J E R E M Y W A L K E R + A S S O C I A T E S, I N C.
PRESENTS
A FILM BY SCOTT CAAN
THE DOG PROBLEM
PRESS NOTES
PRESS CONTACT: SALES:
Jeremy Walker / Judy Drutz Rich Klubeck
JEREMY WALKER + ASSOCIATES UTA
160 West 71st St. #2A 9560 Wilshire Blvd.
New York, NY 10023 Beverly Hills, CA 90212
Telephone: 212-595-6161 Telephone: 310-228-3824
At Toronto: 646-244-3287
CAST
Solo Giovanni Ribisi
Lola Lynn Collins
Casper Scott Caan
Benny Kevin Corrigan
Jules Mena Suvari
Candy Sarah Shahi
Frank Tito Ortiz
Ted Kimo Leopoldo
Joe the Guard Brian Goodman
Redheaded Waitress Jennifer Carpenter
Late Night Waitress Laura Katz
Taffy Joanna Krupa
Jeffrey the Butler Crispian Belfrage
Brad Med Abrus
Escalator Girl Melissa Keller
Angry Ketchup Waitress Liz Carey
Spot Jimmy the Dog
FILMMAKERS
Writer / Director Scott Caan
Producers Jonah Smith
Palmer West
Co-Producers Jesse Johnston
Stephanie Lewis
Line Producer Brent Morris
Director of Photography Phil Parmet
Production Designer Corey Lorenzen
Editor Jeff Werner
Music Supervisor Amanda Scheer Demme
Music By Mark Mothersbaugh
Costume Designer Rebecca Bentjen
Casting By Emily Schweber
Jennifer Levy
Production Manager John S. Dorsey
Production Coordinator Krissy Goodman
First Assistant Director Jim Simone
Second Assistant Director Melissa Lekus
Second Second Assistant Director Ben Bywater
Special Effects Tom Ceglia
Albert Lannutti
Assistant Editor Chris Petrus
Set Decorator Missy Parker
Property Master Roger Dertinger
Assistant Property Master Todd Daniels
Leadman Chevy Martinez
Swing Gang Lindsay Winger
Steven D. Barr
1st Assistant Camera Rory Muirhead
Wade Whitley
2nd Assistant Camera Keith A. Jones
Additional 2nd Assistant Camera Michelle M. Opseth
Mark Patnesky
B Camera Operator B.J. McDonald
Loader Ron Elliott
Still Photographer Sam Urdank
Additional Still Photographer Mark Fellman
Gaffer Edgar Arrellano
Best Boy Electric Chris Bernal
Electricians Manuel Alvarado
James Banfield
Marcel Schoettel
Dennis Baker
Mike Lee
Henry Rocha
Roberto Ramirez
Stephen Tachera
Mike Weeks
Key Grip Vince Palomino
Best Boy Grip James Atkins
Dolly Grip T.S. Hale
Key Set Costumer Karen Cortes
Additional Costumer Kip Ren
Key Make Up Artist Barbara Lamelza
Make Up Assistant Danielle Lynn Saunders
Key Hair Stylist Tamara McNaughton
Sound Mixer Pavel Wdowczak
Boom Operator John Hays
Location Manager Eric Pilarcik
Assistant Location Manager Paul Cozzi
Location Scout Dan Beal
Script Supervisor Sharon Cingle
Production Accountant Cynthia Walker
Extras Casting Prime Casting
Assistant to Director Shannan E. Johnson
Office Production Assistant Drew Baker
Set Production Assistants Darci Dunnagan
Tonya Richardson
Justin Anderson
Patrick Caughey
Set Medic Cindy Swartz
Catering Tony Garcia
Emmanuel Leon
Craft Service Michael Schlegel
Legal Services Provided by Weissman, Wolff, Bergman
Coleman, Grodin and Evall LLC
Post Production Supervisor Stephanie Lewis
"I Like to Move in the Night"Written by Jesse Hughes and Josh Homme
Performed by Eagles of Death Metal
Published by Fabulous Weapon Music (BMI)
and Board Stiff Music (BMI)
Courtesy of Downtown Recordings
By arrangement with Big Sounds International
"Louisa"
Written by Donald Cumming
Performed by The Virgins
"One Week of Danger"
Written by Donald Cumming
Performed by The Virgins
"Rockskins"
Written and Published by Jon Abrahams
Performed by Jonald Rockskins
Produced by Jonald Rockskins
Courtesy of Jon Abrahams
"I Made You"
Written by Joshua Homme
Published by Board Stiff Music (BMI)
Joshua Homme appears courtesy of Interscope Records
“Walking in L.A."
