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Features
Pierre Perifel
A Criminally Fun Caper How the creative team behind DreamWorks entertaining The Bad Guys created a zippy new visual style for the studio’s 42nd feature. By Ramin Zahed f the new DreamWorks feature The Bad Guys awakens fond memories of the best heist movies in the history of cinema, the film’s director Pierre Perifel, screenwriter Etan Coen (Tropic Thunder, Idiocracy, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa) and producers Damon Ross and Rebecca Huntley will be very pleased. Not only does the charming new caper takes audiences on a wild ride full of unexpected twists and turns, it also works as a cool homage to some very grown-up movies — including Heat, Oceans 11, Snatch and Pulp Fiction. DreamWorks’ 42nd movie follows the adventures of five infamous criminals — Mr. Wolf (Sam Rockwell), Mr. Snake (Marc Maro), Mr. Shark (Craig Robinson), Mr. Piranha (Anthony Ramos) and Ms. Tarantula (Awkwafina) — who set out to pretend that they have given up their bad, bad ways and become model citizens, with some assistance from Professor Marmalade, a clever guinea pig voiced by Richard Aoyade. News reporter Tiffany Fluffit (Lilly Singh), governor Diane Foxington (Zazie
I
Beetz) and put-upon police chief Misty Luggins (Alex Borstein) round out the film’s zany cast of players.
Planning a Perfect Heist
Perifel, the film’s French director who is best known for his acclaimed shorts Bilby and Le Building, says he was instantly drawn to the project when he came across the books by Aaron Blabey. “It was an immediate attraction for me,” he says. “The film has a great concept and it mixed two of my favorite things: heist movies and anthropomorphized animals. Damon and I talked about making an Oceans 11type movie for the whole family, so I helped create a trailer using storyboards. Our production designer Luc Desmachelier was also already attached. After we pitched it to Margie Cohn and Kristin Lowe [DreamWorks’ president and CCO] , they really liked it and greenlit it as the first original feature at the studio under their leadership.” For the director and his team, which also
included art director Floriane Marchix, VFX supervisor Matt Baer, head of look Jeff Budsberg, head of story Nelson Yokota, editor John Venzon, sound supe Julian Slater and composer Daniel Pemberton, it was important to keep the tone of the movie light and breezy, while paying homage to the best of the heist genre. “I was surrounded by a dream team of writers, artists, technicians and producers who I knew would turn it into so much more than what I could have ever imagined,” Perifel says. “The imagery of the film is mind-blowing, fresh and playful — and the credit goes to the entire crew of visionaries that challenged the CG pipeline to pull out unique visuals and made the look of this film the ultimate reward of two years of intense production.” The film‘s snappy and visually stylized look owes a lot to some of Perifel’s beloved Franco-Belgian comics and artists that he grew up with. “You can see a lot of Hergé, Uderzo and Moebius - but there’s also Luc Besson, Guy Ritchie and Steven Soderbergh and Quentin
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may 22
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