As Hollywood mourns the loss of an industry legend, Zooey Deschanel are paying tribute to the late James Caan. Ferrell stars in the Christmas comedy movie as Buddy, a human who was adopted by Santa Claus as a baby and raised as one of his elves in the North Pole. As an adult, Buddy learns of his real nature and heads to New York City to meet his biological father, Walter Hobbs, an ornery children's book publisher who is currently on Santa's naughty list and is absent to Buddy's half-brother, Michael.
Alongside Ferrell, the ensemble cast of Elf included James Caan as Walter, Zooey Deschanel as Buddy's love interest Jovie, Mary Steenburgen as Walter's wife Emily, Ed Asner as Santa Claus and Bob Newhart as Buddy's elf father Papa Elf. The Christmas comedy, which was helmed by Jon Favreau on a script from David Berenbaum, hit theaters in late 2003 to critical acclaim for Ferrell's dedicated performance and the heartwarming storytelling and was a box office hit, grossing over $220 million against its $33 million budget. Nearly 20 years after its initial release, Elf is considered one of the greatest Christmas movies ever and now audiences will have a new reason to revisit the film in the near future.
On the heels of news breaking that the actor had died, Elf stars Will Ferrell and Zooey Deschanel have paid tribute to the late James Caan. The former wrote a statement to The Hollywood Reporter regarding the loss, sharing he will "always treasure" the time spent with Caan, while the latter took to her Twitter to recall her favorite memory of Caan from the set of the film. See Ferrell and Deschanel's tributes below:
“I will always treasure my time spent on and off camera with James Caan. He always had great stories and advice. Without him, a movie like Elf doesn’t work.”
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Elf stars Ferrell and Deschanel become the latest collaborators to pay tribute to the late Caan following his death this week, with The Godfather's Francis Ford Coppola and Al Pacino, Misery's Rob Reiner and Bulletproof and That's My Boy's Adam Sandler all sharing their odes to the Oscar nominee. Caan's death came as a surprise to many this past week as he ed away at the age of 82, with his family having announced it via his Twitter , though no cause of death has been given at the time of writing. Though his political beliefs divided some audiences, most have still taken to social media to mourn the loss of the actor.
Caan's death has left a number of major projects in limbo moving forward, with the Pierce Brosnan-led hitman thriller Fast Charlie set to be his final performance as it's currently in post-production. Caan was also set to star in both Acre Beyond the Rye and Redemption, though it's unclear how either film will move forward as they were in the midst of shooting upon his ing. Audiences can revisit Caan's performance in Elf with the Christmas comedy available to stream on HBO Max.
Source: THR & Zooey Deschanel/Twitter
