todd phillips Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Look out, Tony Stark and Sherlock Holmes, your master will soon be an expectant father. Robert Downey Jr. is set to star in Due Date, according to Variety, a comedy that will be directed by Todd Phillips. Downey will be teamed with Zach Galifianikis, who gave a sharp performance in The Hangover for Phillips.

Last year, Jessica Barnes reported that Due Date "centers on a first-time father and burgeoning workaholic whose wife goes into labor while he is stuck hundreds of miles away in a snowstorm. The only way he can make it to the birth in time is by hitching a ride with a college student." Obviously, Galifianikis' character is now described as a "mismatched partner" for expectant father Downey.

In an interview with Cinematical, Phillips said that neither Old School 2 nor The Hangover 2 were ready to move forward, so perhaps he already had his eye on this project. Both Downey and Phillips have a lot to live up to: Downey was nominated for an Academy Award in his last comic role (Tropic Thunder) and Phillips is coming off a film that recently became the highest-grossing R-rated comedy of all time. But put Downey and Galifianikis together on a cross-country road trip with the clock ticking, under Phillips' direction, and it sounds like a good bet that the movie will be funny as hell. Filming begins in September, ranging from Atlanta to Arizona to Los Angeles.

If you saw The Hangover this weekend, congratulate yourself! Not only did you finally learn why everyone in America has been laughing when they think of babies being injured, you also helped contribute to the film's new status as the highest-grossing R-rated comedy of all time, with a total of $235.9 million (and still going strong).

What's especially impressive is that the previous record-holder had held the top spot for almost 25 years: It was Beverly Hills Cop. That film made $234,760,478 back in 1984 and '85, and for a quarter-century no R-rated comedy could top it. The closest anything came was Wedding Crashers, which made $209.3 million in 2005.

The Hangover, directed by Todd Phillips, is #3 among R-rated movies of all genres, behind Passion of the Christ and The Matrix Reloaded, neither of which are comedies, at least strictly speaking. It would have to make another $46 million to surpass Matrix Reloaded, and that probably isn't in the cards, so it will have to content itself with being #1 in the R-rated comedy department. It will probably hold that record for a while, too -- of the top 20 R-rated movies of all time, only six are comedies. Strangely, none of them have Judd Apatow's name attached, either. Can we start a feud between Phillips and Apatow?

If you're wondering how The Hangover stands among comedies of all ratings, forget about it. About a dozen G- and PG-rated animated comedies have made more money, not to mention live-action comedies like Night at the Museum and Home Alone. The R-rated comedy is a genre unto itself, and that's where The Hangover reigns supreme.

It seems redundant and pointless to talk about how intimidating Mike Tyson is, but I admit that I was nervously excited when Cinematical was offered the opportunity to interview him in conjunction with the release of The Hangover. Having spoken to Tommy Lee Jones, the toughest of tough celebrity interviews, I'd survived gauntlets far more fearsome than dealing with a former heavyweight, especially since I'd recently seen Tyson, which offers a portrait of him at his most reflective, self-aware and lucidly articulate. But I did want to get a good, and more importantly real interview with him, not just lob softballs in his direction and be yet another guy who was too scared to ask a substantive question.

Tyson's cameo in The Hangover is just one great moment in a film with plenty of other ones, but it seems to mean more for him, if not also to him: while the film's $45 million opening-weekend haul means higher paychecks and better roles for co-stars Bradley Cooper and Zach Galifianakis, its visibility and success gives Tyson a sense of humor, and moreover, a humanity that he's never quite achieved on such a significant scale. Cinematical spoke to Tyson on May 17 in Las Vegas, where the former prizefighter discussed what it meant to appear in the movie, looked back on the experience of making Toback's documentary, and talked about what the future holds for him following his recent adventures on the silver screen.

Todd Phillips scored a hit in 2003 with the raucous R-rated comedy Old School, then for some reason moved to tamer waters for Starsky & Hutch and School for Scoundrels, neither of which amounted to anything. Duly chastened, he now returns home with The Hangover, a movie that's as gleefully dirty as Old School, and maybe funnier.

