Tagline: True love is a blessing and a curse. She’s the blessing. He’s cursed.
It all started when Charlie Logan was ten years old. Breaking the cardinal rules of spin-the-bottle, Charlie refused to lip-lock with a demented Goth girl – and she put a hex on him. Now, twenty-five years later, Charlie (Dane Cook) is a successful dentist…and still cursed. While his plastic surgeon best friend, Stu (Dan Fogler), pursues as many of his patients as possible, Charlie can’t seem to find the right girl. Even worse, he discovers at an ex-girlfriend’s wedding that every woman he’s ever slept with has found true love – with the next guy after him.
Before he knows it, Charlie’s reputation as a “good luck charm” has women – from sexy strangers to his overweight receptionist – lining up for a quickie. But a life filled with all sex and no love has Charlie lonelier than ever – that is, until he meets Cam (Jessica Alba). An accident-prone penguin specialist, Cam is as hard-to-get as she is beautiful. But when a genuine romance develops, Charlie realizes he’s got to find a way to break his good-luck curse…before the girl of his dreams winds up with the next guy she meets. Most single men would probably call Charlie, the titular hero in GOOD LUCK CHUCK, a blessed man.
Good Luck Chuck is a 2007 American romantic comedy film starring Dane Cook and Jessica Alba. In the film, women find their “one true love” after having sex with a dentist named Chuck (Dane Cook). Chuck meets a girl named Cam (Jessica Alba) and tries to become her true love. The film opened in theaters on September 21, 2007, and was heavily panned by critics. One of Good Luck Chuck’s theatrical posters parodied the well-known Rolling Stone cover photographed by Annie Leibovitz featuring John Lennon and Yoko Ono in similar poses.
The film was the second-highest-grossing film at the U.S. box office in its opening weekend, grossing $13.6 million in 2,612 theaters. The film went on to have a total box office tally of approximately $35 million U.S. and $24 million foreign.
About the Production
A “good luck charm” who miraculously helps women find true love with the next man they sleep with, Charlie can’t get through the day without relationship-obsessed women throwing themselves at his feet.
“At first it seems fantastic,” says comedian and film actor Dane Cook, who stars as the lovelorn dentist. “He gets to play the field with no strings attached and he doesn’t even have to try.”
But things change when Charlie meets the girl of his dreams: Cam, a cute, hopelessly klutzy penguin specialist. All Charlie wants is to be with her; but he knows if he sleeps with her, he’ll lose her.
“The sexual tension is huge, and he’s got to be the one who backs away from her, which leaves her wondering why,” explains Cook. “It’s like the most painful, film-length foreplay ever.” If that weren’t enough, Charlie has to find a way to break the curse that was placed on him when he was only ten years old, grapple with bad advice from his sexed-obsessed best friend, Stu, and navigate a journey marked by malicious penguins, the most disgusting one-night stand ever, and lots and lots of sex.
Says Cook, “I believe we are making a very funny film with a high comedy quotient. We’ve got three or four major moments that people are going to be talking about long after they leave the theater.” Adds co-star Dan Fogler, who plays Charlie’s buddy Stu, “This movie is truly hysterical. It pushes the R-rated envelope.”
It all sounds like the high-concept creation of a Hollywood screenwriter, but GOOD LUCK CHUCK is actually inspired by the life of a real man named Steven Glen. Seven years ago, producer Mike Karz attended a party in Los Angeles and met Glen through a mutual friend. Glen was relating his romantic misadventures to his friends and revealed that at least seven women he had seriously dated met their ideal match soon after breaking up with him. “It just seemed like the perfect idea for a great romantic comedy,” remembers Karz. He urged Steve to write a treatment, and later brought on screenwriter Josh Stolberg to pen a script.
Karz set up the project and partnered with Mark Helfrich, a highly regarded Hollywood film editor who was preparing to direct his first feature. Helfrich had a proven talent for comedy – he edited all three RUSH HOUR films – and his instinct was that GOOD LUCK CHUCK, which was originally conceived as a PG-13 film, would be far more successful as an R-rated comedy. He urged Stolberg to take another pass at the script and push it into more risqué territory. “There was so much potential that could be mined with an R-rated version,” says Helfrich. “The language we could use and what we could show was unlimited.”
Adds Karz, “The earlier drafts of the script aren’t nearly as irreverent or edgy as the shooting script, and that was really Mark’s influence. He helped make the movie a lot funnier than it was before.”
Both Karz and Helfrich believed that comedian and rising film star Dane Cook was the first and only choice to play Charlie. Arguably the most popular stand-up comedian of his generation, Cook has amassed an unprecedented following through constant touring, HBO television specials, and an increasingly busy acting career. “Dane Cook was a natural to play Charlie because he’s handsome and funny – he’s a star – but he’s still got this very real, guy-next-door quality,” says Helfrich. “And he certainly has the comedy down. He was the perfect choice.”
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Good Luck Chuck (2007)
Directed by: Mark Helfrich
Starring: Jessica Alba, Dane Cook, Dan Fogler, Michelle Harrison, Simone Bailly, Chelan Simmons, Sasha Pieterse, Caroline Ford, Ellia English, Michael Teigen, Chiara Zanni, Carrie Anne Fleming
Screenplay by: Josh Stolberg
Production Design by: Mark S. Freeborn
Cinematography by: Anthony B. Richmond
Film Editing by: Julia Wong
Costume Design by: Trish Keating
Set Decoration by: K.J. Johnson
Art Direction by: Tony Wohlgemuth
Music by: Aaron Zigman
MPAA Rating: for sequences of strong sexual content including crude dialogue, nudity, language and some drug use.
Distributed by: Lionsgate Films
Release Date: September 21, 2007
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