The writers and directors behind Hulu's newest film, Pizza Movie, expected tons of pushback and notes on the insane ideas they had for their story. Thankfully, they never had to put up a fight. Pizza Movie, which stars Stranger Things star Gaten Matarazzo, follows three high school students who stumble into an unexpectedly epic journey when they accidentally take a decades-old drug that makes the simple task of retrieving their pizza delivery a journey of a lifetime.
The Direct spoke with Pizza Movie writers and directors Nick Kocher and Brian McElhaney, who revealed they thought Hulu and Disney would have many more issues with their crazy ideas.
"We always put insane things on page," Kocher stated, adding that despite that, the truly incredible thing was that "every idea that [they] wanted to get in there, [they] were able to get in there."
McElhaney noted how "the fact that Hulu didn't pull [them] back at all" was the most unbelievable part of the experience. "We were ready for a fight throughout this whole film," he admitted.
In addition to writer and director duo Nick Kocher and Brian McElhaney, The Direct also chatted with the cast of Pizza Movie, including Gaten Matarazzo (Jack), Lulu Wilson (Lizzy), Sean Giambrone (Montgomery), Jack Martin (Blake), and Peyton Elizabeth Lee (Ashley).
The Direct first saw Pizza Movie at SXSW 2026 in Austin, Texas, at its premiere alongside several other films, including Adam Scott's horror movie The Saviors. Pizza Movie begins streaming on Hulu and Disney+ tomorrow, April 3.
Hulu Didn't Fight Back Against Pizza Movie's Crazy ideas
"We Were Ready For a Fight Throughout This Whole Film."
Pizza Movie is filled with moments you might not have ever expected a human to put on paper. It's so crazy, in fact, writer and directors Nick Kocher and Brian McElhaney thought that Hulu and Disney+ would fight back against their ideas.
However, as they told The Direct in an exclusive interview, the streamers were more than okay with everything they wanted to do:
Nick Kocher: We always put insane things on page. There's some executive somewhere who makes us take those things out. What's incredible to me is that we got everything insane, every idea that we wanted to get in there, we were able to get in there. And nobody you know, told the adults...
Brian McElhaney: Yeah, the fact that Hulu didn't pull us back at all. I mean, we were ready for a fight throughout this whole film. And they kept being like, 'Yeah, this is pretty good.' We're like, 'This is pretty good? A guy's head exploding 26 times in a row and then yelling words that are unspeakable? That's okay? And they were like, Yeah.' I was like, 'For Disney Plus?' And they're like, 'Yeah.' And we're like, 'What's happening right now?'
No, I think we surprised ourselves throughout this whole process. Comedy really takes a long time, and then all of a sudden [these crazy ideas surface]?
I think when we came up with Phase Five, which is a big pun that I will not ruin, we were like, that is the dumbest thing we've ever thought of. I think we surprised ourselves by how dumb that idea was, and then we surprised ourselves that we put it on page, and then we surprised ourselves that it stayed in the movie and became a huge set piece.
Pizza Movie star Gaten Matarazzo also thought the head exploding sequence was crazy, to the point that it might have been too much when he read it:
Gaten Matarazzo: The head exploding sequence. When you read that, because of how many exploding heads there are, there's like 15 pages of it. I'm like, surely, this is too much. But then, when you get into the room and understand that it's so rapid fire, it's only about a three-minute sequence, and you just have to have the guts to go for it. And they did, and that was really exciting,
The Insane Surprises of Pizza Movie
"It's Just Constant Chaos."
- The Direct: "It's insane. There's so much to it. It's an incredibly surprising film. Can you guys talk about what surprised you the most when you first read this script, and then also, how do you think it surprised audiences in ways that they can't possibly expect?"
Gaten Matarazzo: One thing that got me about this was the intense challenge it felt like it was going to be because it was very clear that it was going to need to be very pacey and very hyper structured in making sure these beats really, really work, and kind of hyper choreographed and very stylized. It wasn't a movie [with] a type of comedy that you could just half-ass.
It wasn't like just getting people in a room and letting them riff off each other, as fun as that is, and a lot of times, as much as that works, it very much felt immediately like a movie where your crew had to have as equal of a drive, and making this the funniest thing possible, as well as your directors and your cast. So that was really exciting.
Lulu Wilson: It's just constant chaos. And honestly, I don't think you could predict anything that happens in the movie. Like, even the first phase of the drug, how did the human mind come up with that? I'm not sure. It really is all so surprising.
Sean Giambrone: I was surprised about that style of comedy that they were doing, because it's like, I hadn't really read a script like that in my career. I was just turning the page, and being like, 'Oh, they're putting this in this movie?' It's almost like the old style comedy, like—Well, I'm not super familiar with Abbott and Costello, but I imagine [it's like that].
Peyton Elizabeth Lee: Literally every step of the process has surprised me. From the first time I read it to shooting the script, it was constantly changing as we were shooting it. People were like, improving and doing their own stuff on the day...
...And then all the way up until when I saw the movie for the first time at the premiere at South by Southwest this past weekend, I was like, so much of this I've never even heard of before in my entire life. So the whole process was very surprising, and it was fun to just kind of see it slowly become the thing it became because of all of the hilarious, creative minds that were going into it.
Jack Martin: I think the most surprising thing for me was there's a point in the script where there was like a poem written out. And Nick said, 'Oh, it's a pirate shanty.' And shanty, I thought, song, and so I prepared a song, and I came to Nick, and I said, 'Hey, can I run this song by you?' And he went, 'Song? That's a poem.' And I was really—and he went, 'Now it's a song.'
So, then I ended up singing, and I'm very much not a singer. So that is in the movie. There's an orchestral soundtrack over it as well. A lot of very fun moments like that. I'm sure that will be surprising for people, but [there are] a lot of surprises in there. I think the meta quality of it all will also give a lot of that too.
The full interviews can be viewed below:
