Four Fantasy "Bedtime Stories" in One Comedy Adventure

With worlds ranging from Ancient Greece to Outer Space, the filmmakers of Walt Disney Pictures’ new comedy adventure “Bedtime Stories” had to strategize how to tackle the different fantasy bedtime-story sequences. The film stars Adam Sandler as Skeeter Bronson, a hotel handyman whose life is changed forever when the bedtime stories he tells his niece and nephew start to mysteriously come true.

Director Adam Shankman recalls, “We wanted to go for classic sketches of what people think of when they imagine these different themes because the stories are told through the eyes of children.”

Medieval: The first bedtime-story fantasy that Skeeter and the children create is a medieval story. Skeeter kicks off the story, working bits of his real life into a medieval setting. He casts himself as a peasant named Sir Fixalot, hotel owner Barry Nottingham (Richard Griffiths) as the King, Nottingham’s daughter Violet (Teresa Palmer) as Princess Fashionista and nemesis Kendall (Guy Pearce) as Sir Buttkiss. “So it ends up connecting to Skeeter’s real life in the movie,” says Sandler.

The kids contribute key details to the story—details Skeeter doesn’t always embrace. The ongoing debate leads to three unique characters for Keri Russell. She explains, “Adam’s character doesn’t think very much of Jill so my character enters the story because of the kids—who suggest she’s a beautiful fairy—then I appear as this beautiful fairy. Skeeter objects and I turn into an ugly raven until one of the kids says ‘she should be a mermaid’ and then I turn into a mermaid and dive down into a moat.”

Old West: In the Old West story, Jeremiah Skeets is a southern farmhand who is looking to make a name for himself but feels that his shabby appearance and his old horse might be a disadvantage. Skeeter decides Jeremiah Skeets should get a brand-new horse—a red one that whinnies like a Ferrari—for free. 

The kids don’t like the idea and suggest that he do what a real gentleman would do and save a damsel in distress, portrayed in the fantasy by Violet, who Skeeter has hoped to win in real life. 

Ancient Greece: The Ancient Greece story opens with Skeetacus, a cocky, toga-clad hero, entering a Greek Coliseum at the helm of a high-speed, horse-drawn chariot. The crowd roars as he jumps the chariot over a long line of elephants. Shankman explains, “I thought it would be funny if Skeeter was the first one to do the Chariot X-Games. I wanted it to look like motocross, but on a chariot.”

Outer Space: The final bedtime story takes the cast to Outer Space for a battle scene between Skeeto and Kendallo. The scene reflects the real-life battle to run the hotel. Shankman explains, “In the story, they battle to see who’s going to be the one to run the new planet of Nottinghamia.”

Opening soon across the Philippines, “Bedtime Stories” is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures International.