Zoolander
Short description
Derek Zoolander is a top male model who has won VH1's Model of the Year award three times running. When the title goes instead to Hansel, a younger rival with a hippie style, Derek's confidence collapses. A famous designer, Mugatu, then offers him a comeback as the face of a new collection, and Derek accepts, unaware that he is being drawn into a conspiracy. The plot involves a planned attack at a fashion show, with a Malaysian prime minister's plans to ban child labor in his country threatening the fashion industry's interests.
Ben Stiller directed and stars as Derek. It is his third film as director, following Reality Bites and The Cable Guy, and it precedes Tropic Thunder, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Zoolander 2 and Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost. Stiller wrote the screenplay with John Hamburg and Drake Sather, and produced with Scott Rudin and Stuart Cornfeld. Owen Wilson plays Hansel, Christine Taylor plays the journalist Matilda Jeffries, Will Ferrell plays Mugatu, and Milla Jovovich and Jerry Stiller also appear.
Made on a budget of about 28 million dollars, the film took roughly 61 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds 6.5 out of 10 from around 315,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.2 out of 10 from about 5,100 votes. A critics' rating of 6.1 out of 10 from 135 reviews places it close to the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Despite the fact that "Zoolander" is, in particular, a parody of the fashion world, the film features real designs from famous designers.
- The scene with the VH1 awards ceremony was filmed at the actual VH1 awards show. Stiller persuaded the show's organizers to give him the stage to film Owen Hansel receiving his award during a commercial break.
- Mugatu’s hair is completely real, not a wig. Ferrell had to hide his stunning platinum hair color under wigs for an entire season of a television show.
- Ben Stiller's father, Jerry Stiller, said that Ben completely exhausted him on set because he treated his father like a regular actor, and not like his parent. However, Jerry, who was a very famous comedic actor in the past, is proud of his son's professional approach to the work.
- Images of the World Trade Center towers were removed before the film's release on September 28, 2001, just seventeen days after the September 11 attacks, when the towers were destroyed. They were cut from one shot and darkened in another.
- The image of the main character, Derek Zoolander, was conceived by Ben Stiller and Drake Sater long before the film’s release. Viewers first saw him in the television show “Saturday Night Live” (1975).
- In the scene where Ben Stiller and David Duchovny’s characters are talking, the latter says that the fashion industry is behind all the high-profile political assassinations of the last hundred years. To which Zoolander asks, “Why male models?” Duchovny’s character gives a lengthy explanation. After which Zoolander repeats his question: “Why male models?” The fact is that Ben Stiller forgot his next line and simply repeated the previous one. David Duchovny had to improvise and said, “Are you kidding? I just explained it to you.”
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
