Director Shawn Levy won’t name names, but he knows why some of the Summer ‘09 comedies flopped while his film “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian” thrived.
It all comes down to tone.
“Those movies … were disasters of tone. You don’t service a big, fun premise comedy and then shoot yourself in the foot with too much irony,“ Levy tells WWTW. “You need the audience to invest in the fun and the warmth and generally care about the characters.”
“Battle of the Smithsonian,” out this week on DVD and Blu-ray, represents the lessons Levy learned while directing films like “Just Married” and “Cheaper by the Dozen.”
“It’s no coincidence that ‘Night at the Museum’ completely blew the lid off my career. I finally got a handle on tone,” he says, describing the “Museum” films as “broadly comedic but warmhearted.”
“Smithsonian” introduces a gaggle of new characters to the mix, from the feisty Amelia Earhart (Amy Adams) to Ivan the Terrible (Christopher Guest).
So how did Levy recruit even more talented stars for the sequel, a film already stuffed with returning stars Ben Stiller, Robin Williams, Owen Wilson and Steve Coogan?
“You ask, and the benefit of having made the first movie is they tend to say ‘yes,’” Levy says modestly, given the original‘s box office bonanza.
Tomorrow: Levy shares why Stiller reigns as a comedy acting force and how the director juggled a set full of improv-happy actors.
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Would like more detail on the definition of “tone.”