Written by Terry Bozzio
Performed by Missing Persons
Published by Private Life Music (ASCAP)
Courtesy of Capitol Records under license from
EMI Film &Television Music and Private Life Music
"I Wanna Make It Wit Chu"
Written by Josh Homme, Alain Johannes and Mickey Melichiondo
Performed by Desert Sessions
Published by Board Stiff Music (BMI), Famous Music LLC o/b/o and
Channel This Music (ASCAP) and Browndog Music (BMI)
Courtesy of Ipecac Recordings and Rekords Records by
arrangement with Big Sounds International
ABOUT THE FILM
THE DOG PROBLEM is a contemporary LA comedy written and directed by Scott Caan.
After a year in psychoanalysis, a blocked novelist named Solo (Giovanni Ribisi) is broke and at the end of his rope. During their last session together, Solo’s therapist (Don Cheadle) suggests that owning a pet may help, causing Solo to acquire a small dog and all of the trouble that comes along with it. Desperate and unable to cope, Solo turns to his best friend Casper (Scott Caan), a womanizing photographer who introduces Solo to Jules (Mena Suvari), a wealthy dog collector who immediately offers to take the dog off Solo’s hands. Solo just can't bring himself to hand the dog over to her.
During an outing to the local dog park, Solo meets Lola (Lynn Collins), a smart and very pretty woman caring for a pit bull. This encounter sends Lola, Solo and Solo’s dog to the vet, where Solo is forced to reveal just how broke he really is. Thus begins an arms-length relationship that becomes very close very quickly the night that Solo and Casper discover that Lola works as a stripper. Things grow complicated when Solo’s life is threatened by his loan shark (Kevin Corrigan) while Jules, the rich dog lady, grows increasingly obsessed with Solo’s now-bandaged yet loyal canine companion.
Then the dog goes missing.
Making great use of Los Angeles locations, Phil Parmet’s excellent photography and killer soundtrack, director Caan demonstrates a light touch with his original material that makes THE DOG PROBLEM a wryly comic date movie.
THE DOG PROBLEM is Caan’s second film as a director. His first, DALLAS 362, premiered at the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival.
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
If you spend a little time talking with Scott Caan, it quickly becomes clear that he is interested in making all kinds of movies, but is also maybe a little surprised that his second feature turned out to be a movie like THE DOG PROBLEM.
“It’s a comedy and the people in it fall in love, but I’d rather not call it a romantic comedy,” he says with palpable discomfort. “Solo is a guy trying to figure out life and how he’s ever going to have a normal relationship with a woman, but I’d rather not shove that down anyone’s throat.”
A young Hollywood actor, director and photographer who comes from an acting family (the movie and TV star James Caan is his father), Caan understands well how a certain actors get pegged with a certain image or persona. He also knows that his own image or persona as a “tough guy” comes from the many roles he’s played in films like OCEANS 11 and OCEANS 12, BOILER ROOM and GONE IN 60 SECONDS.
So how did this tough guy come to make a roman—um, a comedy in which two people fall in love?
“If you look at THE DOG PROBLEM and, for a moment, take away the dog and the girl, it’s pretty clear that this is a movie about a really messed up guy,” Caan explains. “The movie came from my desire to tell a simple human story that is dark and upsetting but also has something accessible about it. You could say the dog was my way of tricking the powers that be, but also tricking me.”
With his first film, Caan demonstrated he could write and direct and attract a name cast and financing. With that film he also learned some hard realities about the movie business.
“The reason I wrote THE DOG PROBLEM had to do with being kind of tired of hearing that the stories I wanted to tell were too dark. Movies are hard to get made, and most people don’t want to make them unless there’s a commercial component. The dog element of THE DOG PROBLEM was my way to add a commercial touch to a story about a pretty desperate guy.
