Strange Nature

Strange Nature (2018)

The first film to expose unsolved wildlife deformity outbreaks and where they may lead. Based on a true unsolved ecological mystery, thousands of hideously deformed frogs have turned up in the waters of Minnesota. As seen through the eyes of a one hit wonder single mother and her 11 year old son, a small town struggles with the unknown when the deadly mutations move beyond the ponds.

Date of release
2018-09-22
TMDB
5.7 / 10 (29)
Runtime
1h 40m
Genres
Horror, Fantasy, Mystery, Thriller
Director
James Ojala

Casting

Interesting facts

Strange Nature is a 2018 independent ecothriller film written and directed by special-effects artist Jim Ojala in his feature directorial debut.

Production

Writer-director Jim Ojala, a native of Duluth, Minnesota, followed the events of the frog mutations as they occurred; as he recalled in a 2018 interview, "seeing these wild mutant looking frogs on the front page of your local newspaper totally felt like sci-fi/horror come to life".

According to Ojala, he pitched Strange Nature as "Erin Brockovich...with monsters". Several producers initially showed interest in the project, though many of them voiced skepticism over Ojala's insistence on shooting in and using cast and crew from Minnesota, preferring to film in more commonly used locations such as Louisiana or Bulgaria.

Casting for Strange Nature took place between June and July 2014, with several principal roles filled by local Minnesota actors. For the role of Mayor Paulson, Ojala extended offers to numerous high-profile actors, including Kurt Russell and John Goodman - "people we had no business talking to", he mused, "at least we tried".

With the majority of filming completed in Minnesota, several pick-ups and more intricate special-effects shots were finished in Los Angeles. In a November 29, 2015, post on the official Strange Nature Facebook page, these inserts were announced to have been completed and the film was "100% in the can".

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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