In one of the stranger films based on a true story, “Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates” revolves around two hard partying brothers, Mike (Adam Devine) and Dave (Zac Efron), who hope to turn over a new leaf in order to attend their sister’s wedding.

In order for them to attend, however, the family poses an ultimatum: they must bring “nice girls” to the wedding, and their history of ruining every family gathering will be forgiven.  

Using the Hawaiian destination as bait to attract dozens of women, the brothers turn to Craigslist to search for potential dates. This attracts the attention of roommates Tatiana (Aubrey Plaza) and Alice (Anna Kendrick), who don’t shy away from trouble or chaos.

Ultimately hustling themselves into an all-expense paid trip to Hawaii, the two roommates hustle the brothers as they try to keep their true motives secret.

Devine is no stranger to comedies. He is best known for his work as a co-creator and star of  Comedy Central’s “Workaholics.” Devine has also been since in the “Pitch Perfect” franchise, “The Intern” and “Modern Family.”

On the other hand, this is Jake Szymanski — the director of “Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates” — first major theatrical release. Szymanski’s past work includes directing HBO’s tennis mockumentary, “7 Days in Hell.”

The DePaulia sat down with the director Szymanski and one of the stars of the film Devine to discuss the new comedy.

DePaulia: The cast stands out in this film from the main cast to the supporting cast. How was working with this ensemble of actors?

Adam Devine: Jake (Szymanski) put together such a good cast. From top to bottom Zach (Efron) and Ana (Kendrick) are big stars, Aubrey (Plaza) is so funny and you haven’t really seen her go all out in a movie like this yet. I’m really excited for this movie to come out.

Looking back, I couldn’t image it being anyone else. I think that’s a sign of the right people in the family. Being able to say who else could have played that?

The only bummer in this movie is that it has to be an hour and a half. I remember when Jake (Szymanski) was first cutting the movie and we had a conversation like it plays really well running two hours.

Cutting it you’ll have to leave the fans wanting more. Mike and Dave need wedding rings? There’s the spin off.

DePaulia: With the film release around the corner how excited are you for “Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates” to be released?

Jake Szymanski: I think we got some good quotable in this one. That’s the real test I’m hoping like a month after the month comes out people saying some lines from the movie.

AD: I’m starting to realize how good we had it. (I’m) starting to put together my next projects after this, (and) none of them are shooting in Hawaii.

JS: I thought that we were going to shoot this movie in Atlanta. Making it there and then spending a week in Puerto Rico to get the beach scenes. I thought budget wise that’s how it was going to end up. When they crunched the numbers and said looks like you can do Hawaii. I was like “Are you serious?”

DePaulia: Szymanski, this is your first major directorial release. How do you feel about your final project and the release of your first major film?

JS: You work on a movie for so long. Looking back on it, it brings back fun memories. I’m excited for people to see it.

AD: I’m really excited too. I’m excited for people to see it because it’s so funny. It’s actually a movie I’m really proud of. Not that I haven’t been proud of other movies that I’ve done. This is a movie that even if I wasn’t apart of it is I see the trailer I would go I really want to see that movie.

JS: We had so many joke options. There was so much on the cutting floor that I loved that we’ll shove it all on the DVD and gag reel. We were lucky to be able to perfect it. I’m really happy how it ended up, it plays great.

DePaulia: For both of you, when on set how much improv made it to the final cut. When as a director and as an actor do you stick to the script or play around with the material?

AD: With this movie we had the time to do a lot of stuff. I come from TV, on our regular shoot days; we’d do nine to 10 pages of material. So you’d really have to motor through the script and your improv because we’re moving on. But with this film sometimes we’d shot two pages a day so you really had time to hone in on the material. We had a lot of time to figure stuff out and have fun and go down weird roads that made you wouldn’t otherwise.

JS: A lot of it ended up in the movie which I think was worthwhile. A lot of the stuff we played around with ended up in the movie.

AD: You find weird little gems that normally wouldn’t happen at a TV shoot or at a movie that’s more script heavy. This movie is about people and how they react with each other so you’re able to dig for gold.

DePaulia: That digging paid off on screen with every character coming to some type of revelation. What was your favorite character and their revelation?

JS: I’m very interested in all of them but I think my favorite is Adam (Devine) and Aubrey (Plaza) together. My goal in those moments were to do those moments emotionally while we can still get a laugh out of it. I wanted to play the scene and make it work for a character, and make it believable while squeezing a laugh in there.

AD: I was excited to play my character because he goes through the most stuff. He has some real highs and lows. It was fun to play a character that goes from being super excited about going to Hawaii, then you just see everything go wrong for this guy.

JS: Yeah we set him up as a monster who parties too hard then you untimely feel bad for him.

AD: It was fun playing a character where you really got to show all sides of the person.  

DePaulia: On screen the chemistry seemed to be there, how was the shooting experience with the rest of the filming crew?

JS: It was fun we had a really great time on set, I think that speaks to the material that we worked with and the actors getting along so well. Not only with each other but also everyone hanging out together. It felt like we were just hanging out while we worked on something.

AD: The all terrain vehicle (ATV) stuff was super fun. When they called cut you’re riding ATVs where they shot “Jurassic Park.” It was hard for Jake (Szymanski) because he would call cut and Zac (Efron) and I would be two football fields away just riding.

JS: We actually did shoot where they shot “Jurassic Park.” That was a “I can’t believe this is happening” moment.

AD: I felt like a young vlogger documenting everything and taking so many photos that day.