Take a hilarious journey into the heart of madness when WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE arrives in theaters and via VOD February 7. Check out the trailer below.
Featuring an exceptional cast of comedic talent including legendary action hero Jean-Claude Van Damme (The Expendables 2), Adam Brody (“Burning Love,” “The O.C.”), Megan Boone (“The Blacklist”), Kristen Schaal (“30 Rock,” “Bob’s Burgers”), Rob Huebel (The Descendants, “Children’s Hospital”), and Dennis Haysbert (“24,” “The Unit,” Major League), the laugh-out-loud comedy follows a group of unsuspecting office workers who find themselves stranded on a desert island when a corporate retreat led by unhinged former Marine Storm Rothchild (Van Damme) goes horribly wrong.
Now Chris (Brody) and his co-workers must battle nature — and each other — to survive!
Directed by Rob Meltzer and written by Jeff Kauffmann, WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE garnered the “Outstanding Achievement in Filmmaking – Ensemble Cast” award at the 2013 Newport Beach Film Festival.
The Salt Company presents, in association with 120 DB Films and Stun Creative, a Pimienta Film Company Production: “Welcome to the Jungle.” Produced by Justin Kanew and Luillo Ruiz and distributed in theaters by Cinedigm in the United States and in home entertainment by Universal Studios Home Entertainment and Universal Pictures International Entertainment.
Theapocalypse is coming to theaters and on VOD today in the form of RAPTURE-PALOOZA. Only this time, Craig Robinson, Anna Kendrick, John Francis Daley, Rob Corddry, Paul Scheer, and many more are along for the ride.
Recently, I sat down with stars Rob Corddry and Rob Huebel to talk with them about the film, as well as some other random topics. Check out our little chats about clipping your toenails in IHOP, mustaches, and who the better doctor really is below.
When the Apocalypse actually happens and a billion people are raptured up to heaven, Lindsey (Kendrick) and her boyfriend Ben (Daley) are left behind in suburban Seattle. The young couple try their best to lead a normal life surrounded by talking locusts, blood rain showers, and pot-smoking wraiths. But when the Anti-Christ (Robinson) makes his home base in their neighborhood, Lindsey finds herself the object of his affection. With the help of her family, friends, and a lawn-mowing zombie neighbor, the young couple set off to stop the Anti-Christ from taking her as his bride… and just maybe, saving the world in the process.
(We’ll preface this with them asking me where I am from, which is originally St. Louis.)
RH: Isn’t Nelly from St. Louis?
He is.
RH: Come on guys.
RC: We’re big fans.
RH: Huge. Put that in your article.
You have the Anti-Christ, religion, sarcasm…
RH: THERE’S SARCASM IN THIS MOVIE?! (Laughs)
NO WAY!
RH: If there’s sarcasm in this movie, I’m out!
RC: You’re fu- You’re reading into that.
… so what was it that attracted you to this project?
RC: Uh, Rob Huebel.
RH: I heard that he (points to Corddry) was going to be in it.
You guys have never worked together before… ever…
RH: We were actually both really attracted to Craig. We’re like “Oh, Craig’s doing it. Yeah.”
RC: I don’t remember exactly how it happened, but I assume because Craig’s a producer – that’s why we’re here. I probably owe him a thanks.
RH: I think Craig was like “I’m producing this movie. Let’s get these guys.”
RC: “Let’s get my buddies in.” (Laughs)
RH: “We’re gonna shoot this in Vancouver? Those guys would be fun to drink beer with.”
Because your both have worked together so many times, what’s the dynamic like on set? Do you know what to expect at this point?
RH: I think it depends. I mean, we know it’s going to be comedy GOLD! (Laughs) Don’t we? We try to leave room to improvise some stuff. I think this script was funny to us. You had more written – I think I had, like, 4 lines written in the script. And then when we got there they were like “Yeah, just say whatever you want.”
RC: (Laughs) So we created a whole relationship.
RH: Yeah, we created a whole relationship between us.
RC: … and Scheer too! Like, I had that whole scene with Scheer too. Same exact thing.
RH: So, if you’re lucky, when you do a movie like this, you can get people who can improvise and try to make it funnier, and develop the characters a little more. But, yeah, we’ve worked together a lot, so we feel pretty comfortable together.