“Think about it,” Caan continues. “Here is a guy who’s spent $100,000 on therapy in a single year. That’s cute and everything but something’s wrong.”
When pressed, Caan the film’s premise is based on a real-life situation, though it’s not autobiographical.
“As I was writing this I had a friend who was going to therapy every day of the week for seven months and spending a ridiculous about of money. At the end of six months I literally drove him to the Beverly Center [the location of the pet store in THE DOG PROBLEM] to help him pick out a dog. He said all of the things Solo says in the movie about getting the lowest-maintenance dog possible. Ultimately, getting that dog really helped him.”
Caan describes himself as a “dog person without a dog.”
“My life is too crazy right now to be able to give a pet enough attention,” he says.
Choosing the Actors
Caan and Giovanni Ribisi have known each other for a long time (both appeared in GONE IN 60 SECONDS and BOILER ROOM) and Caan knew Ribisi to be picky about the roles he chose.
“I knew I couldn’t ask him to do just anything,” Caan says, “but I also knew he’d be perfect for this role.
“To me, when a filmmaker is fortunate enough to get Ribisi in their movie, it’s the same as if it was the 70s and you got a Pacino or a Duvall. I’m just beginning to understand that casting is a good part of what directing is all about. To me, Giovanni is the movie.”
Once the film was ready to be made, Ribisi was the only actor to whom Caan offered the role of Solo.
“I didn’t have to give him a lot of direction,” Caan says. “We talked about the character and who he was and Giovanni knew exactly how to play him.”
When it came to cast Solo’s love interest, Caan admits he felt pressure from all sides. The role ultimately went to Lynn Collins, who has worked in such diverse films as the Adam Sandler /Drew Barrymore comedy 50 FIRST DATES to starring as Portia opposite Joseph Fiennes and Al Pacino in Michael Radford’s THE MERCHANT OF VENICE.
“On the one-hand, Lola is a tricky part, because a lot of actresses have played a lot of strippers in a lot of movies over the years, which meant there were a lot of tired clichés to be avoided. I was also under pressure to cast more of a name and I initially had to offer the role to someone else. But I met Lynn at a general casting meeting and knew she was exactly what I was looking for.
“Lola had to be the kind of girl you could fall in love with but she also had to be tough and independent,” Caan continues, “and that’s Lynn. She can be a princess and also break a bottle over your head in a bar brawl. Nothing about her is overstated. She’s perfect and I wanted her and fought to have her.”
Caan cast himself as a womanizing photographer who provides a lot of the movie’s more comedic subplots and situations. In addition to acting and directing Caan is also a photographer who shoots a wide range of subjects, including nudes. So what gives?
“It’s such a joke,” he says. “In my photography I do nude women and it’s such a cliché to be a photographer and sleep with the women you shoot. I never wanted to be that guy.”
But a girl Caan was dating did once ask her to take nude photos of her, and when he obliged, “I liked the way they came out and they made me want to do it more,” he says today.
“The guy in the movie is a bit of a joke, but I definitely have an understanding of him.”
Like the main character Solo, Mena Suvari’s character is also at least partly based on someone Caan once knew, a wealthy LA girl who collected dogs.
“There are a lot of girls I know that are born into money and don’t have a lot to do. They don’t really need to get a job so they buy these little dogs. I knew this one girl who really liked to take care of them and then give them away. So I gave the character a few more Paris Hilton-y qualities because I wanted to create a scenario in which all of these weird people were chasing Solo and his dog.”
Finally, Caan was faced with a number of challenges when it came to choosing the right dog, which had to be small enough to pass as a young dog yet mature enough to take commands and direction. Aesthetically, Caan wanted “an ugly dog, because ugly is funny.”
Shooting in LA
Consumers of celebrity magazines like Us Weekly and Star will surely recognize the Dog Park, a place in the Hollywood Hills where stars like Jake Gyllenhaal have been photographed giving their canine companions a workout. In THE DOG PROBLEM, the Dog Park is also the location where Solo and Lola first meet, though Lola warns Solo not to hit on her, a nod to the Dog Park’s reputation as one of LA’s busiest pick up locations.
“Every cheese-ball I know goes there to meet women,” says Caan. “When I had a dog we would go all the time, and there were always tons of pretty girls. I definitely played on that when making the movie.”