''Adam Green's Aladdin'' is an independent film written, directed by, and starring Adam Green. It presents a modern take on the Arabian Nights classic tale. The film stars

Alia Shawkat Alia Martine Shawkat ( ; ar, عليا مارتين شوكت; born April 18, 1989) is an American actress. She is known for her roles in '' The Old Man'', '' State of Grace'', Maeby Fünke in the Fox/Netflix television sitcom ''Arrested Develop ...

Natasha Lyonne Natasha Bianca Lyonne Braunstein ( ; born April 4, 1979) is an American actress, director, writer, and producer. She is known for playing Nicky Nichols on the Netflix comedy-drama series ''Orange Is the New Black'' (2013–2019), for which she r ...

, Jack Dishel,

Macaulay Culkin Macaulay Macaulay Culkin Culkin (born Macaulay Carson Culkin; ) is an American actor. Often regarded as one of the most successful child actors of the 1990s, he was placed 2nd on VH1's list of the "100 Greatest Kid-Stars". Culkin rose to prom ...

, and

Nicole LaLiberte Nicole LaLiberté (born December 1, 1981) is an American actress. She has had recurring roles on the television series ''How to Make It in America'' (2011) and ''Dexter'' (2012–2013) and most notably played Darya in David Lynch's ''Twin Peaks ...

. The film explores themes of technology, government repression, greed, and true love. The film was partially funded through the

crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...

website

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

, and filmed over the summer of 2014. The film was released on April 15, 2016, through

video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of o ...

Premise

The film revolves around Aladdin's dysfunctional family, who live in an average American city ruled by a corrupt sultan with a decadent socialite daughter.

Cast

* Adam Green as Aladdin *

as Emily *

as Mom * Jack Dishel as Uncle Gary/The Sultan *

as Ralph *

as Ms. President *

Francesco Clemente Francesco Clemente (born 23 March 1952) is an Italian contemporary artist. He has lived at various times in Italy, India and New York City. Some of his work is influenced by the traditional art and culture of India. He has worked in various art ...

as Mustafa, The Genie * Bip Ling as Princess Barbara *

Parker Kindred Parker Kindred is an American drummer who played in the band of Jeff Buckley, appearing on his unfinished second album, ''Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk'' in 1997, as well as playing live with Buckley and the rest of his band at Arlene's Gr ...

as Genarro Russo *

Har Mar Superstar Sean Tillmann (born February 6, 1978) is an American singer-songwriter and actor. He has performed and released studio albums as Sean Na Na and as a member of hardcore band Calvin Krime, but is best known for his work under the name Har Mar Super ...

as British Druggie Guy *John Wiley as Farmer Dave *

Zoë Kravitz Zoë Isabella Kravitz (born December 1, 1988) is an American actress, singer, and model. She made her acting debut in the romantic comedy film '' No Reservations'' (2007). Her breakthrough came with portraying Angel Salvadore in the superhero fi ...

as Miner with Lamp *Sophia Lamar as The Stripper * Devendra Banhart as Saucemaker *

Rodrigo Amarante Rodrigo Amarante de Castro Neves (born September 6, 1976) is a Brazilian singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, composer and arranger. He is part of the bands Los Hermanos, Orquestra Imperial, and Little Joy, and released his first solo reco ...

as Mariachi Singer *Binki Shapiro as Miner *

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as Guardian of the Lamp *

Penn Badgley Penn Dayton Badgley (born November 1, 1986) is an American actor and musician. He is known for his roles as Dan Humphrey in The CW teen drama series ''Gossip Girl'' (2007–2012) and as Joe Goldberg in the Netflix thriller series ''You'' (2018� ...

as Prince of Monaco *

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as Bouncer *

Neil Harbisson Neil Harbisson (27 July 1982) is a Catalan-born British-Irish-American cyborg artist and activist for transpecies rights. He is best known for being the first person in the world with an antenna implanted in his skull. Since 2004, internation ...

as Miner

Production

The film raised money through

, with Green admitting that the bulk of the cost was spent on creating the

cardboard Cardboard is a generic term for heavy paper-based products. The construction can range from a thick paper known as paperboard to corrugated fiberboard which is made of multiple plies of material. Natural cardboards can range from grey to light b ...

sets, noting that "Most people did the movie for basically no money". Some of the smaller parts were performed by artists doing residencies at the nearby Pioneer Works studio. Green has stated that falling in love with his wife, Yasmin Green, heavily influenced the plot and that

wedding vows Marriage vows are promises each partner in a couple makes to the other during a wedding ceremony based upon Western Christian norms. They are not universal to marriage and not necessary in most legal jurisdictions. They are not even universal w ...

that Aladdin gives are nearly identical to his own. After completing the project, Green said he had some problems distributing it, with most

film festivals A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending upon ...

finding it too "off brand". However, after releasing the trailer online, Green started to get offers for screening the film. Vice Media also got in contact with Green after seeing the trailer, asking him to pitch a TV show for their

Viceland Viceland (stylized in all caps), and Vice TV in the United States, are brands used for television channels owned and programmed by Vice Media. Viceland launched on February 29, 2016, with two branded cable channels; the American version (rebra ...

channel.

References

External links

* * American independent films American comedy-drama films 2016 comedy-drama films 2016 films Films about dysfunctional families Kickstarter-funded films Films based on Aladdin 2010s English-language films 2010s American films {{2010s-comedy-drama-film-stub