At CinemaCon the other week, I got to talk with director Todd Phillips twice about his upcoming sequel, The Hangover Part II. The first time we spoke was on the red carpet before the Warner Bros. presentation. The second was backstage after I'd seen the latest trailer.While Phillips is sometimes a bit guarded when talking to the press, I found him to be very open about how the latest test screenings had been going, the pressure (or lack of pressure) in making a sequel to the biggest R rated comedy of all time, what it was like to film in Bangkok, why certain characters are back and why some aren't, and what kind of music is he getting for the sequel. Hit the jump for more.Phillips says the movie takes place two years after the events of the first film. And while some sequels have characters that forget the previous events, according to Phillips:
"Sometimes the characters in sequels ignore the first movie in a way. These guys very much lived through the first Hangover and are very aware of it and reference it, and are aware at absurdities that are happening again or not. Theyâre going through this experience having the lens of going through the first one."
We also talked about why some characters are coming back and why some aren't. Phillips explains:
"Itâs all story. I swear Steve, as a writer of the films also, itâs wherever the script takes you. I love Heather Graham, more than most male red-blooded Americans, I really do, like Iâm obsessed with Heather Graham. But the storytelling didnât take us in a place to bring that character back. So it wasnât like I wanna jam these people in because I like them, itâs just where the story brought us to whether or not they came back. And when you see the movie youâll I think understand and itâll all make sense."
One of the many things I loved about the first Hangover was the music. I also know Phillips is a music guy and I was curious what he was going for in the sequel. He told me that even though Jay-Z could have charged a lot of money for letting them use "Reminder" in the teaser trailer, he didn't. Which is why they got to use it. Phillips also talked about how he got his friend Glenn Danzig to do an original song for the sequel:
"Iâve commissioned one original song for The Hangover Part II by my good friend Glenn Danzig, as you know my punk rock roots in my first movie. I love Danzig, always have, he sang the first song in the first Hangover, âThirteenâ but that was his song, and I went to him and said âwould you write a song for The Hangover Part II for the title sequence?â and he did and itâs fuckinâ awesome."
During the rest of the interviews, we talked about many other things. Here's the print portion of the interview and at the bottom of the page, look for the video portion. It's in the video portion that we talk about the test screenings and how they've been going and also what's up with Project X.
-
Collider: After the most successful R-rated comedy of all-time, as the director, can you talk a little bit about the challenge of following that up?
Todd Phillips: Â Well I donât see it as pressure really, itâs exciting. Iâve never made a movie that people were waiting for, this is my seventh film. And while itâs annoying to not fly under the radar, it takes a lot of pressure off of you to know thereâs a lot of people waiting to see it. It was a lot harder to shoot The Hangover1 in Las Vegas and stand in a fuckinâ alley at 5 in the morning and look at Ken Jeong and go âThat was brilliant, but I donât know if anybodyâs gonna see this movie.â Itâs a lot more energizing to be in Bangkok and when shit hits the fan and going âAlright, donât worry weâre making Thefuckinâ Hangover 2 letâs go.â So to me itâs the opposite of pressure. Itâd be pressure if it was a different director, in other words, if I didnât make the first one Iâd be like âHoly shit I gotta make Hangover 2.â I made the first one, meaning I could do it. Iâm ready to do it again. (laughs) You understand? Not to sound cocky, but itâs like itâs not really pressure, Iâm betting on myself there.
Well you have a track record.
Phillips: Â Yeah. So itâs not pressure, itâs like âYou mean I have to live up to something I did?â Itâs not like I have to live up to something Steven Spielberg did, thatâs pressure. I just have to live up to something Todd Phillips did. Well Iâm Todd Phillips so I could probably do that (laughs).
You have some familiar faces coming back. How much did you feel that you wanted, all of these people coming backâ
Phillips: Â Itâs all story. I swear Steve, as a writer of the films also, itâs wherever the script takes you. I love Heather Graham, more than most male red-blooded Americans, I really do, like Iâm obsessed with Heather Graham. But the storytelling didnât take us in a place to bring that character back. So it wasnât like I wanna jam these people in because I like them, itâs just where the story brought us to whether or not they came back. And when you see the movie youâll I think understand and itâll all make sense.
I definitely want you to talk a little bit about filming in Bangkok. Someone said something about how it was like going into the jungle.
Phillips: Â I did put that up and I was quoting Francis Ford Coppola. I said like the great Francis Ford Coppola said, âWe had too much money, too much equipment and too many people, and little by little we all went insaneâ (laughs). That was a quote I read from him from Hearts of Darkness, and that is what it felt like many times just in that we were cut off from the world there, itâs not really a support system of filmmaking there that youâre used to. The inmates were running the asylum and I take full responsibility for that (laughs).
