Not even lackluster reviews can stop Todd Phillips' highly anticipated R-rated The Hangover Part II. Wednesday's midnight shows brought in a whopping $10.4M, Warner Bros. has the Bangkok-set sequel planned for the biggest opening ever for an R-rated film, and it's going into a five-day holiday weekend. Pundits estimate a $100M or higher opening take, and you know what that means: get ready for a Hangover Part III. [Deadline]
Physician-turned-comedian Ken Jeong (AKA Dr. Ken) got his start on the big screen with comic bits in films like Knocked Up, Pineapple Express, and Role Models, but he made his most memorable on-screen appearance in Todd Phillips' 2009 surprise hit The Hangover as a flamboyant gangster named Chow. This week in The Hangover Part II, Jeong returns to cause more mayhem on the streets of Bangkok with an entrance that manages to one-up the shocking sight of springing, fully nude, from the trunk of a Mercedes.
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Because of his unique brand of hilariously discomfiting stand-up comedy and, in particular, his mock-confrontational talk show satire Between Two Ferns, which lampoons the celebrity interview itself with clear-eyed vitriol, you might not peg Zach Galifianakis for a warm interviewee. But, like most comics, he's nothing like any of his own characters -- including Alan Garner, the delusional man-child who, along with his fellow "Wolf Pack"-ers (Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and, this time around, a monkey) wakes up in a seedy Bangkok hotel room after yet another night of black-out debauchery in The Hangover Part II.
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"Unapologetic" was the word most frequently used by director Todd Phillips and his Wolf Pack cast and writers to describe the outrageous shenanigans that go down in The Hangover Part II, which finds the heroes of The Hangover once again dealing with a bad case of morning-after confusion. This time, they awake disoriented in Bangkok, a place that takes monkeyshines to a whole new level. "Sometimes to make a movie about mayhem," Phillips admitted at Wednesday's press conference, "you have to go to mayhem."
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With Lionsgate milking its casting announcement roll-out as much as possible (today's news: All My Children's Leven Rambin and Meg Ryan/Dennis Quaid progeny Jack Quaid are your new District 1 tributes, Glimmer and Marvel!) it's time to play the speculation game with one of the series' most important supporting characters: Haymitch. Which veteran actors could fill the Hunger Games winner-turned-alcoholic mentor's shoes?
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The Wrap reports that filming has begun on the feature film spin-off of Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim's sketch show Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, and shares a few juicy-but-vague production details: Will Ferrell, Zach Galifianakis, Will Forte, Jeff Goldblum, John C. Reilly, Robert Loggia, and William Atherton will co-star; the plot will follow Tim and Eric as they biff a big Hollywood movie deal and become businessmen in a "semi-abandoned" mall; and the film's budget is, naturally, $1 billion. Go get that Oscar, boys. [The Wrap]
