Asa Butterfield leads new Aussie set comedy horror series, Gnomes. Pitched as Gremlins meets Hot Fuzz, the story is set in the fictional town of Nompton, which comes under threat from an unexpected foe. Nompton’s police force is being cut and their tourist festival is about to begin when an evil entity brings to life the city’s monstrous collection of garden gnomes, who go on a killer rampage. Gnomes is exactly the kind of escapist fun that the world needs right now, and being told in thirty minute episodes is the perfect way to wind down after a hard day at work.
Gnomes launches on Disney+from 16th October. Ahead of the release, THN spoke with the show’s lead director, Matthias Hoene, a man who is no stranger to horror. His feature debut is the cult comedy horror classic Cockneys vs Zombies, and his other work in the genre includes the horribly intense Little Bone Lodge. During our chat, Hoene gave us an in-depth look behind the curtain at Gnomes’ creation, as well as teasing his next project, Invertigo, which stars Obsession breakout, Inde Navarette.
For those that don’t know, what is Gnomes about?
It’s an 80s throwback show. Imagine Gremlins meets Hot Fuzz. It’s about a small town cop who, when his ex-girlfriend returns from the city to shut down his police station, gets caught up in a killer garden gnome outbreak, and has to become a hero, not only to save the town, and the world, but to prove to his ex that he still worthy of her. So it’s an action-packed, terracotta terror, love story.
How did you get involved?
Basically, it actually happened a while ago, during the pandemic. I was approached by a few producers that I knew because the talented team in Australia, which was Joe Kohn, the creator of the show, and Tegan Higginbotham and Paul Verhoeven – not the filmmaker, but the Australian writer – had developed a killer garden gnome script. They were looking for a European director with horror comedy experience, and on the back of Cockneys vs. Zombies, I got involved with the show.
I remember pitching it to the streamer in Australia, Stan, on Zoom. I prepared… I actually had all my lights on dimmer switches. I had like a soundboard with gnomes cackling, I had books flying out of my shelves with fishing wire that I triggered and I staged a live garden gnome attack during the Zoom call. I had the gnome kind of strangle me, I was dying and lights were flickering and all of that, and I thought I did really well, but the commissioner at the time just watched the whole thing absolutely stone-faced and didn’t say a word. He didn’t say anything for a week afterwards, until he said just two things; “I love it! Greenlight!”
What was it about the premise that made you excited to be a part of Gnomes?
I always loved growing up watching some of the old-school ’80s horror comedies like Evil Dead II, Peter Jackson’s Braindead. I just love villains that are kind of anarchic little shits that you also love a little bit. I think garden gnomes inherently are really funny because they’re tiny, they’re made of terracotta, they look really cute. But then when they have a huge kitchen knife, or hatchet, or other garden implement in their hand to come and kill you, it’s sort of both scary and funny. I thought it’s a really funny premise and also it’s the first killer garden gnome TV show ever made so I was also excited about that.
People do have a real fascination with garden gnomes. People collect them and display them in their gardens. What do you think it is about them that draws people to them?
I think we always try to find the mythic in the garden. We try to find a connection to our ancient past, and mythical creatures, and fairies in the forest that would, if they existed, make our lives more special. But gnomes have such a storied history even from the ’80s onwards when people were secretly moving them, or stealing them, or leaving notes. Like “I kidnapped your gnome, leave 20p at the car park”, I’m not joking. It’s just sort of a fascination with those things that I thought made them ripe to be… “well what if they are watching? What if they are just standing there staring at us, but secretly judging us and what would happen if they came to life?” I think it’s a really interesting question.
Do you think that those that do collect them might start looking at them differently after watching Gnomes?
Absolutely. I do think that the viewers when they watch the series will never look at gardening in the same way again. Just what Jaws did for sharks, I aim to do for gardening. You have to lock up your gnomes, tie down your gardening tools, and make sure that they can’t come and get you when the terracotta judgement day comes.
What was the biggest challenge in bringing the gnomes to life?
The films we all loved in the ’80s obviously used a lot of puppetry and practical effects, especially Gremlins, for example. They did that so well, but then if you actually think about it, there is actually only one shot in Gremlins where you see ten Gremlins walking at the same time. They spent three months just shooting puppets to get the few shots that they have. So, we were doing a TV show which doesn’t have an ’80s feature film budget, so what we tried to do, we were still really keen to try to do as much practical as possible. So we created the Terracotta unit – and this is the thing about shooting a garden gnomes show, puns are encouraged, even if they’re frowned upon, gnome problems with that – but the Terracotta unit was run by a filmmaker and a puppeteer call Justin Dix. We’ve created as many actual real-life gnomes as we could out of plaster, but also made armatures that could be animated and moved by the puppeteers.
We shot basically the whole series with a second unit running the whole time, shooting the puppeteered gnomes. Then on top of that we started using CGI to make the eyes blink, or their mouths move, but the bodies are actual puppets. Then when there’s crowds involved or somersaulting pirate gnome, then you use CGI to make that happen. So we tried to find a sensible approach that feels really real and tangible, and has that charm of a puppet over something that’s too CG.
You directed 4 of the 6 episodes: 1,2, 4 and 6. How did you find that experience of stepping in and out of episodes, and was there any crossover between you and your co-directors to ensure cohesion?