I definitely wanna ask about the music. I love the songs you used in the first film.
Phillips: Â We have some great music in this movie. I take it so seriously, as you know weâve talked about music before. I did it on Due Date and Iâve done it on Old School, meaning take it seriously. In Hangover 2, I mean yeah weâre over a couple million dollars in music budget right now, thatâs the one thing I havenât solidified because I just go crazy and then Warner Bros. goes, âYou realize how much this costs?â and you start making wheeling and dealing with the artists and stuff like that.
I was gonna say, there has to be an element of you going to an artist and sayingâ
Phillips: Â There is. There are guys who are big names who are super cool with us and theyâre like âFuck yeah, do it.â And then there are other guys who are like âI donât care what movie it is, this is what it is.â But like Jay-Z gave us that song in the teaser, âReminderâ, heâs fuckinâ Jay-Z, he could charge $1 million if he wants, but he didnât âcause itâs Hangover 2 and itâs fuckinâ cool.
But thatâs the thing, aligning yourself with a cool property.
Phillips: Â Yes, but they donât all think like that because they donât all have the confidence that Jay-Z does to knowâwhatever the music business is fractured so they make money how they have to, so I understand it too. But for me itâs the most fun part of doing a movie. The most fun part is doing the music.
Did you commission original songs, or are you picking from like a stable jukebox?
Phillips: Â That is a great question. Iâve commissioned one original song for The Hangover Part II by my good friend Glenn Danzig, as you know my punk rock roots in my first movie. I love Danzig, always have, he sang the first song in the first Hangover, âThirteenâ but that was his song, and I went to him and said âwould you write a song for The Hangover Part II for the title sequence?â and he did and itâs fuckinâ awesome.
Iâm sure he would not do that for a lot of people.
Phillips: Â No. Who else is gonna go to Danzig? I mean Iâm sure heâs been approached, but heâs the coolest. So yeah, so thatâs one example of an original. Others are stuff thatâs been out or that I just love or that fits with the movie obviously, itâs just random. Itâs random.
You mentioned youâre a few million dollars over [music budget].
Phillips: Â I was exaggerating, but yeah.
Say youâre three to five million dollars over.
Phillips: Â No, itâs not that [bad]. So letâs pretend youâre a million dollars over, cause itâs nowhere close to a million dollars over. But thereâs some point where you have to be fiscally responsible, where it just doesnât make sense to have a certain music budget thatâs just insane. If youâre saying if I just went to them and said âNo! This is the music.â
I donât get that vibe from you.
Phillips: Â Right, I donât do that. But yeah, youâre probably right, I could probably get every song I wanted. But oddly, when you put constraints on yourself financially, you think of creative ways to do things differently. Itâs almost like you donât want to be justâor I donât, I mean certain directors Iâm sure would love it. But thereâs something about a budget and a thing that makes you think about different creative ways to solve problems that arenât just throwing money at it. So sometimes Iâll stumble on a great fucking song by a band Iâve never heard because Iâm trying to replace an $800,000 cue thatâs just too big. And youâll be like, âLet me just hear everythingâ and suddenly I stumble on something thatâs better and I just wouldâve never been exposed to it.
Donât you think also that when you find like a really popular song, thereâs an element that people associate that song with other things? When you find like a cool, hip song thatâs like out of circulation that costs like nothing, and all of a sudden itâs like âthe thing.â
Phillips: Â I know. But sometimes you want that cool thing that they associate with, because of what it associates with. For example, we donât do this in the movie but remember in the first movie like the Jonas Brothers. You might want to use the Jonas Brothers, because Zach was talking about [them], you might want to use that and what it associates with, in an ironic way or not, so it just depends.
How much are the guys advanced as characters?
Phillips: Â Thatâs a great question. They are two years in advance it takes place in real time. The key part of that question is, yes itâs two years later because thatâs when the movie comes out, two years have happened, but even more importantly sometimes the characters in sequels ignore the first movie in a way. These guys very much lived through the first Hangover and are very aware of it and reference it, and are aware at absurdities that are happening again or not. Theyâre going through this experience having the lens of going through the first one.
-
And for the other interview...here's the red carpet interview. Sorry the audio isn't perfect, it was recorded the one day I had some audio problems.
Todd Phillips
- Does he get any residuals from Caesar's Palace
- What's his karaoke song
- How have the test screenings been
- Project X talk - Does it have a title and how did the test screening go