It's a story of friendship, camaraderie, and alcohol. As such, it can only be set in Las Vegas. That is where Doug (Justin Bartha), who is getting married Sunday, is taken by his friends for an epic bachelor party: Phil (Bradley Cooper), a schoolteacher who hates his students almost as much as he hates being married, is the ringleader; Stu (Ed Helms), a wimpy dentist with a controlling shrew for a girlfriend, is the nervous nellie; Alan (Zach Galifianakis), Doug's soon-to-be brother-in-law, is the spacey, grubby, possibly mentally handicapped one who recalls Will Ferrell in Old School (which means he also recalls John Belushi in Animal House).

The four embark on a night of revelry. The next morning, Phil, Stu, and Alan wake up in their hotel suite with a tiger and a baby. There's no sign of Doug, the groom-to-be. And no one can remember anything that happened the night before.

As comedy premises go, this one is brilliantly simple. Three hungover guys stumble around Las Vegas in search of clues as to their missing friend's whereabouts, not to mention the origin of the baby and the tiger, and not to mention the other various things that have gone awry that, well, I won't mention. (Spoiler: Ed Helms is missing that tooth in real life.)

Todd Phillips, by his own admission or at least acceptance, is the comedy world's A-list anti-Apatow: where the writer-director of The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up bathes his characters in sweetness and sentiment, Phillips wrings his dry, leaving only the odd, awkward and undeniable punch of their punch lines. His latest film, The Hangover, follows a group of guys who awaken from an all-night bachelor party in Vegas to discover that the groom is missing, there's a tiger in the bathroom of their suite, and they are now in possession of a baby. No lessons are learned, no constitutions tested and no hearts wrenched, and that's just the way Phillips – and the audience of his films, from Road Trip to Old School to Starsky and Hutch – prefers it.

Cinematical recently sat down with Phillips, in Vegas, no less, to discuss The Hangover. In addition to talking about his particular and preferred brand of comedy, Phillips talked about a few of the films that inspired him as a young man, and mused about the future of both The Hangover and Old School.

Did the Marx Brothers ever get serious? Pixar seems to have perfected the art of mixing dramatic themes into their comic adventures, pleasing audiences both young and old. (Moviefone's current poll of readers on Pixar's best reflects this as well, with a top choice that may surprise you.) Up is a rather magnificent tale that's filled with witty dialogue, visual gags, and laugh out loud moments, even as it "moves smoothly from romance to drama to fantasy to comedy to action-adventure and then back to sentimental drama again," in the words of Jette Kernion. Sam Raimi took modern horror in a new direction by coupling jolts with jokes in The Evil Dead and Evil Dead II, expertly playing one against the other. His latest, Drag Me to Hell, marketed as a straight-up horror tale, is, in fact, "a convulsively funny movie with chills and thrills," as I've written before. Really, it's more of a comedy than anything else.

This week's widest releases appear to be more straightforward comedies: Todd Phillips' The Hangover stars Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and Zach Galifianakis as three friends who stumble around Vegas after a bachelor party gone wild; Brad Silberling's Land of the Lost stars Will Farrell as a scientist who stumbles around a prehistoric world with dinosaurs and fantastic creatures. Meanwhile, Donald Petrie's My Life in Ruins looks more like a traditional romance with comedy and drama, starring Nia Vardalos as a Greek tour guide.

How do you like your laughs? Do you prefer your comedy straight up, no chaser? Or would you rather have other elements added to the mix: drama, horror, adventure? Take our poll and let us know.

We here at Cinematical haven't missed an episode of Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifinakis, and we're not about to now since the damn show keeps getting funnier and funnier with each absurd interview. Essentially, this Funny or Die original series stars Galifinakis (the fat, bearded dude in The Hangover) as the ridiculously jaded host of a show that interviews celebrities and asks really bizarre, insulting questions. Of course the celebs know it's not real, but even so this staged version is just as funny.

In the latest installment, Galifinakis interviews his Hangover co-star Bradley Cooper -- who's up for just about every major role you can think of these days, from Green Lantern to the live-action Fat Albert (kidding about that last one, though you never know). The Hangover is definitely shaping up be this summer's most memorable R-rated raunch-fest; in their review of the film, Variety called it a "profanely funny comedy" that "satisfies as a boys-gone-wild laff riot that also clicks as a seriocomic beat-the-clock detective story." Needless to say, the comedy geek in me is itching to see this one. We'll have our full review and interview with director Todd Phillips real soon. In the meantime, check out the NSFW video below ...

