Josh Greenbaum used his iPhone to great effect when casting.
The Big Picture Strays, the new comedy from Universal, starring Will Ferrell, Jamie Foxx, Isla Fisher and Randall Park promises a riotous experience for those of us who enjoy crude humour and surrealism, as the R-rated talking dog movie arrived in theaters on Friday.
The A-list cast is the most eye-catching quality of the film's promotional trail so far, and speaking to Collider's Steve Weintraub, the movie's director Josh Greenbaum has now revealed that the pairing of the names with the animals actually came as a result of something a bit less complex than finding a casting director to do it. Rather, he just used the App Store.
"Pairing the names, it just was a fun process of thinking about who might fit the character. And, like I said, that came later," said Greenbaum. "We had a funny app, there’s like a cheap app on your iPhone I used a lot where you can take a picture of dog and then record a voice, use a voice, and then it will quickly animate it, but I did use that a lot.
The Obvious Choice Once the voices were matched using the app, it suddenly became clear to Greenbaum that he'd identified his cast, and was able to reach out to them, offering Foxx and Ferrell the chance to collaborate for the first time in their long careers. The director also reunited with Park who he had good memories of previously working with, and Isla Fisher was tapped to play the deranged Australian Shepherd.
Right away, I think Will was such an obvious choice, and Jamie, and they had never worked together. I had worked with Randall Park before, and I always wanted to work with Isla, so I felt like each of their personalities, casting-wise, kind of fit. It just took time thinking of names and looking at the dogs and working through it.
South Africa Latest News, South Africa Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Strays Director Details How Trainers Got Dogs To Enact R-Rated ScenesStrays arrives in theaters August 18.
Read more »
'Strays' Director on Making History With the First R-Rated Live-Action Dog MovieGreenbaum is very excited to have landed that R-rating with a bunch of foul-mouthed animals.
Read more »
‘Strays’ Director Filmed 95% of the Movie With Real Dogs, Not CGIJosh Greenbaum wanted the movie to feel as real as possible.
Read more »
Box Office: ‘Blue Beetle’ Buzzes to $3.3M in Previews, ‘Strays’ Follows With $1.1MDirector Ángel Manuel Soto's 'Blue Beetle' is Hollywood's first live-action superhero movie built around a Latino protagonist. The R-rated canine comedy 'Strays' also opens everywhere Friday.
Read more »
‘Blue Beetle’ Bites $3.3M, ‘Strays’ Woofs $1.1M – Thursday Night Box Office PreviewsEven though kids are heading back to school, the summer box office isn’t giving up yet, and there’s a chance we could near $4 billion thanks to the final act power of Barbie and Oppenhe…
Read more »
Movie critic Grae Drake reviews the latest releasesGrae Drake takes a look at “Blue Beetle,” “Strays,” and “Talk to Me”
Read more »