Producing Partners Channing Tatum And Reid Carolin Unleash Heartwarming Buddy Comedy

After producing the HBO documentary War Dog: A Soldier’s Best Friend, centering on the Army Rangers community who work in Special Operations with their specially-trained canines, Channing Tatum (better known for his day job as a popular Hollywood actor) and long-time friend and producer colleague Reid Carolin were inspired to further delve into the special bond between man and beast with the feel-good buddy comedy Dog.

In the film, Tatum plays an Army Ranger struggling to get back to work after a debilitating brain injury suffered when he was stationed in the Middle East has made it impossible for him to earn a living. To prove he is fit for duty, Briggs (Tatum) agrees to transport a fellow brain-injured hero across several states to attend a funeral. The hero, Lulu, is a Belgian Malinois (or Dutch Shepherd) that has been traumatized by war, and is unable to fly to the funeral of a Ranger who was his handler during wartime. Briggs loads the angry and unpredictable dog into his Ford Bronco and the two head south from the Pacific Northwest in a days-long road trip where each learns to trust again. Along the way, the two misfits have various misadventures as they meet old friends and strike up new friendships with strangers, including a pet psychic (played by Tony winner Jane Adams), her cannabis farmer husband (played by former WWE superstar Kevin Nash) and a former Army Ranger dog handler (played by Ethan Suplee, Santa Clarita Diet).

Dog is presented by Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures, a Free Association/Gregory Jacobs Production, in association with FilmNation Entertainment. It bounds into theaters Feb. 18.

Though marketed as a buddy comedy, Dog also addresses serious issues that commonly face returning vets who have been physically and mentally damaged by the horrors of war.

For Tatum, who lost his own beloved pet—also named Lulu—a few years ago due to an incurable illness, making Dog was a way to cope with his own grief. He and Carolin (who wrote the screenplay based on a story he conceived with Brett Rodriguez) spoke via Zoom about co-directing their first film together. (The two will reunite on the third and supposedly final Magic Mike film soon.)

Angela Dawson: You’ve worked together previously in different capacities, but this time you co-directed. What were the division of duties?

Channing Tatum: I don’t know. I did the acting part. I handled the dog, mainly, and Reid handled me. You sort of figure it out as you go, to be honest. It’s a full-on job that requires all of your time and energy from both of us. It’s kind of like a patient on an operating table, and you’re just doing triage for about three months straight.

Reid Carolin: The nice thing is we’ve been friends for so long and have worked together for so long that just the communication and collaboration aspect of things is really natural.

Dawson: There’s a lot of emotional stuff going on in this movie. Both your character, Briggs, and the dog have gone through traumatic experiences overseas. How was it working with the three dogs that play Lulu?

Tatum: There was Britta, who’s more of our “hero” dog. She did the majority—60-70 percent of the movie.

Carolin: The “acting” scenes.

Tatum: It was just me talking to her. Zuza was the big, kind of wild one. Anything that involved bucking and pulling, any of the fighting stuff, took place with me and Zuza. That was her job. Lana did a lot of the running. She was the only dog that would lie down on her back on command. The other dogs were a little more energetic and high-strung, and didn’t want to be still. They all had very specific things they needed to do.

Zuza is probably the one that I probably bonded with the least because with certain scenes I had to be adversarial with her, so she couldn’t be listening to me if I was going to have an argument with her. She had to have a sort of, “Why are you yelling at me?” attitude. We had a different energy. It was complex.

Dawson: You went through the experience of losing your own beloved Lulu a few years ago. Was making this film therapeutic for you?

Tatum: Leading up to the movie was very cathartic. When you’re doing a movie, it’s like you’re on a pseudo-controlled avalanche, in a way. But, leading up to and talking about the experience of losing her and themes of the movie was very cathartic. It gave me a lot of perspective on what she meant to me, what her purpose was in this life that we had together and just the acceptance, the real true surrender that they’re not supposed to be here forever. They come in to do a very specific job for a very specific amount of time.