Making a show like this is a real collaboration. Joel who created the show, that was his first TV directing job. He was very good on script and he also directed the second unit that was running parallel. So when I was shooting my shows, he was doing the second unit for me. And then when I was not shooting, I was doing a second unit for him and Sian Davies who also directed it. It was like a real kind of everyone getting together and helping each other thrive. In that same way the writer, Tegan Higginbotham, and Paul Verhoeven were really hands-on developing the script. We all sat together in the room. It felt very much like a commercial film experience and that we were working together on the project.
Cockneys vs Zombies was shot in London, now you’re over in Australia, how did you find filming there?
I’ve filmed in a lot of places, and Australia is a really great, lovely country to film in because the crews are great, everyone’s really experienced, they sort of speak English. I actually went on a student exchange to Australia from London. It’s when I was in Australia traveling around; that’s when I decided to try my luck as a filmmaker. This was my first time back since, so it was kind of a homecoming and very exciting. Coffee is great, and the crews are good. We also just have a really great, Australian comedy cast. The actors were great so it was a lot of fun working with the cast also.
Asa Butterfield seems to be channelling Simon Pegg – was that an intentional note / nod, or something that he brought to set / the character?
When we pitched it to Asa, we sort of said, “hey now you’ve done Sex Education, we want to turn you into an action hero.” He was excited about that. I think what he did really well is that kind of really dry, straight, kind of comedy delivery. So playing it very cool and down to Earth and authentic and truthful. That’s definitely something I encouraged. I think he’s having so much fun with the role.
He was actually also the nicest person to work with, which is great because he’s been on set all his life. He brought a lot of great vibes to the whole set. It came to me that he did feel like a new Simon Pegg to me, but I didn’t talk to him about it, but I’ve definitely thought about it.
His similarity to Simon Pegg’s Hot Fuzz character almost makes it easier for the audience to understand that Gnomes is not going to be a super serious gritty survival horror, but something more fun.
Absolutely. I think what is interesting with Asa is even though he’s been in so many movies already, he’s kind of at the start of his grown-up career. It’s very exciting to see what he’s going to do next.
You’ve worked within horror a fair bit. What is it about the genre that you enjoy so much?
I think it’s very visceral. I love the visceral nature of horror storytelling. I think that you can take the viewer to a really dark place. Then in that dark place, you can scare them, you can make them laugh. You can also make comments about society and politics without anyone, minding because it’s just part of the horror thing. You could say that Cockneys vs. Zombies, is a metaphor for the gentrification of East London, or you could say it’s a really silly horror comedy.
I do like taking the audience on a thrill ride. If you look at Cockney’s vs Zombies, but also Warrior’s Gate, which unfortunately not a lot of people saw, but that’s an action, adventure time-travel movie, Invertigo which I just wrapped a few months ago, is going to be a survival thriller. It’s got horror elements, but is also an thriller / action kind of film. I love mixing those; action, comedy, horror together. Little Bone Lodge also, I wanted to take the audience to a really dark and twisted place, and make something very character driven. It’s much harder to make a horror comedy than it is to make a straight thriller and I wanted to make a straight thriller as I also enjoy those films.
What I tried with Gnomes is to do the comedy like black comedy and the horror like horror. So when you look at Little Bone Lodge it is a straight horror / thriller; some of the scenes in Gnomes are slow, tension building, creepy shots. Moody lighting, withholding information and trying to really scare the audience and play that straight. Then the sections that go into comedy are very different, they are wide shots and colourful, you see everything, it’s fast, fast, fast. Trying to control that tone is maybe something that is coming together in Gnomes from everything I’ve done previously.
Your next feature is Invertigo, which stars Obsession breakout, Inde Navarrette. What, if anything, can you tease about that one?
Invertigo is a character driven film about five teenagers that break into an under construction rollercoaster during a thunderstorm in Florida, and I can drop a hint – it’s not going to end well. I cast Inde before Obsession came out. I saw Obsession at Fantastic Fest, and I thought she was amazing. She was perfect for the lead role in Invertigo. We met, and we talked about it and developed the script together, and she just has this natural movie star charisma that comes out in her performance. She’s a very instinctive, effortless performer. She switches it on and is amazing, cries, we call cut, everyone’s like, “oh my God, are you okay?” and she just burst out laughing, it was all a front, but you could not tell; it was perfect.
As someone that worked on Gifted, a show with ties to X-Men, and also Inde who has now been cast as Rogue in the MCU, how do you think she’ll do?
Oh she’ll be great, no stress. It’s interesting you mentioned Gifted because Dominic McLaughlin, who was one of the cast there – and he was fantastic to work with – you could just feel that he was setting the screen on fire and then he got cast as Harry Potter in the Harry Potter HBO show. It was very much deserved. I think he was picked out of three thousand applicants. But you could tell he had that little thing and I think it’s going to be an exciting show.
Why do you hope that people take a chance on Gnomes?
Well because our world today is so grim and depressing, I think everyone should just take a little bit of time out and watch some good old-fashioned cops kick-ass against killer garden gnomes. They’ll also see Tess Haubrich as the sexy Gnome Queen, and I think it will just be a really good piece of escapism. Just a show to appreciate how silly and lovely our life is and that we shouldn’t just worry all the time about all the other big stuff.
Gnomes arrives on Disney+ on Friday 16th October 2026.
