THE ZOHAN:COMMERCIAL WITHIN THE FILM

Working on YOU DON’T MESS WITH THE ZOHAN enabled me to work on a number of scenes as well as subject matter.

As stated in the previous blog on making this movie, when I started it, I had dreams of making the great American martial arts film. But, as it turns out, the action would be non-specific to any genre. The note was to make the film “non Kung Fu”.

Comedy was the top priority, to say the least. One of the scenes that I drew was a commercial within the film itself. Zohan’s arch nemesis, the Phantom, has opened up a chain of fast food restaurants, which he even appears in as himself. Like the old McDonald’s commercials, The Phantom’s restaurant, “PHANTOM MUCHENTUCHEN” even has action figures of the Phantom defeating Zohan.

When Dennis Dugan asked me to do the boards for the scene to him plan things out, I was able to draw upon my experience of drawing well over a hundred commercials. After working out the basics with Dennis, I had to think as if this was a real product in a wacky world.