Bringing the Museum to Life - ComingSoon.net

During the day, they may seem like harmless wax statues and stuffed figures for visitors to enjoy, but when the doors lock and the lights turn out in 20th Century Fox's , the adventure begins as African animals, prehistoric creatures and legendary heroes come to life and roam the halls in the action-comedy.

Ben Stiller plays Larry Daley, a divorced dad who just can't keep a job. While he believes he's destined to do big things like invent contraptions that people just have no use for, he knows he has to get a job that actually pays, so he reluctantly gets a job as the night guard at the museum. The security guard he replaces, Cecil (Dick Van Dyke), conveniently forgets to tell him about what really happens as soon as nightfall hits.

Much to Larry's surprise on his first night of work, he finds himself in the midst of chaos and confusion as he witnesses a T-Rex skeleton coming to life and fierce ancient warriors battling it out with each other. Since Cecil isn't much help in the situation Larry must learn history quick in order to control the nightly chaos he's just stumbled into.
ComingSoon.

net talked to director Shawn Levy, Ben Stiller and legendary actor Dick Van Dyke:
ComingSoon.net: Dick, you are very selective in what you do in this stage in your life, so why did you choose this film?
Dick Van Dyke: Well, it was a coup.

This question answers itself. There was so much talent. I've been a fan of Ben's for so long.

Ben Stiller: What? You've got that backwards.
Van Dyke: Some of the best things in my life have been when somebody said, "Why don't we get him to do it?

" These two guys thought of me and called me and I said, "I gotta be in this movie." It's a classic family movie. It's right down my alley, except for the fact I get to play a bad guy, which I love.

CS: Did you like that?
CS: Could you follow up on that, because you don't generally play a bad guy.
Van Dyke: But, he's not a really bad guy.

The way I rationalize it is what he's trying to steal, anybody would, which is eternal life and eternal youth, and anybody would steal for that. And he turns out to be an okay guy, but I get to sneer and leer at Ben a lot and I got a kick out of that. And I get to beat him up too.

CS: For each of you, which object in the museum would you actually most like to see come to life?
Stiller: I dunno, I mean, I was always into the mummies when I was a kid. And for some reason mummies and dinosaurs children are attracted too.

So, sure, seeing a mummy come to life or, I dunno, what else is in that museum that you'd like to see come to life?
Stiller: Sometimes they are on screen they have good chemistry, but off screen they don't get along? I'd say that sort of what me and Crystal had.

First of all, she's a female monkey and she's playing a guy, so she already had a chip on her shoulder about that. And she wears a diaper and I think she resents that she can't control herself. And then she got to hit me, but I guess some rule, I guess the animal protection laws or is it just because you can't hit a monkey because they will bite you?

But she could hit me as hard as she wanted. She was encouraged to hit me very hard. And she had this way of doing it when she connected that was really annoying.

I couldn't hit her back. I'd have to go like that and stop. And when it came to my close up I'd get the monkey puppet to hit or the green tennis ball.

CS: In a way it's switched in this movie because Robin Williams is more restrained and you are reacting. Did you improvise at all?
Stiller: I think you never want to have to go into the scene having to improvise, you want to make sure it's working on the page.

But, I do like to have the ability to like try stuff just in the moment to give it some sort of spontaneity. Especially when you feel there is an area you can go to. But, with Robin we really didn't do any improvisation.

Shawn Levy: I think because Robin was playing an historical figure the latitude was kind of limited.
Stiller: He kept on doing this hilarious improv where he would do the Teddy Roosevelt in old newsreel footage where it would just be like the fast motion and his voice coming in and out and it was so brilliant. It was like a perfect Robin Williams bit, but we couldn't figure out a way to put it in the movie.

Levy: It was funny and it still bums me out we didn't find a home for it, but Ben is being slightly modest, almost certainly the entire visual effects team that worked on the movie said this is far and away the most improvisational adventure/effects movie they have ever heard of, because whether it was Rickey Gervais or Coogan or Owen [Wilson], often times with Dick, Mickey [Rooney], it was a heavily improvisational process. In fact, many of my favorite scenes are almost entirely improvised.
Stiller: Ricky Gervais is so fun to work with in that way because he cracks up so easily.

