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He's trying to get into character.
I'm a huge dog lover.
My husband and I, we have three dogs.
.
f
They're so cute.
We've grown to very much love them.
Bulldogs are the coolest dogs. I'd play with those things all day.
There's boxers, German shepherds, poodles, Chihuahuas, puppies.
Fifty, 60 dogs on the set every darn day.
(LAUGHS)
The good thing about all these dogs is,
even if they cause trouble, you love them.
KYLA PRATT: You know what?
I'd rather work with a crazy animal than other crazy actors.
So
When you make a movie called Hotel for Dogs,
.
So it's as if we shook the film community,
and all the dog lovers fell down to the movie.
(DOGS BARKING)
MAN 2: Action!
(WHISTLE BLOWING)
FREUDENTHAL: They sent me the script, and first I thought,
"Do I really want to work with animals and, you know, kids?"
But then I sort of saw
a real urban fairytale quality to this movie,
which deals with abandoned children and abandoned dogs,
and sort of draws an interesting parallel to that.
JASON CLARK: It's based on a book by Lois Duncan,
which is a children's book which is really beloved.
But we took it into a new realm a little bit.
We set in this urban, downtown feel to the movie,
to kind of create an environment that was not conducive
or easy for dogs to live in or foster kids to live in.
EWAN LESLIE: When we meet Andi and Bruce, they're living with Carl and Lois Scudder,
who are not the best foster parents in the world.
You get the idea they're really doing it
for the check from the government,
and there's no way the kids could ever have a pet in this household.
Yet they have this little dog, Friday,
that they got when their parents were still alive.
Friday's very important to them.
They love him, and he's their link to their parents.
So they're constantly smuggling him in and out,
trying to keep him hidden from the Scudders.
There's a key scene where Emma Roberts' character
Friday a real home,
that it's been too hard,
and he insists they are a real home, that they are a real family.
And eventually, they adopt all these dogs,
and they do become that real family that he's talking about.
So, it's sort of "family is where you find it."
GREG MICHAEL: First time I read the script,
I just thought it was a charming family comedy with dogs,
and, of course, there was a lot of dog action,
but w getti and b
you start realizing that
every shot with dogs is not just about one or two dogs,
what we're trying to do here is incorporate
20, 30, in some cases up to 120 dogs in a single shot,
it's a little bit more complex.
Well, you can't just sort of stick 100 dogs in a room
and hope that they're going to do what is written in the screenplay.
I remember reading the screenplay the first time and saying,
nna
A lot went into the casting.
First, I went to Gary Gero, who has always been the dog trainer
in all my movies and ***'s movies.
He then brought on a guy named Mark Forbes
who was our daily overall trainer, who is fantastic.
MARK FORBES: When I looked at the script for the first time,
it was a little bit of both sheer terror
and excitement that it was going to be a really fun project to work on.
MAN: And action, dogs.
MAN 2: See now, pull. Pull now, come on.
EMMA ROBERTS: There's all different kinds of dogs.
There's even... What's cool is that
the dogs that are working aren't the only dogs that are on set.
The trainers bring all their dogs,
so there'll be like 20 dogs hanging around outside that are really cute.
It's a little bit difficult working with dogs,
because we get really thrown off sometimes in takes.
KEVIN DILLON: It's not like... Most sets, it's "Quiet on the set,"
and everyone's realy quiet and still.
On this set, it's a totally different thing.
You hear commands from all over.
I don't know how many trainers there are,
but there's got to be, at times, 10 of them.
And there's 20 dos running around.
(CHUCKLING) And it's just, you know, a room full of,
"Stay, stay, Reba. Stay. Sit. Sit. Sit,"
in between all this stuff.
It definitely takes a lot more patience,
because even if we do ogs
the take is just bad.
And sometimes, the dogs will do it perfet
and then other times they'll just start wandering around,
and you have to think,
"Oh, yeah. They are dogs." You know what I mean?
MAN: Can we do that one more time?
ROBERTS: The first one was so good.
AUSTIN: I had to run up a staircase with Friday and Georgia,
and, literally, we did 17 takes, because they kept falling behind me
or going too far ahead of me,
or thinking I have food in my hand and nipping at my hand and stuff.
MAN: Action!
(WHISTLE BLOWING)
(WOMAN SHOUTING COMMANDS AT DOGS)
PRATT: The canine cast is so much fun.
We shot the escaping-the-dogs- from-the-pound scene, and it was crazy.
Emma got caught up, and got tripped by one of the dogs.
JONATHAN GORDON: The kids are bursting out,
and they're leading all the dogs out of the pound,
and she went down and the dogs trampled her.
It was like a stampede. She had a paw print, actually, on her face.
I didn't see it, but she, apparently, went down,
and then the dogs went all over her,
and ran through and she got up just cracking up. It was funny.
ROBERTS: You know, I'm actually glad that the dogs trampled me yesterday,
'cause it actually gives e something to talk about,
because it's a great story when I'm doing interviews,
and they say, "What funny thing happened?"
