( CNN ) -- In `` The Internship , '' co-stars Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson share the screen with a somewhat demanding co-star : Google . The comedy , which hits theaters Friday , is about two middle-age watch salesmen who overcome career obsolescence and a complete lack of tech savvy to join Google 's internship program in hopes of scoring a job at the giant tech company . Based on early reports , the movie is also a valentine of sorts to Google , which cooperated with the filmmakers to portray the company in an accurate and flattering light onscreen . Google 's campus in Mountain View , California , is shown as an idyllic place where employees blow off steam playing volleyball ( true ) , riding bikes ( true ) and enjoying delicious free food ( also true ) . Google products appear frequently and favorably throughout the movie , co-founder Sergey Brin makes a cameo appearance , and the company 's mission is unquestioningly depicted as doing good in the world . `` I think the reason why we got involved in that is that computer science has a marketing problem , '' explained Google co-founder Larry Page at a Google conference last month . `` We 're the nerdy curmudgeons . '' The filmmakers approached Google about making the movie after Vaughn was inspired by a `` 60 Minutes '' segment on the Google campus , director Shawn Levy told Reuters . A Google spokesperson told CNN that the company saw the movie as a good way to expose people to the company 's `` do no evil '' culture and get more students interested in technology and computers -- a field that faces a shortage of qualified workers . All those good intentions aside , `` The Internship '' is also an impressive piece of marketing . Google says no money was exchanged during the deal with the film 's makers , but the company was nonetheless very involved with the movie . Google allowed the film 's cast and crew to shoot for five days at the Googleplex headquarters , using 100 real Google employees as extras . The company also provided props and consulted with the director , actors and script writers on what it 's like to be a `` Googler '' ( a Google employee ) . The company also offered insights into its fabled summer internship program , which accepted only 1,500 candidates this year from more than 40,000 applicants . `` Over two years , we answered their questions about Google products , allowed them to see a Noogler ( new Googler ) orientation , had them speak with our internship programs team to learn more about life at Google , '' the Google spokesperson told CNN . Google also gave feedback on the script , including a request to remove a scene in which a Google self-driving car crashes . Google says it did n't mind the car being in the movie , but thought that scene was n't appropriate because `` the product had n't launched yet . '' The filmmakers complied . Product placement . Most of `` The Internship '' was filmed not at Google but on the Atlanta campus of the Georgia Institute of Technology , where the film crew turned a shiny new student commons building into a replica of Google 's California headquarters . Even so , the Google brand -- Gmail , YouTube , Nexus tablets and so on -- appears extensively throughout the movie . ( Google Glass , the company 's connected eyewear that 's currently being beta tested , is not in the film . ) Such product placement is increasingly common in Hollywood , which is always looking for ways to defray the escalating costs of film and TV production . Typically , there are two kinds of product placement : natural and paid . When a company pays to get its soda , car or website into a movie , the camera lingers on it lovingly for an extra moment . Think of the BMW car scenes in a James Bond movie or Peter Parker using Bing as his search engine in `` The Amazing Spiderman . '' On TV , most of these more brazen product shots are usually thrown in for free as part of a larger ad buy deal . `` If [ it 's ] blatant and obvious enough that it 's taking you out of the story , there 's a pretty good chance that was a paid placement , '' said Jon Holtzman , who was the director of worldwide brand marking for Apple in the 1980s and early 90s and started its product placement program . But brands do n't always have to pay , especially when their name is as respected as Google or Apple . Natural product placement is a more casual arrangement , where a company loans its products free of charge in the hopes of getting some exposure . They might provide the prop master on a TV show with gadgets that fit with a character . It saves the prop department work because they do n't have to get a legal team involved with clearing the rights needed to mention real brands , and it saves them money that would have been spent renting props . However , the companies have no say over how their products are used or worked into the plot . Apple has a very successful history with this kind of unpaid , natural product placement . In the '90s Sandra Bullock movie `` The Net , '' the good guys are seen using Apple computers , the bad guys PCs . In `` Forrest Gump , '' Tom Hanks ' character is seen opening an envelope from Apple that contains a large check after his buddy Lieutenant Dan invests money in a `` fruit company . '' Hollywood vs. reality . `` The Internship '' blurs the line between the two types of placement . Google did n't pay 20th Century Fox , but in exchange for its cooperation , the filmmakers gave the company some control over how its products were shown onscreen . Even when companies do n't pay or have agreements that allow them to prescreen scripts or get final approval on how their product is depicted , it 's usually in the studio 's best interest to show a brand in a favorable light . `` They 'll go out of their way not to say something bad about it because they do n't want a lawsuit , '' said Holtzman , whose company , Eclipse Worldwide , specializes in natural product placement . `` It 's sort of implicit that this stuff will not be seen in a negative fashion . '' Even makers of 2010 's `` The Social Network , '' a raw and often unflattering look at the origins of Facebook and its founder Mark Zuckerberg , worked with the company on some aspects of the film to sidestep lawsuits . Google did n't ask for any changes after seeing a final cut of `` The Internship , '' despite a number of deviations from the original script -- and the fact that it sometimes strays from Google reality . For example , in the movie the interns are separated into teams that compete in various contests -- including the mythical Harry Potter sport of Quidditch -- to win full-time jobs at Google . The company says this is not actually part of its real-life internship program . `` It could n't have been more opposite than my own experience , '' said former Google intern Raymond Braun , who now works full time at the company . `` The whole competitive , mean-spirited facet of the Internship program did n't resonate with me . '' In reality , the Google Internship program is less `` Battle Royale '' and more `` Oceans 11 , '' with each intern a key part of a tight-knit , collaborative team . Even so , Braun told CNN he enjoyed the movie and thinks it accurately captures the excitement and passion of Google 's employees . `` I think that 's it really fun to see the place where you work depicted on the big screen , '' he said .
Google provides the setting for the new movie comedy , `` The Internship '' which is based on a book by Ben Mezrich. The movie includes references to Google 's self-driving cars but not Google Glass . Co-founder Larry Page thinks the movie will help with computer science 's marketing problem .