Working with director Chris Columbus in "Pixels" was a dream come true for actor-comedian Josh Gad who grew up watching "Gremlins" and "Goonies".
"The idea of working with Chris Columbus was pretty incredible. Chris Columbus wrote two of the most defining movies of my childhood, 'Gremlins' and 'The Goonies'. These movies were favourties alongside 'Back to the future' and 'Jurassic Park'," Gad told PTI at the recent Summer of Sony press event in Cancun, Mexico.
Gad has become Hollywood's go-to guy when it comes to playing goofy characters be it Olaf in "Frozen" or Ludlow Lamonsoff in the upcoming 3D disaster comedy "Pixels" where he has teamed up with Sandler, Kevin James, "Game of Thrones" star Peter Dinklage, Michelle Monaghan and Brian Cox.
He is happy that he gets to choose roles where he can experiment with his comedy.
"I try to infuse each of my characters whether it is Olaf or in this case Ludlow Lamonsoff, with a distinct unique difference. This role for me was so much fun because he is a conspiracy-theorist, a social outcast and he has got this very untamed temper that can erupt at any given moment.
"Those were the colours which I hadn't really had the opportunity to play with before on-screen."
A Columbia Pictures' movie, "Pixels" is releasing in India this Friday. The story revolves around a group of former arcade game champions who get a chance to save the world when aliens misinterpret video games footage that NASA sent them and attack the Earth using these games as their model.
"The movie had a basic theme of a bunch of normal guys who turn heroes, who can save the day, they don't have capes, they don't have special powers, they are just really good at playing arcade games of the 1980s," said Gad.