It's like, "Well, here's something tragic when I almost died."
So it's great that happened, 'cause now I can talk about it.
MAN: And action!
Oh, yeah, let's just wander the street and rescue every stray we see.
FREUDENTHAL: Well, with Emma, you basically need somebody
who can carry a whole movie,
and at that age, it's really hard to find somebody who can do that.
An just
and quite frankly, works for the camera so well.
DONNER: She is fabulous. She just lights up the screen.
She's got a naturalness and an ease about her.
I saw Nancy Drew and I was a huge fan,
and I think she's incredible. But incredible.
Once Emma was on board, we really needed somebody for Bruce
who could sort of hold the candle to her.
ROBERTS: Jake as a little brother, he's really cute.
He's one of the sweetest boys ever.
He's been really fun to work with,
and not only are we together on set, but we're together in school,
so we've definitely bonded a little bit, and he's very sweet, very, very cute.
He's such a gentleman, which is really nice.
He sort of has like a bit of savvy that doesn't go into precociousness.
It's just sort of innocent savvy, and it worked.
Do you know the reaction I get when I tell people
I'm trying to place 16 and 11-year-old siblings?
It's not a good one.
You screw this up, that's it. I can't...
Don Cheadle, he moves from Hotel Rwanda
into the Hotel for Dogs.
Bernie is a social worker who
has been working with these kids and trying to get them placed.
You know what I was doing when the phone rang tonight?
I was explaining to my wife
how I wasn't going to allow work to ruin our evening.
CHEADLE: When I read the script, I thought it was...
Especially the way that my character talked to the kids, I liked,
because it's how I talk to my kids,
o be
I think the kids rose to the occasion. I think he made them better.
He's an absolute pleasure to work with, and a very fine human being.
We have a really good group, especially the kids.
I absolutely love Kyla. She's so funny.
Hi.
ROBERTS: I think Thor thinks we are all a little crazy, 'cause we're always laughing.
(LAUGHING) And we're like, I don't know,
I think he thinks we're all a little crazy,
but he's very great. And he's definitely really fun to work with.
He's kind of like a kid. He's got this real kid quality about him,
and I think for this kind of movie, you really need that.
So, he was great with the kids.
He's been a lot of fun to work with,
and I think he's doing a ***-up job.
Are you ready to rock and roll?
(PLAYING ROCK TUNE)
Come on.
♪ Ruff, ruff, ruff
♪ It's tough on me
♪ I need a little treat ♪
ROBERTS: Lisa and Kevin
and I was a huge fan of Lisa from Friends and everything.
She's funny in real life and on camera,
so it's been really col to get to work with her.
They're out-and-out hilarious. I mean,
we have so many takes of me just cracking up in the middle of a scene,
'cause I can't keep a straight face.
Y)
DILLON: We work really hard at making bad music.
That's actually one of the things that was the most fun,
is actually the singing and the guitar playing.
♪ Who will tell my tale ♪
(LAUGHING) It was really fun. It was. It's fun.
I mean, there is pressure if you have to be good.
But there's just fun to be had if you have to be bad.
♪ Ruff, ruff, ruff
DILLON: It was fun. I loved it.
I want to record a couple more tunes, maybe cut an album.
♪ I need a cookie ♪
(DOGS BARKING)
FREUDENTHAL: The main dog characters are sort of a really colorful bunch.
Friday, of course, always wants to eat, and kind of has a very strong will.
s.
REITMAN: He has this wonderful intelligence in his eyes.
He's very expressive.
You know, he moves... I love the way he walks down the street.
DONNER: Georgia seems to be the kids' favorite.
And that's 'cause she's cute and she's little and she's a fetcher.
And she likes to go and fetch everything.
She's got a really sweet face.
Georgia is one of my favorite dogs
because you can just point the camera at her
and you get a great laugh.
DONNER: Well, my favorite is Lenny.
And Lenny is a great big oaf.
And Lenny needs to look outsid.
So we have a scene where Lenny's howling,
and finally Andi realizes that it's the shade.
And she lifts up this shade, and you see this face,
he's got such a sweet face.
He's just... You can't help but love him. So he's my favorite.
In terms of the funniest dog, probably Cooper, who's the bulldog.
There's just such a scale to hm
in the weight and jowliness of his face..
Makes me laugh every time I see him.
DONNER: You have to be very patient to get that look.
And that look really works onscreen.
I mean, honestly, when all fails, cut to a dog, because they're so cute.
It's my favorite kind of dog.
AUSTIN: We did about a week of pre-production,
where we rehearsed
and really getting to know them each.
It's very helpful for the actors to work with the dogs,
so that they realize the dog is going to be in the scene,
you might have to give the dog a treat a few times.
There might be trainer right off your eye line
that's jumping up and down and waving to the dog.
(CHUCKLES) It can be a little distracting.
They were like, "Come, meet the dogs and have training."
