Joining Steve Carell and Jennifer Garner in Walt Disney Pictures' new family comedy “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” are three of today's most promising teen actors – Ed Oxenbould, Dylan Minnette and Bella Thorne.

Ed Oxenbould. There are bad days and there are really bad days. Alexander’s includes everything from a humiliating text that spreads like wildfire to an actual fire at the expense of his secret crush. The nightmare is capped with news of a huge party thrown by his nemesis on the very day Alexander planned to host his own somewhat-less-exciting birthday party. Since Alexander—bad day and all—was destined to be the heart of the film, the person chosen to fill the title role had to be special. Filmmakers cast a wide net—casting directors saw more than 500 kids. “We had to find just the right person to play Alexander,” says director Miguel Arteta. “We didn’t want a typical child actor. Alexander needed to be the underdog. He’s like the one kid in the otherwise-perfect family portrait with his eyes closed.”

The director enlisted his wife to help scan hundreds of audition tapes. “The moment this Australian kid actor, Ed Oxenbould, came on, we both saw something special. He’s super smart, sweet and generous.”

But it was the actor’s likability and his ability to empathize that won him the role of Alexander. “He’s a 13-year-old everyman,” says screenwriter Rob Lieber. “He has an understated charm to him and I think that’s what Alexander’s all about.”

“He’s just a kid,” says Oxenbould of his character. “He doesn’t really understand that his family can’t always pay attention to him and his problems. I can relate. I’m probably going through that phase, too.”

Dylan Minnette. Even Alexander has to admit that big brother Anthony is a “total winner,” which can’t be easy. Dylan Minnette was tapped to play the successful teen, who pretty much has it made in life—just ask him. “On the first day, Anthony is so confident,” says Minnette. “He has a perfect girlfriend. Everything is going great. Then everything goes wrong on the second day. He wakes up with a huge zit, his mom sees him naked, his girlfriend breaks up with him, and his driver’s test—let’s just say it doesn’t go well.”

The film, says Arteta, showcases Minnette’s comic abilities. “I don’t think he realized how funny he was,” the director says of the actor. “But he came in and really committed to what was happening, and in doing so, he was hilarious. He even made Jennifer Coolidge, who’s a comic genius, really laugh.”

Bella Thorne was called on to portray Celia, Anthony’s demanding girlfriend. Beautiful, self-assured and poised for high school royalty, Celia lacks the ability to handle Anthony’s foibles—particularly if it means her perfect prom plans are compromised in any way. “Celia's dream is for prom to be perfect and when circumstances change that vision, she does not react well,” says Thorne. “Although she doesn't handle it maturely, it is from a point of disappointment and not from a bad place.”

Thorne says the story strikes a chord with both book readers and future moviegoers for a number of reasons. “I think a lot of people read the book because it’s funny,” she says. “It’s very different from other books you read as a kid, which are often fairy tales. This is something that feels real. This really could happen. I think that’s very relatable. We’ve all been in Alexander’s spot.”

Opening across the Philippines on Oct. 15, 2014, “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures International through Columbia Pictures.

Walt Disney Pictures expands the 32-page children's classic book “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” by Judith Viorst into a family comedy starring Steve Carell and Jennifer Garner.

The film follows the exploits of 11-year-old Alexander as he experiences the most terrible and horrible day of his young life—a day that begins with gum stuck in his hair, followed by one calamity after another. But when Alexander tells his upbeat family about the misadventures of his disastrous day, he finds little sympathy and begins to wonder if bad things only happen to him. He soon learns that he’s not alone when his mom, dad, brother and sister all find themselves living through their own terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Anyone who says there is no such thing as a bad day just hasn't had one.

Inspired by Viorst’s sons Alexander, Anthony and Nicholas, “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” was published in 1972. With more than 2 million copies in print, it became an ALA Notable Children’s Book and won a George G. Stone Center Recognition of Merit, a Georgia Children’s Book Award and distinction as a Reading Rainbow book.

“The book has a wonderful following,” says Miguel Arteta, who directed the big-screen adaptation. “So many people grew up with it in the ’70s, remember it fondly, and now, as parents, are reading it to their kids. It resonates with people because it makes it okay to admit that sometimes things aren’t going to go your way.”

“Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” is the first live-action film adaptation of the beloved children’s classic. Filmmakers knew Alexander’s day would have to get much worse than the original 32-page picture book. “How do you take a short picture book and make it into a full feature film?” asks producer Lisa Henson. “The idea for the film adaptation was to use the story in the book as the first act of the movie. The second two acts of the film had to be a completely original storyline set during a second day that is even worse than Alexander’s first terrible, horrible, very bad day.”

