Marty Wolf

"You can take it from me. The truth? It's overrated."

- Marty Wolf

Marty Wolf is the main antagonist of the 2002 comedy film Big Fat Liar. He is the founder and former chairman of his studio Marty Wolf Pictures until the events of the film.

He was portrayed by Paul Giamatti, who also played Stan Beals in The Ant Bully, Aleksei Sytsevich/Rhino in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and Karl Hertz in Shoot 'Em Up.

History
He first appeared when Jason Shepherd (a pathological liar and the main protagonist of the film) demands a ride to his school so that he can turn in his writing assignment to pass English class after Jason came up with a creative story idea for his writing assignment which are based on all of his lies from his past. During the ride to his school, Jason confesses that he is a liar while telling Wolf that he got caught red handed by his teacher for lying about his assignment, to which Wolf admits that he too is a compulsive liar, but a more professional one. After stopping at Jason's school, Jason heads off, not knowing that he accidentally dropped his report on the limo. Upon seeing it, Wolf initially attempts to give it back, but upon seeing how very good after reading it, he decides to keep it. This puts Jason in trouble with his parents and his teacher, forcing him to fail English class and undergo summer school to repeat the entire English class, as his parents refuse to believe that he had ever written his report and Wolf stealing his paper due to their mistrust after Jason tried to explained to them that Wolf just stole his paper and is actually being truthful.

Later on, Jason and his best friend Kaylee found out that Wolf has plagiarized Jason's paper and is now planning it to turn it into a film after seeing a movie trailer of it. Outraged by this, Jason decides to confront Wolf, so he arranges himself and Kaylee to fly to Los Angeles, where Wolf is preparing for production for his movie in his studio. After having Kaylee to trick Wolf's secretary Astrid Barker into letting Jason into Wolf's office, Jason tries to convince Wolf to return the stolen paper to him and call Jason's parents and confess to them that he stole it. However, rather than doing so, Marty instead purposefully burns the paper with one of his cigars and his alcohol (much to Jason's shock and anger) and orders Jason and Kaylee to be kicked out from the office.

Angered by this turn of events, Jason and Kaylee plan to inconvenience Wolf until he agrees to fess up, and a limo driver named Frank Jackson helps them out, stating that he was once a struggling rising star until Wolf demoted him to being a driver. They do so by committing several pranks such as dying his skin blue and his hair orange, sticking his phone earpiece with instant krazy glue, tricking him into going into a kid's birthday party, and modifying his car's controls. Because of these, Marty starts to lose support from his boss Marc Duncan (the president of the studios), who threatens to pull the production of Big Fat Liar if anything goes wrong. Jason then offers a deal to Wolf: he'll help him out if he gives the call to Jason's parents and confess to them about the report theft. Jason helps Wolf make an astounding speech that inspires Duncan to green-lit the movie production, but rather than calling Jason's parents, Wolf instead betrays Jason again by calling in security, who orders Jason and Kaylee to be sent home in disgrace.

Upset by this turn of events, Jason is about to accept defeat and is forced to call his parents to tell them the truth, but suddenly, Wolf's assistant Monty Kirkham arrives, having grown tired of her boss' abusive and argumentative behavior and is offering to help him and Kaylee out. After arranging a meeting of several employees who were treated badly by Wolf, Jason and the others concoct one final plan of revenge to expose Wolf of his true colors.

The next day, as Wolf heads to the studio to being his shooting of the movie, his employees enact several mishaps to delay his arrival. As soon as Wolf finally arrives to the studio, he spots Jason, who has stolen his stuffed monkey Mr. Funnybones. After a chase across the studio, Marty finally recovers his toy monkey and taunts Jason for trying to make him confess about his theft, blurting out that he deliberately stole Jason's story and believing that no one has heard it. However, Marty is shocked to realize that several of his employees have recorded his confession with cameras from multiple angles, exposing him of his true colors to everyone in the studio (including Jason's arriving parents, who were brought over to the studio by Frank). Disgusted by Marty's actions for all the trouble of stealing the idea of his movie from a 14-year-old boy, Duncan fires Marty by telling him that this is the end of the line for him. Jason thanks Marty for teaching him the importance of telling the truth before leaving with his parents, who finally believed their son and allowed him to earn back their trust after Jason's parents discovered that Jason did all of this to prove that he was being truthful.

Despite Wolf being fired, the production of Big Fat Liar continues on forward (even Frank becomes the starring actor of the new movie after being rehired by Duncan), proving to be an instant hit in the theaters. Jason is credited for writing the original story as Jason's parents are proud of him. In the meantime, Wolf is stripped of his career after Marty Wolf Pictures is shut down and now takes on a new job as a birthday clown with Mr. Funnybones as his assistant. After being paid to attend a birthday party for a boy named Darren, Wolf is shocked to realize that Darren is the son of the Masher, a wrestler whose car he wrecked and insulted earlier. The Masher orders Darren to show his move called the Nutcracker, and Darren charges at Wolf by striking him in the testicles causing him to groan.