And after a day I was like, "You know, we're cool. We got this."
I know when they're working just to be quiet
and stand out of the way, so we have an understanding.
They're really intelligent.
We're dealing with some Ivy League dogs in this movie.
I think that's a good way to put it.
He gave me a high-five.
WOMAN: Yay.
CLARK: We wanted to create characters that will live well beyond the movie.
Ones that, when we watch the movie and we come home,
we remember their names, we remember their personalities.
And we also wanted to do something right in how we did this movie,
so a lot of our lead dogs we've cast are rescues,
are dogs that are actually adopted dogs.
And there are some amazing actors.
(BARKS)
WOMAN: Speak.
CLARK: In the case of our lead dog,
we have a team that makes up our lead dog, Friday.
And our lead actor from that team is Cosmo.
And Cosmo is a rescue.
I mean, only four months ago, Cosmo was a dog given up for adoption.
(DOGS WHIMPERING)
DONNER: There was a real pound that we shot in. And there were dogs in there.
And I'm just really proud to say that all those dogs got rescued.
And we actually put a message at the end of the movie,
and it says, "Don't buy dogs. Adopt. Adopt them."
One thing I hope that this film does for the audience
is to make them aware of the very real problem
of the excess animal population today and the things that are being done.
This a responsibility we all have.
LESLIE: When they first gave us the book, it was just really exciting to us,
because Lauren Shuler Donner and I are both very involved in dog rescue,
to sort of find a property about rescuing dogs,
it doesn't happen very often.
And I think when you're talking about foster kids,
and you're talking about dogs finding homes,
ur money
and DreamWorks was great. Instead of giving us start gifts,
they donated to Karma Rescue, which allowed us to save several dogs,
ttle puppy
we took her in,
and I started bringing her to set and keeping her in my trailer
and everybody was just instantly smitten with her.
And two of our crew members, Liz and Aubrey, said,
"We'd love to adopt her."
They have a couple of acres in New Mexico and other dogs.
We saw an opportunity to give a poor little dog a good home.
And my wife fell in love with her as soon as she saw her.
Animals are not throwaway toys.
Animals are living, breathing, feeling creatures.
And they need love. And they need to be taken care of.
And the theme of our movie,
our kids, played by Emma Roberts and Jake T. Austin,
they're really strays in a sense, and I think the movie's really about
not overlooking what's valuable in our world,
whether they be these foster kids or these dogs
or this old abandoned hotel.
(THUNDER RUMBLING)
BRUCE: Wow.
FREUDENTHAL: We really wanted to play the hotel as an orphan itself.
I mean, it's abandoned.
Nobody finds any use in it anymore. It just sits there.
So when we first meet it, it's actually... You get the wrong impression.
(MAN SHOUTS)
GORDON: Thor is such a gifted visual filmmaker.
His background is from animation
and he wanted the places and the environments to really be alive.
This movie doesn't really look like any other movie.
It's a
There is an arc for the look of the picture.
And that is, it turns brighter and brighter
as their relationships with the surrounding community
become more involved. And I find that very interesting,
and so, certainly the decoration, the colors, the light,
all of that sort of reflects that.
The first time we enter the hotel, we see the old scaffolding,
and the kids are confronted by a dark place,
and Bruce has his flashlight with him and they're looking for Friday.
MAN: It's actually scary. It's like an old haunted house.
But when we come to see it during the day,
we begin to discover that it's filled with a lot of great opportunities
and rooms that they can keep these dogs in.
DONNER: The hotel is full of junk, which is the good news to Bruce,
because he's like a genius inventor.
What he does is, he creates all of these little inventions
and all of these little contraptions and basically, the hotel goes on autopilot
when the kids go back to the Scudders' apartment.
MICHAEL LANTIERI: One of the things that we actually get to do
is never grow up in our job.
So we're always building something or messing with something
or wrecking something.
So one of the most fun times we've had in a long time
is driving radio-controlled sheep.
Every time we go into a new set, there's something different,
there's something that somebody's designed,
it's really cool how they come up with all this stuff.
They're pieces of kinetic art. They're wonderful machines that...
I know that anybody that sees this movie,
just for that reason, will love these machines.
What the kids do is really magical in rehabilitating this hotel,
and making it just a wonderland for dogs
and a home away from home for them.
It's really beautiful and magical. It really is.
It's just like this beautiful, magical storybook.
(INAUDIBLE)
When I was told that Hotel for Dogs ptioned,
ok
that was part of my heart that I really loved,
and I am so relieved and so happy to see this movie.
The whole spirit of the book is still there,
and the characters are still there, and the dogs are still there.
Dogs have a way of speaking to you and being part of your family
that really surprises you when you have that.
Family is the gathering of those closest to you and what you feel.
FREUDENTHAL: Family is not who's assigned to you by the system
or even who you're born to sometimes, but family is kind of where you find it.
And the kids make their own family.
(INAUDIBLE)
(BARKS)