Seth Rogen, out promoting his upcoming HBO Max original release “An American Pickle,” has confirmed that he served as a script doctor on this year’s “Dolittle” starring Robert Downey Jr.
The costly new take on “Doctor Dolittle” suffered numerous production problems both during and after production. After director Stephen Gaghan’s first cut was screened and considered “not family-friendly enough”.
Then the studio sought outside help and turned to actor/writer Seth Rogen who was apparently too busy, then got “LEGO Batman Movie” filmmaker Chris McKay involved until he passed, before filmmaker Jonathan Liebesman came onboard and helped finish the film.
Rogen popped up on Howard Stern’s Sirius XM show this week and confirmed he did in fact help out on “Dolittle” a little:
“I will only say this because it’s been reported, and I’m gonna tread lightly because I am close with many of the people involved, but I did that on the Dr. Dolittle film a little bit. In the grand scale of positions to be in as a writer, it’s a cushy position to be in [laughs]. Stakes are low for you, personally. Which is nice. But it’s also like, you want to help. I like movies and I like the actors in that movie. I don’t want anyone to not be happy with a movie. Universal, who made that movie, has been very supportive of me in my career and made a lot of our movies. I like the people who were there, so I genuinely want to make things better if I can.”
Despite all the good intentions the film was a bomb – its decent $231 million global box office haul not enough to compensate for a massive $175 million budget and poor critical reviews.
Source: Sirius XM
