David Duchovny might seem to be perfect casting for a the head of a perfect fake family inserted in a community to stealth-market products in "The Joneses," but director Derrick Borte had to fight for his leading man.
The financiers had a short list of other marquee names they wanted for the part as the fake father to stand next to the fake mother played by Demi Moore.
"From the first time I met with David I knew he was the right guy for this film," Borte tells PopcornBiz. "Yet I had to jump through the hoops, go through the process of entertaining other options."
"But David was a perfect fit."
Duchovny is fantastic in the film, which opens today, as a failed car salesman/golf pro who ends up on his first stealth marketing cell pretending to be a perfect family to live/sell high end goods. His low-key charisma matches his character who finds out -- almost accidentally -- that he excels at making people want to live the "good life" of material goods.
As for the casting troubles, in Hollywood and advertising there is often a lot of noise about one product when there's a better product to be had.
"The reality of what it takes to get a film made sometimes means you have to look at a short list of people that have certain value that aren't necessarily your creative choices," says Borte of the pre-Duchovny discussions.
"But I'm really happy in the end," says Borte. "David is so brilliant and so funny. He gets under your skin."
