Diksha Sundriyal
Netflix’s ‘Unfrosted’ picks the premise of Kellogg’s and Post locking horns in a staunch rivalry, but the execution of the story leads it in a completely different direction than one would expect from a film based on real events. Co-written and directed by Jerry Seinfeld, the story gets a general idea of what may or may not have happened back in the 1960s and then completely throws away the idea of sticking to the real thing. Instead, it presents its own version of events, which includes everything from a romance and a Nazi to a talking ravioli and the escalating tension between two superpowers. In the same vein, the film also brings a South American drug lord as a potent plot device. SPOILERS AHEAD
El Sucre is One of the Many Fictional Additions to Unfrosted
Anyone expecting to learn the true story of Kellogg’s and Pop-Tarts from ‘Unfrosted’ would be heavily disappointed, but they will, for sure, leave with a lot of laughs. This was Seinfeld’s intention with the film, which is why, instead of bothering himself with the truth of the matter, he used the premise to make it as ridiculously dramatic as possible. All sorts of elements were brought into the picture, and the idea of a drug lord (the white powder being sugar) was added to the plot.
Reportedly, Seinfeld wanted to take the drug lord thing a step further by bringing in Daniel Day-Lewis to play the role. The director wanted what Day-Lewis did with Daniel Plainview in ‘There Will Be Blood,’ and toyed with the idea of reaching out to the now-retired actor and asking him to play the role. His thought never materialized, and the three-time Oscar-winning actor never got the offer. Instead, ‘The Rookie: Feds’ actor Felix Solis ended up playing the role.
Further, Seinfeld revealed how much more ridiculous he wanted the whole thing with El Sucre to be. At one point, he considered adding “strange exotic animals and pets that these guys [drug lords] always seem to have.” This was supposed to be for the scene where his and Melissa McCarthy’s character meet El Sucre at his place for the first time to talk about taking all of his sugar to stop Post from making their product and bringing it into the market first.
Seinfeld briefly considered adding “a llama with a human head on it that would call out, ‘My name is Alan Hoffman. Please tell my wife I’m alive.’” While he really liked the joke, he wondered if it would take things a tad too far, so that idea was dropped. Still, this proves how much weirder the writer-director wanted the scene and the film to be. For him, it was parodying the South American drug lords, the stories of whom have captivated the audience through the years. Considering that two huge businesses were at war with each other, it made sense that they would dabble with powers beyond them and end up being entangled with someone outside of the law. The presence of El Sucre also helped push the plot in a more ludicrous direction and generate more laughs from the audience.
Read More: Is Edsel Kellogg III Based on an Actual Kellogg’s Chief?
