MouseHunt is a 1997 IrishBritishAmerican comedy film directed by Gore Verbinski, written by Adam Rifkin and starring Nathan Lane and Lee Evans, and featured William Hickey, who died shortly after the film was shot. It was the first family film to be released by DreamWorks.
When oncewealthy string magnate Rudolf Smuntz William Hickey dies, he leaves his outdated string factory and a rundown mansion to his two sons, Lars Lee Evans and Ernie Nathan Lane. When Lars refuses a proposal by representatives from the large Zeppco conglomerate to purchase their string factory, his greedy wife April Vicki Lewis promptly throws him out. Meanwhile, Ernie serves Mayor McKrinkle Cliff Emmich at his restaurant in anticipation of becoming a famous chef for serving such a highprofile guest. However, the mayor is poisoned by a cockroach which came from Rudolfs old box of Cuban cigars that Ernie took for himself and suffers two heart attacks. As a result, the mayor dies, Ernies restaurant is closed down by the Board of Health, and he too is out on the street.Both homeless and jobless, Ernie and Lars are forced to live in the mansion together. Finding blueprints of the mansion, they discover that it is a lost masterpiece designed by famous architect Charles Lyle LaRue. Alexander Falko Maury Chaykin, a wealthy LaRue collector makes a proposal, but Ernie refuses under the belief they can make a larger profit by restoration and auction. However, the brothers have already realized that the house has one stubborn occupant a tiny and treacherous mouse. Fearing a repeat cockroach incident, Ernie decides that they need to get rid of the rodent. Despite attempting a wide array of methods, including numerous mousetraps and a vacuum cleaner, they fail. To make their situation worse, Ernie borrows 1,200 against the house mortgage to buy a jacuzzi tub which is lost to the bottom of a frozen nearby lake, and the bank threatens to foreclose on the house in two days unless they reimburse the money. The brothers purchase a monstrous cat named Catzilla to deal with the mouse while they set out to find a way to pay the mortgage. Catzilla chases the mouse throughout the house, but gets tricked onto the dumbwaiter as the mouse sends it on a oneway trip down to its demise. The
Source: Wikipedia