Horrible Bosses is a black comedy film directed by Seth Gordon and starring Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Colin Farrell, Jamie Foxx, Jason Sudeikis, and Kevin Spacey, and funded by Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA), FFF Bayern, and Centre National de la Cinématographie (CNC). The movie’s premise follows a trio of long-suffering friends who team up to murder their respective overbearing bosses with disastrous results.
Some of Horrible Bosses filming occurred in Los Angeles. Pictures from the set surfaced online in July, 2010.
Three friends, Nick Hendricks (Jason Bateman), Dale Arbus (Charlie Day) and Kurt Buckman (Jason Sudeikis), conspire to murder their respective bosses – Dave Harken (Kevin Spacey), Dr. Julia Harris (Jennifer Aniston) and Bobby Pellitt (Colin Farrell) – when they realize they are standing in the way of their happiness.
New Line Cinema purchased a script from Michael Markowitz in 2005. Directors Frank Oz and David Dobkin were also in talks to direct. Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley rewrote the script in 2010 and the project went into production with Seth Gordon directing.
During pre-production, a number of actors including Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn, Matthew McConaughey and Ashton Kutcher were linked to roles in the movie. In May, 2010, Jennifer Aniston was in talks for the role of a “sexually aggressive dentist” while Colin Farrell would play a “weaselly scion”. In June, 2010, Kevin Spacey joined the project as Jason Bateman‘s boss, New Line was in talks with several other actors including Tom Cruise, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Jeff Bridges for the role. Jamie Foxx would also be involved.
On July 27, 2010, Isaiah Mustafa was confirmed to join the cast. Mustafa was quoted as saying “It’s a smaller role”.