Jonah Hill, Miles Teller And Director Todd Phillips Pose At ‘War Dogs’ Premiere

Actors Jonah Hill and Miles Teller joined director Todd Phillips at the premiere of War Dogs in New York City Wednesday night.

War Dogs Premiere

On the red carpet at the War Dogs premiere at NYC’s Metrograph, Hill stood between his costar and director in a dapper suit. Teller, rocking his new blond ‘do, kept it casual in jeans and a short-sleeved Hawaiian shirt. As for Philips, he rocked slacks with a white t-shirt and navy bomber jacket.

Phillips, who is best known for helming the likes of Old School and the Hangover movies, hoped that his string of hits with Warner Bros, which included Due Date, would get his off-beat War Dogs project greenlit. Fortunately for the filmmaker, it did.

“We did three Hangover movies and Due Date, and I think together they did like $1.7 billion,” Phillips told Variety. “I’ve learned that when you earn that kind of good will from a movie studio, you have to use it quickly because it’s perishable. I don’t think I could have brought this movie to any other studio, but the fact that I made [Warner Bros.] four hit movies in a row in the span of five years, garnered me enough goodwill.“

“Hopefully it works,” he added. “Not just for me, but for films like this to get made, so it’s not all superhero, DC, and Marvel movies. Everybody claims they want new things. They want new stories. Then you put something out, like Nice Guys, which I thought was wonderfully done. Not a sequel. Not a superhero movie. And it’s like nobody shows up and you’re like what the f— is going on?”

One of Phillips’ next tasks was getting the talent to elevate his material, and help him make another profitable movie, one with an original premise. It was easy to get Teller; Hill less so.

“I saw Todd […] in a restaurant and I said, ‘Todd my dad said you’ve got to put me in your movie,’” Teller said. “‘I just read the article and I think I’m your guy.’”

Hill revealed, “Todd offered me the movie a bunch of times and he kept doing work on the script after each time. It got deeper, more interesting, and less about obvious things that were exciting about it and more about who these guys were. He worked so hard that I wanted to work with someone who was that passionate about what they wanted to do.”

War Dogs hits theaters Aug. 19.