NEW YORK, Jan. 13 (UPI) -- Hannibal and Pushing Daisies creator Bryan Fuller says his feature film directorial debut, Dust Bunny, was heavily inspired by the scary, funny, magical movies of his Gen X youth.
"Stories that I would categorize as 'gateway horror,' but, also, had young protagonists that were becoming their own heroes and navigating circumstances that were possibly way beyond their control and, yet, they had to step up into adulthood in new ways," the 56-year-old Danish actor told UPI in a recent Zoom interview.
"Those movies always had such a fun alchemy of tones," he said, listing Poltergeist, Gremlins and Goonies as examples. "Fantasy was always part of the recipe. This movie has deep ties to E.T. and what specific friendships are like and it has deep ties to movies like Labyrinth that have fantastical monsters and, once again, young people who are at the center of the story trying to find their own paths, declaring their heroism."
Available on digital platforms Tuesday, the film stars Mads Mikkelsen, Sigourney Weaver, David Dastmalchian and Sophie Sloan. It follows 10-year-old Aurora (Sophie), who hires her mysterious hit man neighbor (Mikkelsen) to catch the monster she believes killed her family.
