Director Todd Phillips talks ‘Hangover 2’

November 30, 2009 by Jane Boursaw

I have a feeling no one was more surprised with the success of this summer’s “The Hangover” than director Todd Phillips. It’s a buddy movie that hit all the right notes with audiences. I loved it – read my review here — and so did moviegoers who launched it to a $277 million hit to become the highest-grossing R-rated comedy ever.

Even while the film was shooting, director Todd Phillips was pondering a sequel. “You always have those days when you say, ‘If we did another one, wouldn’t it be funny if…?’” he says. “Then once the movie tested so well, Warner Bros. came to me even before it was released and said, ‘Let’s do another one.’”

Phillips is currently shooting the road-movie comedy “Due Date” with Robert Downey, Jr. and “Hangover” star Zach Galifianakis, but says he’s working on a script for the “Hangover” sequel.

He promises that the film will reunite the stars of the first movie, Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and Galifianakis, and will bring something new to the franchise.

“What people loved about ‘The Hangover’ was not Las Vegas or the bachelor party, but these three characters,” Phillips says. “I think you can take those characters and put them in other situations, and you don’t need the sell of Vegas and a bachelor party and all that other stuff.”