STACK November 2016 Issue 145

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That said, the Stangles clearly believed
their story had movie potential: in the ad, the
boys reckoned they had an 85 per cent chance
of their story becoming a movie, although they
said, “we refuse the right to let Ashton Kutcher
play either one of us.”
So how did they feel about Zac Efron and
Adam Devine, who ended up playing them on
screen? “The writers had actors in mind while
they were writing and while they were emailing
and meeting with us,” Mike says. “First Zac
signed on, and we were both totally turned on
immediately, and then Adam came in. I forget the
exact order, but it did seem like it was getting
better and better, and kind of more unbelievable,
as the casting played out. We didn’t have a ton
to do with the selection, we were just super
excited.”
As for their characters’ dates – played in the
movie by Aubrey Plaza and Anna Kendrick– in real
life, the brothers didn’t end up taking any
of the girls who applied for the ad to the
wedding. However, they did go on a
lot of dates and their experiences also
found their way into the movie.
“We had thousands and thousands of women
emailing us in the first week,” Dave says. “We
did what any two single brothers in their 20s
would do, which is pick the best looking, most
interesting ones, and go on double dates with
them. And it got really addictive, and that’s really
where the basis of much of the story came from.
“In the end we didn’t take any of the Craiglist
girls to the wedding, but everything that
manifests through Aubrey and Anna’s
characters in the last two acts of the
movie really manifested for us in all
these double dates we went on.”
visit
38 NOVEMBER 2016
DVD&BD
FEATURE
F irst things first: the wedding that forms
the basis of the comedy Mike and Dave
Need Wedding Dates was for the Stangles’
cousin, not their sister, it didn’t take place in
Hawaii, and, unlike the movie, it actually went off
without a hitch.
Nevertheless, the real-life Mike and Dave
Stangle insist that the film is still pretty faithful
to the events leading up to the ill-fated nuptials
depicted in the movie.
“I think the film was pretty accurate with the
facts, actually, until they got to Hawaii – that
whole part didn’t happen,” Mike explains. “But
we thought the movie was really well done and
it captured what was so fun about the original
Craigslist ad – and that was Dave and I getting
into this ridiculous situation together, which was
a legitimate excuse to go on hundreds of double
dates. It’s obviously a bit exaggerated, but the
fun we had with it was remembering this actually
happened to us. In the movie it’s just a better-
looking version of us."
Adds Dave: “They very much captured our
characters, which we love. Anyone who knows
us, when they see the movie, they will very much
know that they nailed exactly how we are.”
The unlikely inspiration for the comedy was
the aforementioned Craiglist ad posted by the
two siblings in February 2013, which depicted the
pair as centaurs and outlined how they needed
dates for the cousin’s wedding to ensure that
they wouldn’t spoil things by harassing the bride’s
friends all night and generally behaving badly.
Describing themselves as “single, dashingly
tall, Anglo-Saxon,” and “completely house
trained,” their irreverent ad became a viral
phenomenon all over the globe, much to the
brothers’ surprise.
“I don’t know why it went so crazy, but it had a
snowball effect,” recalls Dave. “The more people
talked about it, or the more their friends talked
about it, the bigger it got. It went international.
We were on the Australian Today Show. We were
getting emails from people in every different
country.”
KNOWING
ALL THE
STANGLES
Mike and Dave NeedWedding Dates was inspired by the true story
of the Stangle brothers, whose irreverent Craigslist ad seeking
partners for a family wedding ended up going viral. Here, the real-
life Mike and Dave sift the fact from the fiction. Words Adam Colby
Humour in Hawaii
Forgetting Sarah
Marshall (2008)
In what is probably the best
rom-com to be set in the island
paradise, writer-star Jason Segel
follows his ex
Kristen Bell and
her beau (a scene
stealing Russell
Brand) to Hawaii,
and falls
instead
for Mila
Kunis.
The Descendants (2011)
Director Alexander Payne and
co-writers Jim Rash and Nat
Faxon deservedly won an Oscar
for this melancholic but warm
and wryly funny comedy about
a wealthy landowner (George
Clooney) trying to reconnect with
his kids.
Aloha (2015)
OK, this whimsical comedy about
a one-time navy pilot isn’t one of
Cameron Crowe’s best, but the
all-star cast – Bradley Cooper,
Emma Stone, Bill Murray, Rachel
McAdams – make it worth a look.
It’s better than Adam Sandler’s
Hawaiian comedies at least.
• Mike and
Dave Need
Wedding Dates
is out
on Nov 9