Director Todd Phillips takes us in a different direction with latest movie 'War Dogs'
OU might not have heard of director Todd Phillips, but you’ve probably watched one of his movies (Old School, Road Trip, Starsky & Hutch and the insanely popular Hangover trilogy to name a few).
Phillips’ latest movie, War Dogs, marks a slight departure from recent form. Based on a true story, it’s set during the Iraq war. Our protagonists are Efraim Diveroli and David Packouz, two weed-smoking twenty-something school friends from Miami. The former played by Moneyball’s Jonah Hill, the latter by Miles Teller, who starred as a gifted drummer with a psycho teacher in the brilliant Whiplash.
Together they embark on a very risky business venture — exploiting a little-known US government initiative that lets small companies bid on big military contracts. Think Wolf of Walls Street with guns.
In the upmarket Claridge’s Hotel in London, Phillips leans back in an expensive chair. Wearing a soft cashmere jumper and pale blue trousers he looks like he’s just stepped out of a Hamptons beach house.
So, what is this movie?
“Dramatic comedy, comedic drama — I don’t know, to me its real life,” he says in smooth American accent, gritted a little from smoking (he’s given up, and in his right hand clutches a tiny vape).
“I’ve always been attracted to that idea that the truth is stranger than fiction.”
In this case, it really is. While Phillips was flying to Bangkok to make the second Hangover movie, he read a Rolling Stone article titled ‘Arms and the Dudes’ by Guy Lawson. For Philips, known as the master of men-making-bad-decision movies (be they based in frat houses, or at ill-fated bachelor parties) the story was gold dust.
He spent a year writing the script, taking lots of creative licence but also relying on the real David Packouz to “fill in some blanks”.
Packouz, who “cooperated”, even has a brief cameo in War Dogs, but Diveroli (spoiler alert) who was in jail when they were writing the script was not interested in being part of the movie and has written his own version of events (Once a Gun Runner: The Real Story).
See it for yourself. #WarDogs is in theaters now. #FindYourHustlehttps://t.co/6ToZoiEAzK pic.twitter.com/YRWEvignnW
— War Dogs (@wardogsmovie) August 23, 2016
MAN’S WORLD
Men making terrible choices really does seem to be a unifying theme in Phillips work. “What I like about bad decisions is they usually lead to mayhem. I like movies to have a chaotic undertone to them. It’s something I’m attracted to.”
Has he made any himself lately? He laughs, “I’ve made a few bad ones here in this very hotel.”
Back in his college days at New York University, Phillips made a bold decision, but not a bad one.
He decided to drop out and make the movie that launched his career. The film, Hated: GG Allin and the Murder Junkies follows the revolting and disturbing antics of off-his-rocker rocker GG Allin and his band. Allin makes Ozzy Osborne and his on stage antics look like an episode of The Mickey Mouse Club.
He took heroin, drove around in vans throwing bottles at prostitutes, frequently beat the crap out of his audience, defecated at his gigs and rolled around in it. Dark and disturbed, Allin promised he would kill himself live on stage, but heroin got him first.
Phillips explains that the choice not to finish his studies at NYU was “a financial thing”.
“It was this extreme, bizarre time in my life where I followed this guy around for a year making a documentary,” he recalls. “It cost money to make a movie, you were shooting on film back then. This was ’90, ’91, and I dropped out of NYU not to be cool or because I didn’t like it, but more because the little money I was paying to NYU I thought I could put towards the movie, so I did.”
#FindYourHustle and experience it all in theaters today. #WarDogs https://t.co/6ToZoiEAzK pic.twitter.com/5NoSIEgSI7
— War Dogs (@wardogsmovie) August 21, 2016
He made Hated for about $14,000, and even though he says kids are shooting better-looking movies on their iPhones now, it changed his life. “It changed a lot. The movie was really big in the States.”
Phillips grew up in a single parent family with his two sisters. After the movie came out, for the first time he got to travel, go to Europe and tour with the movie.
“We were everywhere. I had never really travelled before that. It got me my next thing and everything sort of snowballed from there so it was a huge moment for me.”
Then, in 2009, Phillips directed a little movie called The Hangover. Starring Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis, it became a blockbuster hit, and the sequels (both written and directed by Philips) followed. In total, the trilogy brought in a jaw-dropping $1.4 billion dollars.
Without the incredible success of the Hangover movies, Phillips doubts he would have been able to make War Dogs.
“These aren’t easy movies to get made in this climate,” he says. War Dogs is not a sequel, it’s not a superhero movie, and it’s not based on a well-known story, so he “for sure” used his Hangover clout.
“I had built enough goodwill at the studio but what you learn in Hollywood is that goodwill is perishable. It goes away very quickly so I thought I better use it and make this movie.”
Get in on the action and #FindYourHustle. #WarDogs – Now playing. https://t.co/6ToZoiEAzK pic.twitter.com/OAKUVl6AyL
— War Dogs (@wardogsmovie) August 20, 2016
TALKING MONEY
Along with the power, the Hangover movies made Phillips a rich man so he’s well placed to answer the million dollar question — does money make you happy?
“No, money makes you more relaxed about things,” he replies.
“I‘m not going to lie. I grew up as a child with a single mom, two sisters and me. It’s stressful not having money. But then you get to a point you have a little bit of money and you can stop thinking about that every day. It makes life less stressful, but it doesn’t making you happy.”
Is it rewarding to help his friends and family out if they need a loan? “Oh I don’t talk to any of them anymore,” he says deadpan. “There are great things you can do with it, helping friends and family but if it made you happy I would stop doing this [making movies]. I’m not doing this for money; I’m doing this for because it makes me happy. Stephen Spielberg is the richest guy, but he still makes movies every year.”
A self-proclaimed control freak who can’t watch his own movies, you can tell Phillips had a good time making War Dogs.
“Directing is everything,” he says about his job. “It’s the most rewarding job. It’s a lot of pressure and stress but it’s really fun.”
Reviews are in. #FindYourHustle in theaters this Friday. #WarDogs https://t.co/6ToZoimZIc pic.twitter.com/3ExnifYgSs
— War Dogs (@wardogsmovie) August 17, 2016
It helps that it’s the first movie under the Joint Effort umbrella, the company he set up with best mate, Bradley Cooper. “Bradley and I became literally best friends on the Hangover movies. We share a lot of the same taste in movies; we talk about movies all the time,” says Phillips.
“We just trust each other,” he says of Cooper. “He read drafts of the screen play, he was on set a lot, so for me it was great to have someone I trust and love so close to me.”
He’s tight-lipped about upcoming projects. “I never like talking about other work when I have a movie out. I always say its like would you go up to a pregnant woman and ask ‘would you have another baby?’ It’s like, ‘let me have this one first.’”
Finally, how does the control freak part of him feel about letting his baby go? “You become done with it. No matter how good it is, you hate it so you also have to let it go. It’s not yours anymore. Now it’s out there. And however people react, you have no control.”
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
