'We set the bar pretty low'

Only two people in the audience at a Dubai preview of The Hangover could name its director. After the film went on general release yesterday, we're willing to wager that Todd Phillips's name will be dropped at least as often as Judd Apatow's. In business terms, at least, his movie is now the top-grossing R-rated comedy of all time in the United States, breaking a nearly 25-year-old record held by Beverly Hills Cop . And it has taken over $340 million (Dh1.24bn) worldwide. He talked to Emirates Business about his style of filmmaking and the role movies play in marketing. There are jokes in this film that aren't explained; the chicken, for example? They are all explained. To me. I have reasons for everything. The chicken they took to feed the tiger. That was food for the tiger when they were going to wake up, but they didn't remember. They stole a cop car because they needed a grating in between them to put the tiger in. From an audience standpoint, it was fun to have unexplained elements . The randomness, yeah. I like that people see it as randomness, but I also like that there are reasons behind it. You have an interesting range of talented actors, but they're not all headliners. Ed Helms is probably well-known now because of The Office . He's a little well-known, but you're right, there are no headliners. To me, it's so great making movies in that regard because I feel like, in a weird way, something like this feels realer (sic) to me and it almost feels like a bigger surprise. The casting is so perfect in this because it's so surprising in a way. It's certainly one of the things that makes the movie feel fresh. Did you know Zach Galifianakis prior to casting him? Yeah, I've known Zach for about 10 years or so, just from his stand-up. I wasn't friends with him, but he is somebody I've been keeping an eye on, just thinking I should put this guy in a movie one day. There seems to be something changing with the value of star power. It used to be that if you put a huge star in the lead, you were guaranteed the number one movie. That doesn't seem to be the case any more? That's a good question. I think there's one person in the world who will always have star power and that's Will Smith. Other than that, it just seems like it's the Wild West right now and I think audiences accept if the concept works, especially because it's such an international marketplace that the stars we think are stars here aren't necessarily even stars [everywhere]; but if the concept works for people, that's where a movie connects. So, the landscape has changed dramatically. How important is it to get Caesar's Palace involved? Could you not have set the film in a fictional hotel? I think comedy plays much better when it plays against reality. I always want it to feel as organic as possible. We came out here and we met with a few hotels, and I really wanted it to be one of the older ones because these guys are in their thirties who are trying to act like gentlemen. They try to do it the right way. And Caesar's got on board pretty early, so it was great. Vegas is the one town where the Chamber of Commerce says, 'Sure, that's fine'. There's this feeling you can do anything in Vegas. It seems like in the '90s, Vegas weirdly went for that family thing and it backfired horribly. Big mistake. But now they've decided to embrace the 'what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas' thing. I think that's what it should be. There are enough places to bring families to. Caesar's, and a lot of Vegas people who helped us in the movie have seen it, and they love it. This is a movie that you have to watch through to the credits, because the snapshots at the end are really funny. Was that always the plan or was there a point where you said, we have to answer those questions that we were talking about? It was something I thought of literally three days before we started shooting. I thought because we never see the night, maybe there's a way to do it in a clever way, and we came up with that very simple device, but it's powerful because you're basically showing the second act of the movie that you never saw. It fills in so many gaps and people just love it, on top of the fact that it's just outrageous. So, literally, just me and the actors went out with my little point-and-shoot camera and shot those while we were making the movie. How do you feel about the fact that this movie is going to be the gold standard of Vegas bachelor parties? We set the bar pretty low, you're right. (Laughs) Do you think there will be a lot of copycat incidents? Are you involved in the marketing of your movies? I literally sit in the editing room with the trailer, and the TV spots and everything. I think you have to. As a movie director, all you are is your point of view. There's a guy filming it; there's a guy doing sound... but all you really can bring is a very singular point of view, and that point of view has to stay through the marketing and the posters and the trailers for it to w