As we learned speaking with screenwriter Steven Rogers, Everything’s Going to Be Great is partially inspired from his youth. It follows the exploits of the Smart family as parents Buddy and Macy pursue their showbiz dreams working in American regional theater, sometimes at the expense of their children Lester and Derrick.
The film is a period piece taking place in the late 80s so it required recreating the vibes and aesthetics of the era. We asked director Jon S. Baird, who grew up in a small fishing port in Scotland, how he went about developing the look of the movie.
“Jack’s [Champion] character Derrick, I would have been that age in 1988, yeah,” he said. “And the first time I ever came to the U.S. was in 1988. I remember it very well. The first place I ever went to on holiday was West Virginia. We didn’t go to Disneyland. We didn’t do Miami or L.A. Mom and dad took us to West Virginia. I do remember all those hair cuts and everything.”
There was one particular time specific prop that Baird wanted in Everything’s Going to Be Great. The family car. In the film the Smarts pack it up to the brim whenever they move to a new town for a new opportunity.
“When I came back a few years later to tour around the States after my university, I bought a station wagon which was exactly the same as the one in the movie,” Baird shared. “The same color, the same type of automobile. That’s why I wanted that one to be our family car. Even though I’m not from that part of that world, I do remember the U.S. in the late 80s like that, you know.”
Despite the setting, Baird felt Everything’s Going to Be Great could have taken place any time and any place. What is important is the journey of the Smart family.
“It could have been set anywhere,” he explained. “In the original script, we had them down in North Carolina. Because we shot the movie up in Ontario, we decided that Kansas and Ohio, I think New Jersey was always in there, doubled for Ontario better. It could really have been any state because it’s more about the family jumping from place to place and trying to belong as well.”
Everything’s Going to Be Great opens in select theaters June 20th.
