Before Joker, Todd Phillips’ notable titles included The Hangover franchise. Bradley Cooper and Zach Galifianakis-starrer franchise was a hit and gained immense popularity worldwide. As the misadventures drama followed the franchise there were certain behind-the-scene dramas as well.
Phillips, being a huge Mel Gibson fan wanted to cast the actor/director in The Hangover sequel while Gibson was surrounded by controversy for his anti-Semitic remarks which even led to his DUI arrest. It almost killed his career in Hollywood as he became one of the most hated personalities in the industry.
Todd Phillips Was Desperate to Cast Mel Gibson in The Hangover Sequel
Todd Phillips thought it would be funny to cast Mel Gibson as a tattoo artist. “A lot of my stories start with that: ‘I thought it would be funny,’” Phillips told The Hollywood Reporter. Also, the actor has been a huge fan of The Passion of the Christ director, and he went to the actor amid his controversies without consulting the cast and crew and Warner Brothers.
“There’s an irreverent tone to The Hangover movies. We’re not apologizing for the bad behavior. I’m a huge fan of Mel Gibson as a filmmaker and as an actor, and he was going through a weird thing at that time, and I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if we had him come in and do this role?’ So I went over to his office and met with him. In fairness, I hadn’t consulted with the crew and the cast, which is a family. I hadn’t even cleared it with Warner Bros. I was just like, ‘I’m just going to show up, and we’re going to do this thing, and it’ll be great.’ Not everybody felt the same way about him.”
Following the news of his meeting with Gibson, a huge number of members of the cast and crew complained about it. Ultimately he had to opt out of the idea and decided to respect the cast and crew.
Todd Phillips Responded to Critics’ Knock at The Hangover II
The first installment of the franchise was the unexpected hit that opened the door for two more sequels. However, the later movies have received a critical bash, The Hangover 2 was made with a similar structure as the first movie. “I agree that [Hangover II was] similar in structure,” Phillips told The Hollywood Reporter. “But I don’t agree it’s a knock. It was intentional,” he added defending the movie.
“It’s not like we were unaware going into it. Some people had a problem with [the idea of], how could this happen to the same guys? But to me, that was part of the ridiculousness of it. And you say Bangkok, and [a transsexual prostitute] is one thing you do think about. But that’s what I mean about audacious. Her name is Yasmin.”
The idea of the second movie emerged while filming the first installment, “We talked about How could that ever happen twice?” Phillips said. “Las Vegas was a huge character in the first Hangover. For the second, there are a few locations that just scream bad decisions, and to me it was between Rio and Bangkok,” he continued. Then he flew to Bangkok and checked it out for the second movie. Made with $218 million, The Hangover franchise earned over $1.42 billion at the box office.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter.
