The movie “The War With Grandpa“ is opening in theaters on October 9th, and some family entertainment writers and myself were recently lucky enough to sit down to a virtual zoom enabled press junket with several members of the cast and crew.

Family Entertainment chat with the cast

We were able to submit questions to the moderator Heather Brooker from NBCLA through a chat feature and she would calling us to ask our questions live. I was lucky enough to get two questions in! The first virtual interview session was with Laura Marano and Oakes Fegley, two of the younger actors in the cast. Oakes plays Peter and Laura plays his teenage sister Mia.

At the 7:06 mark I was able to ask this question:

“Laura and Oakes it seemed like the cast was having a lot of fun, were there any on-set pranks or inside jokes?”

As I mentioned in the video, we currently live in a multi-generational household. My father moved back in with us earlier this year and it is one of the best decisions we ever made as a family. My kids have loved having him around daily, and I have loved having a new dynamic to help them become more well-rounded kids. The thing is, the loss of identity and the shifting dynamics for everyone involved is not to be underestimated. One of the only ways through the uncomfortableness of all those “growing pains“ is through laughter. It is what prompted me to ask the question above. It is interesting to hear that on such a prank filled movie there weren’t more behind the scenes antics, but every one of these kids seems like they were more than in awe and respectful of everyone’s roles on the set. From the way that they spoke in reverence to the older members of the cast, you would think that it wasn’t a kid close to their own age that was actually the one in charge.

The chat with the Producers

The next virtual interview that was lined up was with filmmakers Tre, Marvin, and Rosa Peart. When Tre Peart was 8-years old, pitched the movie idea based on a book he read and his parents Marvin Peart (Brookdale Studios) and Rosa Peart (Marro Media Company) financed and produced the film along with their son, who is now a teen. And this was not just a pet project they gave him because they wanted to appease a precocious kid. Tre worked with his mother to come up with a solid presentation before going to his father and formally pitching him the idea for this film. His dad then read the book and agreed to option the project and get the ball rolling. The hard part was over, right?

Then came the next step: getting Robert De Niro to be in the film. I have my personal theories on why he chose to support this film, which I will dive into in my full review of the movie before it comes out on October 9th, but his support definitely kicked this film in high gear. His involvement encouraged Christopher Walken to come on board for an opportunity to work together again. Their last project together was 1978’s “The Deer Hunter”.  When it was my turn to ask a question, here was what I was most curious to know more about how they got here:

“The development process from a book to movie is notoriously difficult, is there any part of preproduction that you found to be an especially difficult speed bump or delay?”

Check out the interview below (my question is at the 19:15 mark):

A final cast chat

Finally we had a chance to interview Cheech Marin & Jane Seymour. Both actors have supporting roles in the film and were kind enough to spend a little bit of time with us discussing some of the good times they had while making the movie. I didn’t get to ask a question here, but check out the video below for some of the amazing questions asked by other family entertainment journalists. Turns out, Mr. Marin and Ms. Seymour have known each other a long time and perhaps the secret identity of Jane’s stunt double during the Sky Zone dodgeball scene is revealed (hint: he may or may not be named Cheech)!

Check out the video here:

I will have my full review posted shortly before the movie comes out, as well as an amazing giveaway, but in the meantime feel free to check out the interviews above and share with all of your friends who may be interested in some fun family entertainment!

About the movie:

Sixth-grader Peter (Oakes Fegley) is pretty much your average kid-he likes gaming, hanging with his friends and his beloved pair of Air Jordans. But when his recently widowed grandfather Ed (Robert De Niro) moves in with Peter’s family, the boy is forced to give up his most prized possession of all, his bedroom. Unwilling to let such an injustice stand, Peter devises a series of increasingly elaborate pranks to drive out the interloper, but Grandpa Ed won’t go without a fight. Soon, the friendly combatants are engaged in an all-out war with side-splitting consequences. 

Based on the award-winning book by Robert Kimmel Smith, The War with Grandpa is a hilarious family comedy featuring an all-star supporting cast: Christopher Walken, Uma Thurman, Rob Riggle, Cheech Marin, Laura Marano and Jane Seymour.

THE WAR WITH GRANDPA Official Channels

Official Website: www.warwithgrandpa.com 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WarWithGrandpa/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/WarWithGrandpa

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/warwithgrandpa/ 

#WarWithGrandpa

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