Problem Child
Short description
Ben Healy works for his father, a domineering sporting goods distributor running for mayor, and wants a child. He and his wife Flo, who is eager to move up in society, adopt seven-year-old Junior from an orphanage. The boy soon proves to be far more trouble than they expected: pets, birthday parties, camping trips and baseball games all descend into chaos, and his new parents are pushed to their limits.
Dennis Dugan directed Problem Child, the first of fourteen films he has directed in chronological order, ahead of Happy Gilmore. Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski wrote the screenplay, Robert Simonds produced, and the cast includes John Ritter as Ben, Jack Warden as Big Ben, Amy Yasbeck as Flo, Gilbert Gottfried as Mr. Peabody, Michael Richards as Martin Beck and Michael J. Oliver as Junior. Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment released the comedy in July 1990, and it runs 81 minutes.
Made for about 10 million dollars, the film took in roughly 72 million worldwide, a strong return on its budget. Audiences are divided on it: on IMDb it holds 5.5 out of 10 from around 35,000 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 6.2 out of 10 from about 950 votes. Those viewer scores are noticeably higher than the critics' rating of 2.8 out of 10 from 30 reviews.
What's left behind the scenes
- Filming period: October 2, 1989 – November 24, 1989.
- In a 2014 interview, screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski stated that the inspiration for writing this screenplay came from a 1988 article in the LA Times titled “Adopted Child: Nightmare Begins.” It told the story of a couple who sued an adoption agency on the grounds that they were not informed about their adopted son's serious mental health problems, complicated by a propensity for aggressive behavior, and that he had been repeatedly returned to the adoption agency from other adoptive families. Other writers on the project had suggested making it in the style of Merian C. Cooper's (1900-1986) 'The Bad Seed' or Richard Donner's (1930-2021) 'The Omen' (1976), while Alexander and Karaszewski envisioned a potential comedy. They imagined a sophisticated satire in the vein of popular films at the time in which children teach adults how to love – like 'Baby Boom' (Charles Shyer, 1987), 'Parenthood' (Ron Howard, 1989), 'Look Who's Talking' (Amy Heckerling, 1989), 'Uncle Buck' (John Hughes, 1989), 'Mr. Mom' (Stan Dragoti, 1983), 'Kindergarten Cop' (Ivan Reitman, 1990), and 'Three Men and a Baby' (Leonard Nimoy, 1987). The studio insisted on filming a children's movie, so the script had to be rewritten many times, and some scenes reshot. Everyone involved in the project was sure it would fail. Surprisingly, those expectations did not come true.
- Throughout the film, Junior and Flo never speak to each other. There are scenes where she says something to him, and one scene where he runs past her and says something, but they never exchange dialogue.
- At the end of the film, when Junior and his father crash into a car and it flips over, they are talking. Meanwhile, in the background by the overturned car, a wheel spins sometimes and doesn't spin at other times.
- Jack Warden agreed to star in the film after Dennis Dugan promised him half of everything he himself would earn. Warden was so touched by this that he agreed to film, but did not take Dugan’s money.
- Throughout the film, Ben is shown several times with books on raising children. On the back cover of each book is a portrait of the author. Each time, it's a portrait of the lead actor John Ritter in different costumes.
- Macaulay Culkin was initially considered for the role of Junior.
- According to director Dennis Dugan, the preview screenings were extremely unsatisfactory – the audience loudly expressed their displeasure, and many simply walked out of the screenings. Reshoots of a significant number of scenes took another two weeks.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
