CHARLIE DAY, JASON SUDEIKIS BRING COMIC CHAOS TO “HORRIBLE BOSSES 2”

Movie release material

As much as they function best as a team, or what Jason Bateman calls “this three-headed monster, a sort of collective idiot,” New Line Cinema's “Horrible Bosses 2” lets Nick, Dale and Kurt also shine as distinctly individual personalities.

Says producer Jay Stern, “That’s really the strength and the secret of this kind of ensemble. There are people watching around the world who might not identify with all of them but will see a bit of themselves in Dale, or maybe Nick, or Kurt, so audiences have multiple opportunities to get drawn into it.”

Photo courtesy of New Line Cinema and Warner Bros.

For example, the needle of Charlie Day’s character, Dale, only points in one direction or the other: total fear and denial, or total gung-ho commitment. Above all, Dale’s first impulse is to avoid anything that will get him in trouble with his wife, a tendency he displayed in the first round when she was just his fiancée and is now amplified because the stakes are so much higher on the home front.

“They have triplets,” offers Day. “Though it’s not in the script, I’m assuming they got pregnant on their first attempt and then, surprise, it’s triplets! Because that’s what would happen to Dale. In one way, his dreams have come true, he got married to the woman he loves. But he’s in a little over his head with that already, and then they took this huge risk to start their own company, so Dale’s stress level is off the charts.”

Also off the charts is the lengths to which he is prepared to go to make things right.

“Dale is all over the place, flipping out one moment and being ominously quiet the next,” says director Sean Anders. “He’s the most neurotic and easily frightened of the three, and so the least predictable, and Charlie gives him the most amazing, infectious energy; he’s pitch perfect. Dale will jump head-first into some crazy idea like it’s brilliant, and then, the next moment, be screaming about how stupid it is and how it’s going to ruin their lives.”

Jason Sudeikis' Kurt, meanwhile, not one to worry like Nick, or panic like Dale, continues to sail along with full confidence that everything will work out and it’s all good, despite all evidence to the contrary, because he’s just that cool. If something goes wrong, they’ll just figure out a way around it, right?

Sudeikis’ take on Kurt is “happy-go-lucky, almost like a puppy dog. He likes to have fun, and he’s willing to go for it. He’s a bit of an adrenalin junkie, too, so long as there are no heights involved; if he can stay in the same relative longitude and latitude, he’s willing to try just about anything. I think Kurt, like his cohorts, is a product of the ‘Yes we can’ generation, and feels that anything he sets his mind to, he can accomplish.”

That attitude, combined with their checkered past, is what Sudeikis believes leads Kurt and his friends into further trouble. “The criminal activity they engaged in the first time really didn’t change their world very much,” he notes. “They got away with it. And that made them think maybe they could do things they really shouldn’t be doing, like being their own bosses.”

“Horrible Bosses 2” is the follow-up to the 2011 hit comedy “Horrible Bosses” and reunites Jason Bateman, Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis as everyone’s favorite working stiffs: Nick, Dale and Kurt.

Fed up with answering to higher-ups, Nick (Bateman), Dale (Day) and Kurt (Sudeikis) decide to become their own bosses by launching their own business. But a slick investor soon pulls the rug out from under them. Outplayed and desperate, and with no legal recourse, the three would-be entrepreneurs hatch a misguided plan to kidnap the investor’s adult son and ransom him to regain control of their company.

Jennifer Aniston and Jamie Foxx also reprise their “Horrible Bosses” starring roles, while Chris Pine and Christoph Waltz star as new adversaries standing between the guys and their dreams of success.

Opening across the Philippines on Nov. 26, “Horrible Bosses 2” is a New Line Cinema Presentation distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

Jason Sudeikis The Campaign Manager of Will Ferrell in "The Campaign

After starring last year in two ensemble comedies “Horrible Bosses” and “Hall Pass,” comic actor Jason Sudeikis will be seen next in Warner Bros.' “The Campaign.” He plays Mitch, the loyal but increasingly overwhelmed campaign manager, of incumbent congressman, Cam Brady (Will Ferrell).

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.

             In the film, as Cam Brady brazens through an embarrasing sex scandal with his usual flair, the seasoned politico prepares to segue unopposed into his fifth term in office. But this time, to his astonishment, a challenger appears out of nowhere: local tour operator Marty Huggins (Zach Galifianakis) — a dumpy, soft-spoken, cardigan-wrapped, fanny-pack-wearing oddball with zero political experience. As Election Day closes in, the two are locked in a dead heat, with insults quickly escalating to injury until all they care about is burying each other. 

             It’s not the first time Cam has been caught with his pants down, though, and he’s sure he can put the incident behind him with an appropriately staged public apology, a wide smile and some fancy footwork from his faithful campaign manager, Mitch. 

             “You can’t teach charisma and Cam Brady is charming as hell. He’s been relying on that for years,” says Jason Sudeikis. “Mitch is not only Cam’s campaign manager but closest friend, the guy who knows him better than anyone and is always there to cover his tracks and put out the fires he sets.”

             Adds Sudeikis, “Mitch runs the gamut from enabler to straight man, to the voice of reason, to a cohort, depending upon what’s needed. Mostly he protects Cam from himself and his own appetites and delusions and, at the same time, truly likes him and believes in him.” 

             “Overall, I think if you threw Mitch into DC or a bigger arena he’d get chewed up, but for the 14th district of North Carolina, he’s the man,” says producer Chris Henchy. “It helps when there’s no one running against your candidate.”

             Mitch’s loyalty and creativity are perhaps most evident when Cam is pressed to recite The Lord’s Prayer in public and must rely on his manager’s elaborate back-of-the-room pantomimes to piece the words together, a hilarious performance that Sudeikis ad-libbed in rehearsal. “That was my improv instinct kicking in,” he says. “While Cam is sweating it out on stage, he looks toward Mitch for support and I just wanted him to have something to respond to. From there it grew, with [director] Jay Roach adjusting the focus and the writers giving it more context. You never know if that sort of stuff will make it into the movie but it’s a good sign when you see the director laughing.” 

             Next year, Sudeikis' upcoming projects are the feature films “We’re the Millers,” which re-teams him with “Horrible Bosses” co-star Jennifer Aniston and Adam Shankman’s drama “This is Where I Leave You” based on the best-selling novel of the same title.

“The Campaign” is distributed in the Philippines by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.