ANDY SANDBERG STUMBLES UPON "HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA"

With a diverse range of comedic talents, Andy Samberg (“That's My Boy,” “Friends With Benefits”) has emerged as a captivating and hilarious leading man on screens both big and small. Now, he provides the voice of cool dude Jonathan, the only human in a hotel full of monsters, in Columbia Pictures' rollicking animated comedy, “Hotel Transylvania.”

Photo courtesy of Columbia Pictures

             Jonathan is a typical 21-year-old human, backpacking his way across Europe in his continuing worldwide travels. He’s confident, full of life, talkative, curious and good-natured—not to mention amazing on a skateboard. His motto is “just roll with it." 

             Now, in his wandering, he’s stumbled onto a hotel full of…monsters!? To help him blend in (and keep the monsters unaware of the security breach), hotelier Dracula (voice of Adam Sandler) disguises him as Johnnystein, Frankenstein’s supposed cousin. Drac's plan backfires, however, when his daughter Mavis (voice of Selena Gomez) and ‘Johnnystein’ hit it off, and Jonathan ignores his earlier promise to Drac, to run at his first opportunity. Because hey, this monster thing is kind of cool – and he’s intrigued by a cute teenage vampire girl.

             “Jonathan is high on life,” says director Genndy Tartakovsky. “He’s got a big personality, he’s energetic, and outgoing. When Andy Samberg did the first voice reading, it was like, boom, there it is. It was instant humor, instant magic between him and Adam – the contrast between Adam’s super-articulate Dracula and Andy’s free spirit was perfect. But Andy also brought a sincerity to the role – he made Jonathan who he is.”

             “Jonathan is pretty much based on who I was in high school, and on a lot of dudes I knew growing up in the Bay Area in California,” Samberg says. “He’s kind of a backpacker, really loves seeing the world, and super positive in the face of adversity, even maybe when he shouldn’t be.”

             “It was really fun to do more animation,” says Samberg, who previously voiced a role for Sony Pictures Animation’s hit film “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.” “The fact that this time I got to record with Sandler in the studio was a big plus. On other animated movies I've worked on the actors didn't really get to record together, but I think working together helped us play off each other and gave the characters the right tone.”

             Samberg recently completed his seventh and final season as a cast member on TV's “Saturday Night Live.”

             “Hotel Transylvania” is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International. Visit http://www.columbiapictures.com.ph for trailers, exclusive content and free downloads. Like us at www.Facebook.com/ColumbiaPicturesPH and join our fan contests.