RC: Yeah. It’s also like… being an actor, it’s always kind of your first day. You know, your first day in the office is always uncomfortable. (Laughs) “Where’s the coffee machine? Can I leave for lunch or…?” But, being able to work with people that you’ve worked with before, who you are friends with, it’s just… it rarely feels like the first day anymore because it’s all familiar faces.
RH: Yeah, and I think, comedically, we’ve worked together before, so we’ve kind of developed a shorthand with each other – where I sort of know what he might be going for in something. Like, if he’s going down some weird road and he’s improvising, I sort of know what I can be to help him bounce that off of me.
RC: And, Huebel and I… I think I’ve worked with you the longest of anyone in Children’s [Hospital]. We’ve been improvising together since, like, 97’. So, I think you and I always have the most satisfying improv. (Laughs) At least once a season something that happens
RH: … some sort of banter between us… (Laughs)
RC: … that I just get insanely proud of… (Laughs)
RH: It could also only be funny to us.
RC: Totally.
If “The Rapture” were to take place tomorrow, which of the plagues would you be most afraid of?
RH: Wait… do you know the plagues? Like, there’s locusts…
… there’s blood rain…
RC: That doesn’t sound too bad to me.
RH: Blood rain?
RC: Blood rain.
RH: There’s also famine… there’s a lot of plagues.
A lot of people got killed by fiery meteors in this film.
RC: Pestilence. Pestilence would be tough.
RH: What is that? Is that disease?
RC: I don’t know. I don’t know what that is… (Laughs)
RH: I would say locusts. I would not want locust all over me…
RC: No! That sounds terrible…
RH: … and in my face.
RC: … any sort of bugs…
RH: Yeah, bugs in general. You don’t want mosquitos. You don’t need all that.
[To Rob Corddry] How long does it take you to grow a mustache? You had a pretty great stache in this one…
RC: God… (sigh) … it took me about 10 minutes in makeup.
RH: 10 minutes to success.
Oh… they glued it on? Because that’s comfortable…
RC: I swallowed about 8 or 9 of them during the course of making this.
RH: I will say that you look…
RC: (Laughs…)
RH: … so much like a pedophile with a mustache.
(Laughs)
RC: Seriously… (laughs)
RH: I would say you look exactly like a pedophile… and I know a lot of pedophiles.
RC: Also, it immediately ages me, like, 10-15 years. (Laughs)
RH: I think that’s why they did it. How are you going to be John Francis Daley’s dad… I mean, let’s do the math on that.
RC: I know. I know. I had him when I was like, 13.
Craig Robinson has been known to be very musical on set. I noticed the piano in the film. Was there a lot of music going on behind the scenes?
RH: Oh man. We were always hanging out on set just…
RC: … jammin’…
RH: … just jammin’…
RC: … and man, how we’d get so high…
RH: … so high…
RC: … and just jam…
RH: … and just jam R&B songs…
RC: … and that’s when the good stuff happened..
RH: … Oh, that’s where the magic is
(Laughs)
RH: No. That was someone’s house. What you see in the movie… that belongs to some billionaire guy in Vancouver. That was his house. So we didn’t really loiter around there too much.
RC: Also, every interior is in that house. I don’t even know if they dressed it. It’s like “Oh, this dude had a piano so Craig had a piano.” (Laughs) “We don’t have a lot of money to do the movie, so lets use what we have.”
[To Rob Corddry] You just had a film you worked on by Michael Bay come out. What is it like to work on a Michael Bay set?
RC: Same thing… Lotta improv…
RH: Just magical…
RC: Easy peasy… (Laughs)
RH: Just easy peasy…
RC: It feels like the first day of work. It’s different. Say what you will about his reputation, but what I found was that he’s the hardest working man in the room, and demands that of the people around him by actions. You know what I mean? Like, you immediately just want to please him. You wanna do good. You wanna work hard because he’s working hard. We’re always working on stuff that is low-budget, so it’s always moving fast… but I’ve never been on a set that moves so fast.
RH: Really? Even on a big budget project like that…
RC: It wasn’t even that big budget. I mean, 26 million is big budget to us, right? But to him…
RH: That’s nothing to him…
RC: … that’s nothing.
RH: That’s what that movie was?
RC: 26. Yeah. Nothing.
