The marriage-in-crisis comedy comes from writer and lead actress Jackie van Beek and director Armağan Ballantyne.
Jemaine Clement is set to bare all as a sex guru in New Zealand marriage-in-crisis comedy Nude Tuesday.
The film — heading to the European Film Market with Cornerstone — comes from Clement’s fellow Kiwi and What We Do in the Shadows star, writer and lead actress Jackie van Beek (The Breaker Upperers) and director Armağan Ballantyne (The Strength of Water) and was shot entirely in New Zealand during the pandemic, with post-production underway in Australia.
Performed by the cast entirely in gibberish and described by the filmmakers as a “nudist romp,” Nude Tuesday tells story of a couple, played by van Beek and Damon Herriman (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Judy & Punch, The Nightingale) who, in an effort to rekindle the spark in their marriage, head to a couples’ retreat. Upon arrival, the path to their reconnection is met with hilarious farce, including Clement’s sex guru, as they seek to find themselves and each other through their newfound sexual liberation.
In a somewhat unusual move, Nude Tuesday will be available to distributors with two sets of subtitles. Prominent local comedians will lend their singular voices as writers of the farcical dialogue for two deliverable versions of the film. Distributors are also invited to use local comedians to curate their own subtitled version of the story.
“Nude Tuesday is a true original,” said Alison Thompson and Mark Gooder of Cornerstone, which represents worldwide sales excluding Australian/New Zealand (where Madman has distribution rights). “Jackie, Armağan and the team are creating a wildly entertaining movie. It’s bold, inventive and achingly funny and we can’t wait to introduce Nude Tuesday to buyers for the first time.”
A New Zealand Australian co-production between Firefly Films and Good Thing Productions, Nude Tuesday received major production investment from the New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC) in association with Screen Australia and is financed with support from Film Victoria. It was produced by Firefly Films’ Emma Slade and Good Thing Productions’ Virginia Whitwell and Nick Batzias.