Based on the real story of brothers Mike and Dave Stangle, who posted the following ad on Craigslist stating their need for wedding dates for their cousin’s wedding: TWO MEN NEED WEDDING DATES : My brother and I are looking for wedding dates. We’ve been told by the bride that bringing dates is “mandatory” so we “won’t harass all of my friends all night” and “stay under control.” Rather than ask some fringe women in our lives to go and face the inevitable ‘does this mean he wants to take it to the next level!?’ questions, we’d rather bring complete strangers and just figure it out. Still reading? In anticipation of your questions we’ve developed an FAQ section below.
The ad became a viral phenomenon in hours, and the story soon spread from the internet to media outlets the world over. It also displayed a remarkable prescience; the boys estimated an 85% chance of their story becoming a movie, though they said, “we refuse the right to let Ashton Kutcher play either one of us.”
Well, as luck would have it, their story is now a movie – “Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates” and there isn’t a Kutcher in sight. In the movie, the titular Mike (Adam DeVine) and Dave (Zac Efron) are also brothers, warned by their family to smarten-up their hard-partying ways before their sister’s wedding, and to bring two respectable girls as dates. But the girls they end up choosing, played by Anna Kendrick and Aubrey Plaza, aren’t quite as wholesome as they expect. And as the real Stangles explain, some artistic license has been taken to turn the film into this year’s hottest R-rated comedy.
The core of the film’s comedy and much of its heart is the brotherly bond between the two guys. “Mike and Dave are close,” states director Jake Szymanski. “They’ve grown up together, still live together, work together, party together, and ultimately learn some lessons together.”
“Mike and Dave adore their sister,” confirms Efron. “Their mantra is: ‘We’re doin’ it for Jeanie! Everything we do is for Jeanie!’ They protect and love her and have put her on a pedestal. She forgives them for all the mischief they do.”
To make this wedding go smoothly for Jeanie, Mike and Dave are told they must bring dates to the nuptials. “So, Mike and Dave come up with a ‘foolproof’ plan to find respectable dates,” says Devine. “They troll for them on Craigslist—where they can also find lawnmowers and stuff.”
While the filmmakers strove to capture specific aspects of the siblings’ personalities, the physical differences between the real and reel Stangles were striking. “I want to say that Mike and Dave are around 11 feet tall,” Devine notes. “They made me and Zac Efron [who plays Dave] feel like little elf people.”
And what did (real) Mike and Dave make of this whole “Hollywood” experience? “They got guys to play us who are not as good looking as us, or as tall, but they are better actors,” says Dave. “I’ll give them that. And Stephen Root, who plays our dad, seems to like us more than our real dad.”
This year’s hottest R-18 comedy date movie – “Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates” will open in cinemas nationwide on September 14 from 20th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros.