RH: That’s not a lot. By the way, that’s about 25 million more than what we used to shoot this movie.
RC: Exactly! (Laughs) He was telling us that he shot this one scene where The Rock [Dwayne Johnson] is on his knees in a hotel room really high, and Bar Paly, his girlfriend, is talking nonsense to him, and he can’t understand her. And he goes “Watch that scene. I shot it in 17 minutes. We got in, shot it, and had to get out of the location.” He shot it, and it’s gorgeous. It’s amazing. So, he thrives, I think, in that environment. I think he really likes solving problems, and he’s really good at it. He’s a really good director.
RH: We should get him to direct some Children’s Hospital. Why wouldn’t he ever want to.
I think that’s a great idea!
RC: Why wouldn’t he ever want to? (Laughs) He’s gotta be sick of money at this point!
RH: He’ll do it as a fuck you to himself.
(Laughs)
RC: Fuck you, me!
[To Rob Huebel] You tweeted today that “IHOP is a great place to meet people who like to clip their toenails while you eat your pancakes.”. Does this come from experience? Have you actually ever seen someone do this?
RH: Yeah. I had spent the night in Palm Springs last night, and was driving back this morning, and stopped at an IHOP… and there was someone clipping their toenails in the booth next to us.
RC: Gross.
That is so gross.
RC: I think it’s rude. I think it’s rude when people clip their toenails alone in their own bathroom. That’s disgusting.
RH: Disgusting.
Did you say anything???
RH: No, it’s IHOP. You’re allowed to do that.
RC: No! Because that person is obviously insane! Don’t mess with that person!
RH: That person has…
RC: Don’t talk to that person…
I can’t imagine a sane person doing that…
RH: No, that’s their target market – is people…
RC: You know what I hated too… and not to sidetrack…
No, you’re good!
RC: … we lived in New York forever, and people would clip their fingernails on the subway.
RH: Ohhh..
Oh, no!
RC: All the time! Like, you’re always hearing “tink, tink” and…
RH: Ugh.
RC: … it’s, like, a thing. A lot of people will wait. That’s their time.
RH: Then it’s like their bathrooms.
RC: It’s so fucking disgusting to me. Biological waste is just flying everywhere.
I’m horrified right now.
RC: It’s horrifying!
I half expected that to be a farce. I didn’t expect that tweet to be real.
RH: Everything I tweet is real.
RC: Nothing! He never lies!
Well, that kind of answers my next question. I’ve been surprised lately by how many celebrities have other people tweeting for them. That is actually you guys tweeting.
RH: Yeah. We tweet…
RC: Imagine if you had someone tweeting that – my favorite Huebel tweet ever is something like… and I’m paraphrasing… “Never go running in the park with rapist written on your forehead.” or something, and – can you imagine if you had your publicist doing something like that? (Laughs)
RH: I know a few entities… like I got asked to do the twitter page for a movie that was coming out that I was not involved with at all…
RC: Oh, that’s weird.
RH: I was not involved in the movie. I know the director, so he asked me “Do you mind running the twitter page?” and I politely said “No thank you.”.
RC: (Laughing) It’s like “Yeah, I kinda so mind actually”.
RH: “Yeah, if you put me in the movie!”
RH: It’s kind of strange that an individual would have someone else tweet for them.
RC: You can tell though. Like, Tom Cruise has never typed anything into twitter, and stuff like that… I don’t think he would, but there’s a lot of people like that who probably don’t. But for us, we can tweet anything and it’s just a joke. For guys like that, everything they say is put under a microscope. We just go like “satire” and everything goes away.
RH: You can literally tweet anything…
RC: Anything…
RH: The only time I’ve been burned is – there’ve been a couple of times where I’ve woken up and I didn’t look at the news to see what was going on, and it’s been the day of, like, a major national tragedy, or something like that, and I’ll get on there and be like “Oh man. These tacos gave me diarrhea.” and people are like “How dare you! This plane just crashed!”.
RC: Hahaha! Oh god…
RH: “Oh, I didn’t know.”
[To Rob Corddry] WARM BODIES had a really nice reception. Are we looking forward to a sequel?
RH: Oh. I wanted to see WARM BODIES. I didn’t even get to see it. Where can I see it?