Personality
Marty Wolf is very selfish, greedy, deceitful, and manipulative in nature. He likes to lie a lot, believing that it can benefit him the most. He also fires people for stupid reasons. He doesn't usually care for his employees and treats them rather cruelly especially his assistant Monty and at one time, he demoralizes one of his elderly employees Vince from taking his granddaughter to a birthday party. In fact, the closest thing to something Wolf genuinely cares about is (bizarrely) his stuffed chimp Mr. Funnybones. These traits are what led to his downfall in the end when he is exposed for stealing Jason's paper to make his movie. He is also shown to have an abusive and arrogant nature.

He is also very foolish and unintelligent, so he never seems to learn his lesson since he greatly underestimates Jason, despite being tricked by him multiple times.

Quotes
"Grow up, Shepherd! This is Hollywood, baby! It's a dog eat dog town! Worse, we got cats eating cats, we got fish munching fish! We play by our own rules! (Jason: I'm not leaving until you make that call!) Oh, I'll make a call, alright. (Rocko: Malone speaking.) Rocko, this is the Wolf. Send a couple of your boys down here. I got a Code W: another angry writer refusing to leave. Wolf out."

- Wolf mocking Jason after burning his report instead of calling Jason's parents about the theft before calling security to escort Jason out from his office.

"You can take your personal day in a year or two when YOU'RE DEAD!!"

- Wolf rejecting Vince's request for a day off to take his granddaughter to a birthday party while ripping up an invitation of it.

"It's showtime, Mr. Funnybones. (chuckles) You cute little monkey, you. (mimicking monkey sounds)"

- Wolf admiring his stuff monkey toy Mr. Funnybones.

"Oh my... GOOOOOOOOOD!!!!"

- Wolf after seeing that his hair is dyed orange and his skin is dyed blue

"You did this?! (Jason: Yep, and it can end anytime. And you have to do is make one phone call to my dad. Shouldn't be much of a problem since that headset is super-glued to your ear! Here's my dad's phone number. (Kaylee: Hi ya!) (Jason: Call me.) (Kaylee: Bye-bye.) Rotten kids!! ARRGHH!! SHEPHERRRRD!!!!"

- Wolf after Jason and Kaylee confessing their pranks in an attempt to get him to fess up while Jason gives him his dad's phone number.

"Yeah, that's what I thought, tough guy! (Masher: Who's the tough guy now, pal?!) Oh c'mon. No, dude, no! BACK OFF, MAN! NO WAY!!"

- Wolf insulting the Masher before the latter decides to run over his car with his monster truck.

"Gimme back my monkey. (Jason: Come and get 'im!)"

- Wolf after seeing that Jason has stolen his stuffed monkey Mr. Funnybones.

"YOU CAN'T OUTRUN THE WOLF, KID!! (Jason: Yeah, we'll see about that!)"

- Wolf while chasing Jason.

"Look, pal, we've been through this, alright? Yeah, I stole your paper! Ya happy now? I STOLE JASON SHEPHERD'S PAPER AND TURNED IT INTO BIG FAT LIAR!!! You know who's listening, pal. No one! And they never will. So, for the last time, give it up, because I will never ever ever.... like never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever... infinity.... tell the truth! (Jason: Because the truth's overrated, right?!) That's right!!"

- Wolf gloating out his victory to Jason after reclaiming Funnybones, the very same speech that exposed his colors to the public.

"He's uh....... he's 14. (Duncan: This is the end of the line, Wolf! It's over.)"

- Wolf correcting Jason's true age to Duncan after being exposed of his crime before his dismissal.

"I am gonna...GET YOU, SHEPHERD!!"

- Wolf swearing revenge on Jason for getting him fired.

"You cannot turn your backs on me!! I'm Marty Wolf!"

- Marty Wolf

"It's showtime. Hey, kids. I'm Wolfie the Clown. (chuckles) And uh... I'm Mr. Funnybones! Happy birthday, Darren! (Masher: Oh... my GOD!!) Oh no!"

- Marty Wolf's last words as he's being reduced to a birthday clown, much to his dismay.

Trivia

 * The blue dye was actually blue tattoo ink that was sprayed in several layers on his body occasionally throughout the day to keep it topped up. According to Paul Giamatti, it was fairly easy to apply, but was a bit more difficult to get off, particularly his feet, for some reason. They stayed blue for several months.
 * Like Bowser from Super Mario Bros.