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You can take it from me. The truth? It's overrated.
„
~ Marty Wolf
Martin "Marty" Wolf is the main antagonist of Big Fat Liar. He is the founder and former chairman of his studio Marty Wolf Pictures and Jason Shepherd's arch-nemesis.
He was portrayed by Paul Giamatti, who also played Stan Beals in Warner Brothers' The Ant Bully, Aleksei Sytsevich/Rhino in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Dr. Satan in The Haunted World of El Superbeasto, Tim from Robots and Karl Hertz in Shoot 'Em Up.
Underneath his public persona as a well-known film producer, Wolf is very selfish, greedy, deceitful, and manipulative in nature. He likes to lie a lot and almost always takes the easy way out, thinking it can benefit him the most (hence his motto "the truth is overrated"). He is also very abusive and sarcastic towards his employees as he treats them harshly, tending to give them mean nicknames, and even fires several for stupid reasons; he even demoralizes one of his elderly employees Vince from going with 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 Shepherd's paper to make his movie.
Despite being a film producer, Wolf is a very foolish and unintelligent dimwit, as he never seems to learn his lesson since he greatly underestimates Jason, despite being tricked by him multiple times. Wolf also likes to do play fights with Mr. Funnybones when he wakes up, as well as act overdramatic and childish when he goes to swim in the pool. Wolf is overall an incompetent man whose only concern is for himself and he will do anything he can to keep being rich and famous.
History
Would first appeared when Jason Shepherd 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 explains that he got caught by his teacher for lying about his assignment. Wolf tells him he should have made it more convincing, revealing he is also a compulsive liar, but a more professional one. After stopping at Jason's school, Wolf encourages him to keep practicing his lies and tells him he can take it from, with his word of "advice": The truth is overrated. He then yells at Jason to get out, saying he has a movie to produce. Jason heads off, not knowing he accidentally dropped his report on the limo. Upon seeing it, Wolf initially intends to call out to Jason to hand him back the paper, but upon seeing it is excellent after reading it, he decides to keep it. This puts Jason in trouble with his parents and his teacher Phyllis Caldwell, forcing him to fail English class and undergo summer school to repeat the entire class. At the same time, Marty is in town filming Whitaker and Fowl, starring Jaleel White and a chicken.
Later on, Jason and his love interest Kaylee discover Wolf has plagiarized Jason's paper and is now planning it to turn it into a film after seeing a trailer of it. Jason is outraged at the fact that Wolf plagiarized his story, but his parents refuse to believe this due to their mistrust towards Jason over the incident. Deciding to take action and taking advantage of his parents' trip to the Grand Canyon, Jason decides to confront Wolf. 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 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 father to confess that he stole it. However, rather than doing so, Wolf purposefully burns the paper with one of his cigars and his alcohol (much to Jason's shock and anger). Wolf then calls his head of security Rocko Malone to send up two security guards to escort Jason and Kaylee out of the building.
Angered by this turn of events, Jason and Kaylee plan to inconvenience Wolf until he agrees to fess up. A limo driver named Frank Jackson helps them out, stating 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 upon dumping blue dye in his swimming pool, dying his hair orange by placing orange dye in his shampoo, and sticking his phone earpiece with instant krazy glue. They also tricked Wolf into going into a kid's birthday party that his stunt coordinator Vince wanted the day off for instead of the house of his boss Marcus Duncan (the president of the studios), and modifying his car's controls. This leads to an incident when Wolf sees he's heading straight for a monster truck. He barely manages to stop in time, only to be rear ended by an elderly lady (who he insulted earlier). The monster truck driver, called The Masher is furious and threatens Wolf for the "damage" (despite Wolf's car only hitting the tires). As the Masher climbs back into his truck, Wolf insults him sarcastically calling him "tough guy." The Masher then slowly drives his truck right toward Wolf's convertable ignoring Wolf's desperate pleas of mercy. Wolf is thus forced to take a ride from a tow truck driver as the driver tows Wolf's now completely totalled car along.
Despite this turn of events, Wolf arrives at the premiere of Whitaker and Fowl, where Wolf will still not give in to Jason's demands. After a lot of people made a comment that Whitaker and Fowl failed, Wolf starts to lose support from Duncan, who states that Whitaker and Fowl costs the studio a lot of money and threatens to pull the production of Big Fat Liar. Jason then offers a deal to Wolf: he will help him out in pulling the green light for the production 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. Jason hands Wolf his father's phone number and Wolf dials his phone. However, rather than calling Jason's parents, Wolf instead betrays Jason again by calling in Malone and his security guards, who ordered Jason and Kaylee to be sent home in disgrace and that they never speak of this again.
Upset by this turn of events, Jason is about to accept defeat and is forced to call his parents to tell them the truth. Fortunately, Wolf's assistant Monty Kirkham arrives to help them as she has grown tired of her boss' abusive and argumentative behavior and having learned of the theft. Arranging a meeting of several employees who were treated badly by Wolf, Jason, Kaylee, and Monty concoct one final plan of revenge to expose Wolf of his true colors.
