To the millions of people fooled by last summer’s viral video where a feckless father abandons his own family to run to safety from an avalanche, Downhill may seem like shockingly quick turnaround for a movie based on real events. Except, as international film fans know well, it wasn’t. Based on Ruben Östlund’s Force Majeure, directors Nat Faxon and Jim Rash gave the beloved Swedish film an English-language remake, keeping the action in Europe while adding American comedy legends Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Will Ferrell. After its Sundance debut, we sat down with Downhill’s directing duo in Los Angeles to get their take on Force Majeure’s viral moment, and to learn how they got scene-stealer Kristofer Hivju to take one more trip up to the Alps with them.
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