Warning: The following includes foul language and is NSFW

Cinematical has just received this exclusive poster for The Hangover, which, if you haven't seen the trailer yet, looks to already have solidified its position as this summer's craziest, most ridiculously uncontrollable gotta-see-it-like-ten-times comedy. Directed by Todd Phillips (Old School, Road Trip), The Hangover stars Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis as three soon-to-be groomsmen who lose their buddy (aka the groom) and their memory during a balls-to-the-wall Las Vegas bachelor party weekend, then race to retrace their steps and find their friend before the wedding.

The film has garnered so much advanced buzz that a sequel is already being set up, and it's fairly safe to say that this could be Phillips' best film since Old School. You've got Vegas, live tigers in the hotel bathroom, an unknown baby, a stolen police car, a missing tooth and Mike Tyson -- what's not to love? (Note to those guys currently planning Las Vegas bachelor parties: You might want to leave the fiance at home before venturing out to see this flick. Just a hunch, but something tells me she might have a few additional questions, concerns and demands after watching The Hangover. Unless she's totally cool with whatever; if that's the case, the more the merrier!)

The Hangover wakes up with a killer headache and lots of laughs on June 5. Check out a larger version of the poster below.

What does it take to get a sequel these days? Nothing more than a good response to a trailer and test screenings. Though The Hangover doesn't hit theaters until June 5, the buzz has been good enough that Warner Bros has made a "multimillion dollar commitment" for Todd Phillips and Scot Armstrong to make a follow-up.

According to Variety, the trailer brought the house down at ShoWest, encouraging the studio to move forward with a sequel. Phillips will return to direct it, and Warners is making deals to reunite the existing cast of Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis and Ed Helms. They hope to go into production later this year.

Now, we all enjoyed the trailers (William Goss brought you the first, Peter Martin brought the second), the cast is top notch, and Phillips' past efforts have been a lot of fun. (I'll even include Starsky & Hutch in that -- I seem to remember the "Don't Give Up On Us Baby" scene at very inopportune moments.)

But it seems like the appeal of a film like The Hangover is because it's a one-shot comedy based around an absurd situation. Sort of like Phillips' Old School, which also was supposed to get the sequel treatment, though one assumes Warners managed to reunite the cast of Hangover for a much cheaper price than it would've taken to get the Old School gang back together. I haven't seen The Hangover, but going purely on on the trailer, where is a sequel going to go? More drunken debauchery which results in another lost friend, and another encounter with Mike Tyson? Might as well throw in a corpse named Bernie for good measure ...

Remember that night you can't forget when you did that thing you can't remember? Director Todd Phillips mines familiar territory for fresh laughs in the new trailer for his upcoming film The Hangover, starring Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis, and Ed Helms (The Office) as three buddies who lose a friend after a wild bachelor party in Las Vegas.

"Lose," by the way, is not a euphemism for death; they literally can't find the dude (played by Justin Bartha). They wake up on the morning after to discover a trashed hotel room, a tiger in the bathroom and a crying baby in the closet. They piece together the events of the evening before as they try to find the missing groomsman in time for Cooper's wedding, somehow also encountering a real life, former heavyweight boxing champion. I won't spoil all the laughs, but it definitely looks like Old School with more alcohol, a silly, cheerfully incorrect tale of 30-something men celebrating boozing and general debauchery.

Phillips took somewhat of a left turn with School for Scoundrels in 2006, which didn't quite work the way it should have; before that, Starsky & Hutch was funny without being as consistently hilarious as Old School or as warmly goofy as Road Trip. As for Brad Cooper, he has a chance to knock one out of the park in a leading role after yeoman work in comic supporting parts (he was quite good as the star of the very good horror flick Midnight Meat Train). We previously posted a shorter teaser trailer; we've embedded the new, longer one below. The Hangover hits theaters on June 5, courtesy of Warner Brothers.