The next day, Wolf spent hours with a can of turpentine to get rid of the blue dye on his skin. He then heads to the studio to being his shooting of the movie, but 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 toy monkey Mr. Funnybones. After a chase across the studio, Wolf finally recovers his toy monkey and taunts Jason for trying to make him confess about his theft, blurting out he deliberately stole Jason's story and thinking no one has heard it. Wolf tells Jason to give it up since he will never tell the truth. However, Wolf is shocked to discover 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 parents, who were brought over to the studio by Frank). Having heard the confession and being disgusted by Wolf's actions for all the trouble of stealing the idea of his movie from a 14-year-old boy, Duncan fires Wolf by furiously telling him that this is the end of the line for him. Jason thanks Wolf for teaching him the importance of telling the truth. Wolf lets out a laugh, but shouts out that he is going to beat him up for his dismissal. He then chases after him, but Jason jumps off the building to avoid him and land safely on the inflatable stunt mat before he regains his parents' trust after Jason's parents asked Jason if he did all of this just to prove that he was being truthful. When Wolf shouts that they have a film to work on, everyone starts leaving in disgust. Wolf shouts they cannot turn their backs on him and that they are all fired, but one person tells Wolf that he sucks.
With Wolf's actions exposed to the public, Wolf was forced to declare bankruptcy by selling away his assets to avoid prison for his acts of theft and copyright infringement, resulting his studio to be shut down. Despite this, 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 and Jason's parents and Mrs. Caldwell are proud of him. In the meantime, Wolf is now reduced 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. Recognizing Wolf through the makeup, the Masher orders Darren to show his move called the Nutcracker, and Darren charges at Wolf by striking him in the groin, causing him to groan in pain.
Quotes
“
(Jason Shepherd, furious: You're sick, you know that? All I wanted you to do was CALL MY DAD AND TELL HIM I WROTE THAT PAPER!) Or else what? You're going to shoot me with a spitball? Hmm? Gonna give me a wedgie? 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. (Jason: I tried to play fair, Wolf, but you asked for it! You asked for it! You don't know who you're messing with!)
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~ 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!!
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~ 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)
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~ Wolf admiring his stuff monkey toy Mr. Funnybones.
“
OH MY GOOOOOOOOOD!!!!
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~ Wolf after seeing that his hair is dyed orange and his skin is dyed blue.
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I'm a very powerful Hollywood producer! You kids are all gonna be hearing from my lawyer!! (Kid: Don't let him get away!) Get off from me!! You wanna dance, kids?! LET'S DANCE!! You want a piece of me?! YOU WANT A PIECE OF ME, HUH?!! (Kid: You're going down, clown!! You're going down!) C'MON, BRING IT!! I'M MARTY WOLF, DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHO I AM?!! C'MON, FOUR-EYES, HUH?!!
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~ Wolf lashing at several kids for thrashing him at the same birthday party that Vince was intending to take his granddaughter to.
“
Monty, where the hell did you send me? Because it sure wasn't DUNCAN'S HOUSE!! (Monty: Well, how was I supposed to know?!) Don't speak, just listen: whatever you do, you GOTTA GET ME IN THERE WITH DUNCAN!! (Monty: I'll just reschedule the meeting, Marty! GEEZ!!) Okay, that's all you had to say.... adios, sugarpuff!
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~ Wolf lashing out at his assistant Monty for sending him the wrong address, not knowing that Jason and Kaylee tricked her into doing so in the first place.
“
(Jason: Hey, Marty, I like your new coloring. It works for you.) 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. (Kayley pokes her head out the window holding Wolf's car manual) (Kaylee: Hi ya.) (Jason: Call me.) (Kaylee: Bye-bye.) (Wolf watches the ROTTEN KIDS!!! 'SHEPHERRRRD!!!!'''
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~ Wolf after Jason and Kaylee confessing their pranks in an attempt to take revenge on him to fess up while Jason gives him his dad's phone number.
“
All right, listen.... Masher, I'm sure we can come to some monetary arrangement. 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!!
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~ Wolf insulting the Masher before the latter decides to run over his car with his monster truck in retaliation.
“
You got the Wolf. (Monty: Where are you?! I'm at Duncan's office right now!) I'm... uh...... I'm not gonna make it. You, uh... tell him it's your fault and reschedule. (Monty: I'm not gonna lie to the new president of the studio, Marty!) Don't get all high and mighty on me, Monty, because if I go down, you're riding shotgun, Tootsie Roll! Now, make something up, and I'll smooth things over with him at the premiere. (Monty: Fine.) Wolf out!
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~ Wolf calling Monty to cover up for his absence at Duncan's meeting, neglecting to tell her that his car has been destroyed by the Masher thanks to Jason's sabotage.
“
Oh, kid... you have no idea who you are dealing with. You think I care about a couple of little pranks? Nah! (laughs evilly) See you around, Shepherd!
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~ Wolf refusing to back down to Jason after arriving late to the premiere of Whitaker and Fowl.