RC: Jesus Christ dude…
RH: I didn’t…
RC: Don’t…
RH: Come on…
RC: I can get a private screening.
He knows a guy…
RC: I know a guy. I just heard today, from a journalist, that Isaac Marion is writing a sequel. Maybe he’s writing the book sequel.
Would you be down for a sequel?
RC: Yeah! Hell yeah! I pretty much don’t say no to a lot of stuff. (Laughs)
RH: Who’s the guy in that? Who’s the kid? Cause he’s big now, right?
RC: Nicholas Holt.
Isn’t he like a superhero now?
RC: Yeah. Nic Holt. He’s in X-Men. He’s the Beast. He’s great, and he’s awesome in it. They’d be silly, probably, not to make another one. I always look at it realistically, like, how is my character going to figure into it… I don’t know. Who knows. I’ll do it. Yes. The answer is yes! (Laughs)
Children’s Hospital has been picked up for a fifth season. What can we look forward to? Also, who do you think is the better doctor?
RH: The best doctor?
RC: That’s a great question!
RH: Well, the fan favorite is me… Dr. Owen Maestro.
RC: I would say a lot of the doctors that aren’t really characters on the show. I mean, it’s a hospital. There has to be a hundred more doctors in that hospital. They’re probably better…
RH: The best doctor, if you mean the most skilled physician is probably…
RC: Josh Weingard. (Laughs) We haven’t seen him yet.
RH: Dr. Rosenberg.
RC: We actually have a scene – we just finished shooting the fifth season, and we’re editing it now. There is a scene where one doctor – you think he gets killed, and you turn him over and it’s somebody that just looks like him, and it’s like “Oh god! It’s Josh Weingard, our best surgeon!”, and then we have an argument over a dead body about “Is he the best?”
George Clooney has a new movie coming out and we have a chance for you to see it before it hits theaters…
WAMG is giving away passes to THE DESCENDANTS on Tuesday, November 15 at The Landmark (10850 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA) at 7:30PM.
OFFICIAL RULES:
1. YOU MUST BE IN THE LOS ANGELES AREA THE DAY OF THE SCREENING. 2. FILL OUT YOUR NAME AND E-MAIL ADDRESS BELOW. REAL FIRST NAME REQUIRED. 3. ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTION: What is your favorite George Clooney movie? Remember to tell us why!
WINNERS WILL BE CHOSEN THROUGH A RANDOM DRAWING OF QUALIFYING CONTESTANTS. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. PASSES WILL NOT BE SUBSTITUTED OR EXCHANGED.
ANYONE CAUGHT REPRINTING TICKETS FOR DISTRIBUTION WILL BE BANNED FROM OUR CONTESTS! DUPLICATE TICKETS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED!
SYNOPSIS:
From Alexander Payne, the creator of the Oscar®-winning SIDEWAYS, THE DESCENDANTS is set in Hawaii and follows the unpredictable journey of an American family at a crossroads. Matt King (George Clooney), a husband and father of two girls, must re-examine his past and navigate his future when his wife is in a boating accident off Waikiki. He awkwardly attempts to repair his relationship with his daughters – 10 year-old precocious Scottie (Amara Miller) and rebellious 17 year-old Alexandra (Shailene Woodley) – while wrestling with a decision to sell his family’s land. Handed down from Hawaiian royalty and missionaries, the Kings own some of the last priceless virgin parcels of tropical beach in the islands.
When Alexandra drops the bombshell that her mother was in the midst of a romantic fling at the time of the accident, Matt has to take a whole new look at his life, not to mention his legacy, during a week of momentous decisions. With his girls in tow, he embarks on a haphazard search for his wife’s lover. Along the way, in encounters alternately funny, troublesome and transcendent, he realizes he’s finally on course toward rebuilding his life and family.
In his first film since the Oscar-winning Sideways, writer-director Alexander Payne once again proves himself a master of the kind of smart, sharp, deeply felt comedy that was once the hallmark of Billy Wilder and Jean Renoir. Based on the bestselling novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings, The Descendants stars George Clooney as Matt King, the heir of a prominent Hawaiian land-owning family whose life is turned upside-down when his wife is critically injured in a boating accident. Accustomed to being “the back-up parent,” King suddenly finds himself center stage in the lives of his two young daughters (excellent newcomers Shailene Woodley and Amara Miller), while at the same time being forced to decide the fate of a vast plot of unspoiled land his family has owned since the 1860s. Rooted in Clooney’s beautifully understated performance, Payne’s film is an uncommonly perceptive portrait of marriage, family and community, suffused with humor and tragedy and wrapped in a warm human glow. A Fox Searchlight release.
