Will Ferrell's Elf Owes Its Existence To A Failed Christmas Rom-Com Movie Pitch

Jon Favreau's "Elf" became an instant holiday classic when it sledded into theaters over the 2003 holiday movie season. The very sight of Will Ferrell playing an overgrown elf from the North Pole, who discovers that he's actually a human who was put up for adoption when he was a baby, was just irresistibly silly and sweet. Factor in a game cast that included Zooey Deschanel, James Caan, Mary Steenburgen, Ed Asner, and Bob Newhart, and moviegoers couldn't help but fall in love with this kind-hearted concoction.

While you're watching "Elf" for the umpteenth time this season, you might find yourself wondering how in the heck someone came up with such a nutty premise (which was initially darker). Though the screenplay was tinkered on by a number of major comedy writers like Scot Armstrong ("Old School"), Chris Henchy ("The Other Guys"), as well as the duo of Adam McKay and Ferrell, the idea actually originated with David Berenbaum. A graduate from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, Berenbaum was just breaking into the business in the late 1990s when he hit upon a killer Christmas movie pitch. It wasn't "Elf," however. No, it was a holiday rom-com that sold to LIVE Entertainment for somewhere in the low six figures. What happened to this project, and how did Berenbaum get to "Elf" from this project?

In an interview with RadioTimes, Berenbaum revealed that his spec script "Christmas in New Jersey" was the work that put him on Hollywood's radar. Per the writer, "It got me in the door with all sorts of people, and they said, 'What's next?'" When he realized "next" wasn't going to be his Yuletide-set rom-com going into production, he went back to the holiday for inspiration. "[T]hen I thought of the idea for 'Elf' because I was surrounded by all this 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,' Rankin/Bass stuff," he said. "And I sort of thought it would be amusing to put a human into that sort of environment."

The narrative of "Elf" hews fairly closely to the narrative of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," at least in terms of structure. "Buddy is sort of a misfit; he doesn't fit in," said Berenbaum. "Rudolph is sort of a misfit; he doesn't fit in. And they both go off on quests. So that was sort of the beginning of that — Rudolph mixed with a healthy dose of 'Big,' the Tom Hanks movie."

Favreau does a terrific job of capturing that Rankin/Bass enchantment, while Ferrell has a ball using his big, goofy frame for laughs (particularly at the expense of poor Bob Newhart). But none of this would likely've come to pass had Berenbaum's "Christmas in New Jersey" — which, per its logline, is about "two people very down on their luck over the holidays" — received a greenlight. As for Berenbaum, he went on to write 2003's "The Haunted Mansion" and "The Spiderwick Chronicles," and was attached to script a "Mrs. Doubtfire" sequel before the passing of Robin Williams.