Arms trading goes awry in 'War Dogs' | USA Today 

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Sneak peek: Arms trading goes awry in \'War Dogs\'

Miles Teller and Jonah Hill star in Todd Phillips\' action comedy.

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Sneak peek: Arms trading goes awry in 'War Dogs'

Brian Truitt, USA TODAY 12:02 p.m. EDT March 22, 2016

Miles Teller and Jonah Hill star in Todd Phillips' "War Dogs."

Todd Phillips has told some insane stories on screen for years in comedies such as

Directed and co-written by Phillips, the real-life comedic drama (in theaters Aug. 19) stars Jonah Hill and Miles Teller as ambitious young men who become weapons traders for the U.S. government and enjoy the high life that multimillion-dollar contracts let them lead before the proverbial chickens come home to roost.

"I like making movies about bad decisions," Phillips says. "This is the ultimate story about these two guys making some key bad decisions in their lives — seeing an angle and exploiting that angle but going too far."

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The filmmaker read about the true exploits of David Packouz (Teller) and Efraim Diveroli (Hill) in a 2011

article that detailed how they kept winning larger contracts with the government in the mid-2000s until their biggest payday: a $300 million cash fall from the Pentagon for arming U.S. allies in Afghanistan.

The tale appealed to Phillips’ penchant for grounded stories. Before he made comedies like

David (Miles Teller) is embroiled in international arms trading by his buddy Efraim (Jonah Hill) in "War Dogs."

"I’ve always strived to draw from the real world, even though

is ridiculous," Phillips says. "Comedy plays better when it’s put up against reality."

, David is looking for ways to better himself financially, especially since his girlfriend (Ana de Armas) is pregnant, and Efraim, a former school chum, gets him involved in the world of arms trading.

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"It’s as if your best friend from junior high has made all these crazy ‘advancements’ and he sucks you into this whirlwind life," says Phillips, adding that Bradley Cooper co-stars as David and Efraim\'s  idol in the international arms world. (Cooper also serves as a producer.)

While Teller brings a groundednss to David — the movie is told from his point of view — Hill’s unhinged Efraim has a swagger that the actor’s never shown before, according to Phillips.

"He’s almost like a Tony Soprano — he’s not that but he sees himself as that, this swagger that doesn’t match who the character is," the filmmaker says of Hill. "It’s a weird confidence with this guy that I just love."

Director Todd Phillips first heard the real-life story of "War Dogs" from a "Rolling Stone" article.

The central twosome ends up in some dangerous shenanigans, but Phillips was most impressed with  how well they deceived the government.

"That comes with a youthful ignorance," he explains. "They really thought they could compete with these big defense companies, whether it\'s Halliburton or Raytheon, and step into this arena as these two kids working out of an office in Miami Beach. They were in over their head from day one, and the ballsy part of the story is really interesting, the fact that they thought they could compete and did successfully for a few years."

"It’s more of an indictment on the government than it is on these two kids who saw an angle."

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