SYNOPSIS:
From Alexander Payne, the creator of the Oscar®-winning SIDEWAYS, THE DESCENDANTS is set in Hawaii and follows the unpredictable journey of an American family at a crossroads. Matt King (George Clooney), a husband and father of two girls, must re-examine his past and navigate his future when his wife is in a boating accident off Waikiki. He awkwardly attempts to repair his relationship with his daughters – 10 year-old precocious Scottie (Amara Miller) and rebellious 17 year-old Alexandra (Shailene Woodley) – while wrestling with a decision to sell his family’s land. Handed down from Hawaiian royalty and missionaries, the Kings own some of the last priceless virgin parcels of tropical beach in the islands.
When Alexandra drops the bombshell that her mother was in the midst of a romantic fling at the time of the accident, Matt has to take a whole new look at his life, not to mention his legacy, during a week of momentous decisions. With his girls in tow, he embarks on a haphazard search for his wife’s lover. Along the way, in encounters alternately funny, troublesome and transcendent, he realizes he’s finally on course toward rebuilding his life and family.
Fox Searchlight Pictures presents, an Ad Hominem Enterprises production, THE DESCENDANTS, directed by Alexander Payne with a screenplay by Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash and based on the novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings. The ensemble cast includes George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Beau Bridges, Robert Forster, Judy Greer, Matthew Lillard, Nick Krause, Amara Miller, Mary Birdsong, Rob Huebel and Patricia Hastie.
The creative team includes producers Jim Burke, Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, director of photography Phedon Papamichael, ASC, production designer Jane Ann Stewart, film editor Kevin Tent, A.C.E., costume designer Wendy Chuck, co-producer George Parra, music supervisor Dondi Bastone and executive music producer Richard Ford.
July 18, 2011 – Lionsgate and the producers of the film adaptation of the worldwide bestselling book “What To Expect When You’re Expecting” are thrilled to announce that Dennis Quaid (THE ROOKIE, THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW, VANTAGE POINT and the upcoming FOOTLOOSE) will be starring opposite Brooklyn Decker in the film, which is expected to begin shooting mid-Summer 2011, and will be released on May 11, 2012. It was previously announced that Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Lopez, Elizabeth Banks, Anna Kendrick, Matthew Morrison, Chace Crawford and Rob Huebel will also be starring in the project.
Quaid’s character Ramsey and his much younger wife Skyler (Decker) are expecting twins. Impending fatherhood is just another way for the hilariously competitive Ramsey to try to one-up his adult son Colin, who is also expecting his first child.
Kirk Jones (WAKING NED DEVINE, NANNY MCPHEE) is directing the film, which was acquired from a script by Heather Hach and re-written by Shauna Cross (WHIP IT). The film is based on the book by Heidi Murkoff that has been on the New York Times bestseller list for over 500 weeks. Lionsgate has worldwide rights to the film.
Quaid is represented by WME and attorneys Stewart Brookman and Tom Hansen of Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman, Newman, Warren & Richman, LLP, who negotiated the deal on his behalf.
Robert Melnik, EVP Business & Legal Affairs, negotiated the deal on behalf of Lionsgate. Alli Shearmur, President of Motion Picture Production and Development, and Jim Miller, SVP Motion Picture Production and Development are overseeing the production for Lionsgate.
Mike Medavoy, Arnie Messer and David Thwaites are producing, with Doug McKay co-producing, through their Phoenix Pictures. Heidi and Erik Murkoff will executive produce along with their literary manager Alan Nevins of Renaissance Literary & Talent.
About the film
Based on the 16 million copy best-selling book, WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU’RE EXPECTING is an ensemble romantic-comedy is in the vein of LOVE ACTUALLY and VALENTINE’S DAY. The film is a modern look at love through the eyes of four interconnected couples experiencing the thrills and surprises of having a baby, and ultimately coming to understand the universal truth that no matter what you plan for, life doesn’t always deliver what’s expected.