So, he'd crack me up, I'd crack him up. The crew was bored, but we were cracking each other up. After like 12 takes they'd be like, "C'mon.

" But it was really fun to work with him in that way, but Owen and I didn't really get a chance to really work together too much, because they shot all that stuff after we were finished.
Levy: The interesting thing about those scenes is literally the way we did it, because Ben and Owen weren't even in the same country. So, literally we shot the scene with Ben talking to a toothpick and then he would say the scripted line to the toothpick and then he would do 20 variations on the scripted line to the toothpick.

Then I would literally have to watch it all and write down every variation that Ben did. Then three months later when Owen Wilson showed up, I would sit there and I would feed him all 20 versions so I could get twenty possibly reactions. And then literally, I figured out editorially which ones I wanted to put together.

So, it is improvisational, but it's unlike any improv I've ever been a part of.
Stiller: And then we would take that toothpick and put it in a club sandwich and eat it after the scene to complete the process. (laughs.

)
CS: When you look back at some of your early movies on television, what do you see? Is it like looking at an old home movie?
Van Dyke: Well it's funny, we were talking about that the other day - someone of my generation.

If I look at something I've done recently, I just die for myself and I'm critical and I pick it apart. But if ten years go by, and I happen to see it on television, I go, "That wasn't too bad." Isn't that funny?

You forget all the problems you had.
Stiller: It's like looking at someone else. It's so far in the past.

Van Dyke: I forgot all the mistakes I made.
Stiller: Dick is incredible. I mean the dancing.

I think there were two or three times when I turned to you and said, "You're 80? Really? I don't believe you.

" And also the character is sort of working there to keep him young. So, I think there is a portrait of Dorian Van Dyke somewhere in the closet.
Van Dyke: Some of the dancing is over the credits I understand.

We laid down some dancing. You turned on the camera and said, "Dance!" that's it.

Levy: It was literally just an idea that came to us on the day.

It was never in the script and we just played some music very loudly and said, "Dance! Dance!" And first of all Mickey Rooney was kind of confused and then he was like, "You really want me to dance?

" and then they all really committed to it like you can see, but none more gracefully and with such agility as Dick Van Dyke. I'm not sure if you stuck around that long in the credits, but my personal favorite is Dick, after doing a weird, sinewy, Axel Rose - snake like move, just turns his back to the camera and does a pure booty shake for about five seconds. I hope you caught that 'cause that's a gem.

Van Dyke: By the time you cut I was ready to script. (Laughs.)
CS: Ben did you learn anything about history from the film?

Stiller: Well I learned to speak Hun, which was great. And that is actual Hun. It's ancient Hun so you really can't check it.

But, y'know, I love history, I'm very interested by it and I think it's great to have a movie that brings it alive in a way. It's sort of that romanticized version of it. But that's sort of like what you get into when you're a kid and then when you're older you can learn the realities of history and then get depressed that more people have died in the name of god than anything else and all that stuff.

This is the fun version.
CS: Is there any particular timeframe of history you are personally interested in?
Stiller: I'm very interested in the early American history, the time when the country came together.

I'm also interested in ancient Rome. It's funny, we were doing the international - whatever - press and I told the guy I was interested in ancient Rome and some guy, I'm not sure where he is from, says, "Oh, you would like to be in the orgies?" (laughs.

) That would be nice. To be in the orgies.
Levy: I literally walked into the room and the opening question was, "So, Ben Stiller was just talking about how he would like to be in an orgy.

What do you have to say to that?" I had no idea they had set you up with that.
CS: Shawn are you going to do a "The Pink Panther 2"?

Levy: I would say that it's unlikely, but I wouldn't rule it out. We'll see if we get a script and we'll ultimately see how it plays out.
CS: Why would it be unlikely?