“
Yello? This is Marty Wolf, I am standing in my kitchen with Jason Shepherd. I'm looking at him as we speak, and you better bring backup. (Jason: What are you doing?! I thought you were on the phone with my dad!) Oh, I was on the phone, all right, but it ain't your old man! (Rocko: You're a real piece of work, Shepherd.) (Jason: Who are you?) (Rocko: Rocko Malone, head of security for Marty Wolf Pictures.) Thanks for all you help, kid, really. Savin' my butt twice on one year.... who would've thunk it? (Rocko: Let's go, kid. Come on, you too, Punky Brewster.) (Kaylee: You can't do this! We have a witness!!) Hey, first lesson in Hollywood, sweetheart: always get it in writing! What a day!
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~ Wolf betraying Jason and Kaylee by surrendering them to security after tricking them into helping him make a speech to green-lit the production of Big Fat Liar.
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Monty, it's me. (Monty: Oh, hey, Marty, did you get some rest for the big day?) Are you kidding me? I spent half the night with a scrub brush and a can of turpentine. But bye-bye, Little Boy Blue, I am back!! Hey, pedal to the metal, Ricky Retardo! Got a movie to shoot.
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~ Wolf confessing to Monty that he spend half the night using turpentine to get rid of the blue dye while heading to the studio for the first day of shooting.
“
Gimme back my monkey. (Jason: Come and get 'im!)
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~ Wolf after seeing that Jason has stolen his stuffed monkey Mr. Funnybones.
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I'm right behind ya, Shepherd!!
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~ Wolf chasing after Jason throughout the studio.
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YOU CAN'T OUTRUN THE WOLF, KID!! (Jason: Yeah, we'll see about that!) Hang on, Funnybones! Daddy's coming!
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~ Wolf while chasing Jason.
“
Let go of the monkey. (Jason: Call my dad.) Never. (Jason: Yes!) NO!!! (swipes Mr. Funnybones from Jason) That's it, kid! It's over! You lose, and I win! (Jason: I don't think so.) Oh, you don't think so? C'mon, Jason, you're smarter than that. You write a story, I steal it, and now, I'm about to start shooting the greatest movie of my career. (Jason: So you admit you stole my story?!) Look, we've been over this, it's ancient history. Yeah, I stole your story! Whoop-de-doodle-do! 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!! (Director: And cut!)
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~ Wolf gloating out his victory to Jason after reclaiming Funnybones, the very same speech that exposed his colors to the public.
“
(Duncan: You stole the idea for this movie from a 13-year-old boy?) He's uh... he's 14. (Duncan: This is the end of the line, Wolf! It's over!)
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~ Wolf correcting Jason's true age to Duncan before getting fired for his actions against Jason.
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I am gonna GET YOU, SHEPHERD!!!
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~ Wolf swearing revenge on Jason for getting him fired.
“
We got a movie to shoot, huh? C'mon, let's make some magic! The human hit factory is ready to roll! (the people just laugh and leave in disgust) Hey, where do you think you're going? You cannot turn your backs on me!! I'M MARTY WOLF!! All right, fine! FINE!! YOU'RE ALL FIRED!!! (Man: You suck, Marty!)
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~ Wolf lashing out as everyone in the studio as they start to leave following his dismissal.
“
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. (Masher: Yo little Mash, show me your Nutcracker!)
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~ Wolf's last words as he's being reduced to a birthday clown while being paid to attend the birthday of the Masher's son, who kicks him in the groin.
Gallery
Jason meets Wolf in his limo.
Wolf mocking Jason after burning his report instead of calling Jason's parents to tell them about the theft.
Marty Wolf's Breakdown upon seeing his skin dyed blue.
Marty screams "OH, MY GOD!", turning to get angry.
Wolf snarls at Jason for exposing his true nature to everyone--including Mr. Duncan, sending Wolf's career right down the drain.
Wolf reduced to being "Wolfie the Clown"...
...only to discover that the birthday boy is the son of the Masher—the monster truck driver he insulted earlier.
Wolf wincing as he gets the final taste of his own medicine—the birhday kid gives him the "nutcracker."
Trivia
Essentially, Marty Wolf serves as an allegory to the Big Bad Wolf much like Jason Shepherd is an allegory to the Shepherd from the classic tale The Boy Who Cried Wolf, which is about the importance of honesty and which are the consequences of dishonesty. Marty even makes a direct reference to it when he calls his bodyguard by referring to himself as "The Wolf".
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.
In some ways, Wolf is an example of what Jason would have become if he did not learn the importance of honesty, something Jason himself even realizes at the end, thanking Marty for teaching him about the importance of honesty.
It's possible that Jason may not have been the first person who got angry at Wolf for stealing his/her work, because when Wolf asks his bodyguard to take Jason out from his office, he refers to him as "another angry writer" who refused to leave him alone, possibly hinting that he had stolen pitchs or screenplays from others before.
Peter MacNicol, Bradley Whitford, Jim Carrey, Joe Pesci, Willem Dafoe, Peter Greene, Alec Baldwin, and James Woods were all considered for the role of Marty Wolf before Paul Giamatti was cast.
