Netflix and Paramount both bidding to acquire Warner Bros?
It’s a personal thing. My first job in the industry was working as Richard Donner’s assistant on “Lethal Weapon.” That was at the height of Warner Bros.’s power when it came to what that studio was doing. Then I made “Jack Frost” and “City by the Sea” for the studio. I grew up on that lot. I came into Hollywood witnessing the power of what Warner Bros. could do. It’s painful to think that that is going to radically change and know that Warner Bros. is now in a position where it could be bought. It’s a challenging transition to really conceive. The reaction within the community is understandably sad. We’re all asking “How did this happen exactly?” and “Did the studios create this demise on their own?” A lot has been written about that. Because I’ve been focused on the release of “Merv,” I’ve only read a limited amount, but my opinion is that people do want to still be able to go to the movies. From a producer’s point of view, even if it’s a long shot, you also want the hope that your movie will be in a theater. The concept of that potentially going away is a pretty strong punch. Despite what Netflix has said about theatrical, everybody is aware of the reality. I don’t have enough knowledge to say that I think X is better than Y, but it represents such a seismic, profound change. Those of us who were at Warners when Bob Daly and Terry Semel were running the studio remember the profound sense of legacy that existed whenever you were on the lot. All that one can do is hope that in whatever new form Warner Bros takes, a hint of what was can remain.
How are you navigating this landscape for projects you’re putting together after “Merv”?
I have four projects that I have directors on and three that are out to financiers, but I’ve learned not to say anything until it gets financed. Now every movie is based off of do you have the money and the only way to get the money is to get the talent, and it can take a month to six weeks to get an actor to read sometime. The process is longer than ever before you can say when anything is going to happen. Right now, “Merv” is still my major focus. I’ll continue working in the same way that I always have: pushing forward and believing in my own instincts about what a good script is.
Well they say that if you can make a movie with animals and kids on set, you can do anything.
What’s funny is that this is the first time that I was a part of casting a dog. Our trainer, Marc Forbes, I joke is the Steven Spielberg of dog trainers because he’s done so many movies. I’m one of the few people involved in the film that doesn’t have a dog, so this experience of being immersed in the world of dogs was really great, but the difference between a movie-trained dog and a normal-trained dog is beyond comprehension. In our case, we did a search with Marc for the various dogs. It wasn’t unlike trying to find a new actor. Gus was one of Marc’s dogs and he showed us what he could do on command. We were blown away, so we went with him. So I think that adage of avoiding animals and kids on set is a little outdated. We had kids in the movie also and they were as disciplined as it gets. We had no problem shooting the scenes with the children. And when it comes to animals, if you get the right trainer and you’re working with a professional dog, there is no conflict.