Levy: Frankly going into the release of "Night of the Museum," this has been by far the most challenging movie I've made, certainly the most complex. I'm for the first time in my career quite content to sit back, take a breath and look at the horizon before I dive into the next thing.
CS: Ben, I hear this is a very special movie for you and some actress named Anne Meara.

Stiller: It was really fun to get a chance to work with my mom. And Shawn, I think, that was your idea wasn't it to cast my mom?
Levy: I remember Ben's mom from "Fame.

" I remember her as like the English teacher.
Levy: Leroy's mean English teacher and I've literally loved her work since then so when we needed someone to play this kind of forbidden employment officer who ultimately sees a glimmer of potential in this rascal I thought that Anne could really play it. She did.

CS: But, this is the first time you two actually played in a scene together right?
Stiller: I think it is, yeah. We did some stuff a long time ago like a cable TV show and my parents were on that all the time you know because they were parents and they were helping me out.

My mom had a little thing where she appears and throws an egg in "Zoolander," but this was the first time we did a scene together and it was really fun. It's funny because we've got the same DNA and it's interesting to go back and forth with someone you're related to when you're not playing mother and son. There's a thing when I sort wink at her that we cut out.

It was weird.
Levy: Yeah it was officially too weird. It was definitely too weird.

Stiller: We were exploring all the edible layers to that relationship.

CS: Ben, you're one of the best reactionary comics. Does it come natural? And Shawn can you assess his contribution to this particular film?

Stiller: For me that was the challenging thing in the movie was you know reacting to things that weren't there. I know that I'm better as an actor when I'm working with a good actor. I think anytime you're working with a better actor, it makes you a better actor.

So the hard thing for me was working with the dinosaur or some of those animals that weren't there because you really generate so much and you have to really figure out a way to make it real, but also you're totally creating it. It's easy when you have you're off camera person like Shawn who would be giving me the off camera dinosaur or a monkey or a lion and doing it with all of his heart and soul and enjoying it. But, the tough thing was when there was a shot on screen with you and they can't put anything there.

So I found that hard. I think there are a lot of other actors who are better suited to that kind of thing and are better at it and so I found that part hard.
Levy: I would agree.

I think Ben is one of the great comedic actors working and not just now, but for a long long time. Part of what is always so great about his work is he is always honest on screen. He doesn't fake it and is such, he's always kind of a relatable audience surrogate for us as viewers.

So in this movie, as Ben said, we could have just had Ben running down a hallway looking scared, but we knew that wouldn't feel as believable as him reacting to something. Even if it was me on a ladder being wheeled down a hallway we literally adopted a whatever it takes mentality to get Ben something concrete and real to play off of. It's the difference between playing tennis with a wall and playing tennis with another person.

CS: Did you pretend to be the Tyrannosaurus Rex chasing him?
Stiller: He really took it on. He really got the whole thing.

Levy: I would do the talons. I would bring my little talons by my nipples and simulate the T-Rex it that fashion and I think it was scarily real.
Stiller: It was weird.

Then he was like you have to stay in character in between takes and then he'd start running down the hall and the animators were like video taping him to get the motion right.
CS: Will that be on the DVD?
Stiller: Also as the monkey he really got monkey like.

(Makes a monkey face)
Levy: It is true and in fact like 80% of the monkey's sounds in the movie is me. You can't do it justice in print so I won't bother humiliating myself but literally 75%-80% of the monkey is actually me on set playing the monkey.
Stiller: It made a huge difference for me.

Talking about your question, it made a huge difference to have somebody to react to for sure.
Levy: The last thought I'll share is that in a movie like this where these circumstances are wildly unrealistic, it was critical for me to have a center for the film that was fiercely unrealistic because if you have someone reacting unbelievably to unbelievable circumstances, there's no comedy there. But, for Ben to keep it always true in the midst of surreal events, I think that's where a lot of the comedy comes from.

You can hear Levy make monkey sounds and see Stiller getting chased by an imaginary T-Rex when opens in theaters on December 22.