Enter Rob Lieber, a graduate of NYU’s prestigious Tisch School of the Arts film program, who had adapted children’s and young adult books like “Septimus Heap” and “Jeremy Cabbage” into feature scripts. “What everybody loves about the book is that it is about a kid who seems to have a dark cloud over him,” says the screenwriter. “He feels like he can do no right and everything’s going wrong. I think most of us have felt the same way some days, so I really identified with Alexander. He was having a bad day and his family couldn’t understand what he was going through. That was the spark for the rest of the film’s story.”

Filmmakers, while keeping the spirit of the book, opened up the bad-day potential to the rest of the family. “We wanted this to be a family movie that parents would enjoy as much as their kids,” says producer Dan Levine. “So each of the other family members—the brother, sister, parents, even the baby—endure their own special disasters for the day.”

“I have four kids myself and we’ve had lots of terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days,” adds producer Shawn Levy. “We wanted to make a movie that’s ultimately funny and sweet in the way that a family can unite around a catastrophic 24 hours.”

“There’s a sense of safety when it comes to family,” says Arteta, “though it’s easy to lose track of that sometimes when everyone is wrapped up in their own lives.”

Arteta treats the film’s disasters with his signature independent moviemaking style—infusing a blend of irreverent humor and enough heart to keep viewers invested in the characters’ off-road adventures. “There’s something very madcap, hectic and delicious about day two in the movie when everybody is having a terrible day at the same time,” he says. “Every family can relate to that feeling of chaos.”

Opening across the Philippines on Oct. 15, 2014, “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures International through Columbia Pictures.

Walt Disney Pictures presents the new family comedy “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” inspired by the 1972 children’s classic by Judith Viorst.

The film follows the exploits of 11-year-old Alexander as he experiences the most terrible and horrible day of his young life—a day that begins with gum stuck in his hair, followed by one calamity after another. But when Alexander tells his upbeat family about the misadventures of his disastrous day, he finds little sympathy and begins to wonder if bad things only happen to him. He soon learns that he’s not alone when his mom, dad, brother and sister all find themselves living through their own terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Anyone who says there is no such thing as a bad day just hasn't had one.

“It’s a fun family film that’s in the vein of the John Hughes movies,” says director Miguel Arteta. “Alexander thinks his family's too busy to notice how terrible his day has been, and his wish for them to have an equally bad day so that they can understand what it's like actually comes true.”

Steve Carell (“Crazy, Stupid Love”) and Jennifer Garner (“Juno”) star as Alexander’s upbeat parents. The veteran performers are joined in the film by a trio of young talent that includes 16-year-old Dylan Minnette (TV’s “Lost,” “Prisoners”) as Alexander’s older brother, Anthony; 15-year-old Kerris Dorsey (“Moneyball”) as sister Emily; and 12-year-old Australian native Ed Oxenbould, who makes his big-screen feature debut as the film’s title character, Alexander. Twins Zoey and Elise Vargas (“The Neighbors,” “True Blood”) portray baby brother Trevor.

Emmy® winner (and Golden Globe® nominee) Megan Mullally (“Will & Grace”) also joins the cast, along with Jennifer Coolidge (“American Pie,” “Legally Blonde”) and Bella Thorne (“Shake It Up!”).

The big-screen adaptation of “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” represents a collaboration of some of the greatest creative minds in family entertainment today. The film is produced by Shawn Levy (“Night at the Museum,” “Date Night,” “Real Steel”), Emmy® nominee and CEO of The Jim Henson Company Lisa Henson and 21 Laps Entertainment President Dan Levine. It’s executive produced by industry veteran Philip Steuer (“Saving Mr. Banks,” “Oz The Great and Powerful,” “The Chronicles of Narnia” trilogy) and Jason Lust.

Arteta’s key filmmaking team includes cinematographer Terry Stacey (“Salmon Fishing in the Yemen”), two-time Oscar®-nominated production designer Michael Corenblith (“The Blind Side”), and two artists with whom he has previously collaborated: Oscar®-nominated film editor Pamela L. Martin (“The Fighter”) and veteran costume designer Nancy Steiner (“Little Miss Sunshine”).

Opening across the Philippines on Oct. 15, 2014, “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures International through Columbia Pictures.