Here’s Why the Studio Behind ‘Alvin and the Chipmunks’ Slapped David Cross with a $150,000 Fine

For comedy legend David Cross, starring in three films for the Alvin and the Chipmunks franchise was a supposedly fun thing he’ll never do again.

When the Mr. Show star and co-creator first signed on for a half-live-action, half-animated film featuring the novelty song sensations Alvin and the Chipmunks, he earned significant ridicule from the ironic Gen-X alt-comedy scene that he was supposed to represent respectfully in the mainstream. In a blog post, Patton Oswalt claimed that 20th Century Fox offered both him and Brian Posehn the role of the greedy JETT Records executive Ian Hawke in the 2007 movie Alvin and the Chipmunks, but “we both threw the script across the room in disgust. David Cross caught it.”

Well, two Alvin and the Chipmunks movies later, the disgust caught up to Cross, as he would go on to describe the making of the tropical 2011 sequel film Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked as “literally without question, the most unpleasant experience I’ve ever had in my professional life.” That’s a fair assessment, considering that losing $150,000 would be the low point of most people’s careers.

While Cross completed the first two Chipmunks films without complaint (and despite the mockery he faced from his peers for doing so), the ridiculous circumstances of the production for Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked caused the comedian to go overboard with his hate for the trite, festive, cash-in films that filled his own pockets. During a 2019 appearance on The Jim and Sam Show, Cross said of the making of the film, “There were a handful of producers … (who were) just inexplicably shitty and took measures to make my life miserable.”

According to Cross, right before he had to shoot Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked, he had been in London working on the second series of his show The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret. Cross said that he had been calling the Alvin and the Chipmunk makers for months to find out whether or not they would need him for the third film, as he was contractually obligated to appear in it if asked. Despite his pleading, the filmmakers declined to give Cross a straight answer — until he was already in pre-production for Todd Margaret. Then, out of the blue, Cross got a call notifying him that he was expected to be on set in Hawai’i in two weeks.

Cross was furious that he would have to tell the hundred-plus professionals working on Todd Margaret that the show would have to wait for him to film a Christmas cruise jukebox musical about singing rodents, but his anger would only grow when he realized what shooting Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked would entail. Once he reached Hawai’i, Cross learned that he would have to spend two weeks on a cruise ship disguised in a pelican costume in all but one scene of the film. When Cross begged the producers to let him return to London and have someone else film the scenes in the pelican costume, they refused, claiming that he had a “distinctive walk” that couldn’t be replicated.

Cross (and everyone working on Todd Margaret) felt chained by the contract he had signed, but the terms of his agreement with Alvin and the Chipmunks would only get worse once the press tour started. Twentieth Century Fox promised Cross a $150,000 bonus to do promotion for Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked, but when it came time for Cross to put his money where his mouth was, he unloaded on the unprofessional producers and the dogshit movie they made together. In an infamous appearance on CONAN, Cross said of the making of the film, “All I wanted was to get the fuck out of there as soon as possible … and buy a summer home with the check.” 

Cross then revealed that he had been “forced at legal gunpoint” to make Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked and begged the CONAN audience, “Do not see this film!”

And, just like that, Cross’ bonus check disappeared, and the bridge between him and the big-budget, creatively bankrupt slop series was burned permanently. I’m guessing that the summer home turned out to be a condo.