The screenwriter of Jerry Seinfeld's Pop-Tarts film on January 6, Mad Men

[This story includes spoilers for the Netflix movie Unfrosted.]

The buzz around Unfrosted is heating up, with Jerry Seinfeld's heavily fictionalized Pop-Tart origin story now streaming on Netflix.

Seinfeld, who stars in the comedy which marks his directorial debut, also co-wrote the screenplay for the project. Spike Feresten, who worked with Seinfeld on the legendary NBC sitcom, contributed to the script. SeinfeldFeresten having written one of the series' most beloved and quoted episodes, “The Soup Nazi”.

During a conversation with The Hollywood ReporterFeresten discussed some of the most memorable moments from the film set in 1963. This includes a plot element involving Kellogg's cereal mascots boycotting the company over fears that the Pop-Tart would render them useless, leading to to a sequence in which the mascots stormed the company's offices in the style of the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Feresten explained that the sequence seemed to be the right solution due to various factors. He noted that Thurl Ravenscroft, the actor who originally played Tony the Tiger and who is played in the film by Hugh Grant, almost went on strike in real life due to the feeling that he was underpaid.

“While we were writing it, there was a real strike at Kellogg’s,” Feresten says. “And then, of course, there was the insurrection, and we thought, 'Why don't we have our own mascot insurrection?' But in reality, they were costumed creatures doing violent things. We thought this would be a fun set of images. We didn't really think the insurrection was funny, but we thought, “If we can pull off violent movements with mascots, that could be a funny situation.” »

According to Feresten, the main purpose of the sequence was to help move the story forward. “It was never said, 'We want to do one thing on January 6,'” he continued. “When you build a story, you're just putting pieces on top of each other. And that story led us there, and we thought, “If we do this quickly and make it funny, maybe the audience will like it.” “And that was really the point of everything in the movie: to come up with jokes and scenes that will brighten people's day, even if it might reflect something ugly.

Another memorable moment involves Mad Men alums Jon Hamm and John Slattery appearing as their characters from the Emmy-winning AMC series as they attempt to feature Kellogg's in a salacious Pop-Tarts ad campaign. Feresten recalls Seinfeld watching again Mad Men during the pandemic as Unfrosted The team was working on the script and the writers would watch the episodes over lunch.

“There was this great scene with Jon Hamm introducing a lipstick maker, and he's so mean to him,” Feresten says. “And Jerry said, ‘I don’t understand. They just write advertisements. Why are they so mean? Then someone said, “It’s 1963.” In theory, these guys could come and offer Kellogg's Pop-Tart. And we said, “Oh, my God, can we do this?” Is it too meta: a fiction film, but a real television series? »

Feresten explains that everyone was quickly in favor of revising the drama series. “We wrote the scene, and then we fell in love with the scene, and then it had to happen,” he says. “Hamm and Slattery were there from the start. That scene still gives me chills when I watch it because for Jerry, if you asked him if there was a drama he'd like to star in, he'd say, “That would be Mad Men.' Some furniture on the stage comes from Mad Men. It's really Jerry living out one of his fantasies.

Additionally, Feresten commends Netflix for supporting the creative team throughout the process, given that the writers had not obtained permission from any of the brands they included in their script. ” It was not barbie“, he quips. “We didn’t have Mattel on board. We had sort of written this in secret during the pandemic, never hoping to get to it. So we hired a lawyer who said, “No one expects the truth from Jerry Seinfeld. They expect humor, so go ahead and do it. A lot of the people you talk about are dead. We have a saying in lighting: the deader, the better. You don't have to ask Walter Cronkite for permission.'

Feresten adds: “Here we are. And then Netflix said, “Don’t worry about it. »