Columbia plucks 'Pineapple'
Rogen, Franco to topline 'Express'
Source: Variety
Columbia Pictures is climbing aboard "The Pineapple Express," enlisting David Gordon Green to helm the laffer to star Seth Rogen and James Franco. Judd Apatow and Shauna Robertson will produce.
Script by Rogen and Evan Goldberg follows a pair of toking buddies who get mixed up with a drug gang. Production is slated to start early next year.
Rogen and Goldberg are also exec producing.
Project is something of a departure for Green, whose helming credits to date have been indie dramas, including "Undertow" for United Artists and "All the Real Girls" for Sony Pictures Classics. Green most recently wrapped "Snow Angels," an adaptation of Stewart O'Nan's novel starring Kate Beckinsale and Sam Rockwell, and he's attached to direct "A Confederacy of Dunces," with Will Ferrell attached to star.
"This project is an opportunity to plant an absurd buddy comedy in a rough-and-tumble action movie," Green said. "I've always been a sucker for the genre and hungry to fire up a comedy where characters don't get lost in their own concept."
Rogen, whose previous credits include "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and "Anchorman," recently wrapped Col high school comedy "Super Bad" and last summer lensed Universal parenting laffer "Knocked Up," both produced by Apatow.
Franco, who will continue his villain role in "Spider-Man 3," most recently starred in "Annapolis" for Disney, MGM's "Flyboys" and 20th Century Fox's "Tristan & Isolde."
wow, now THIS i'm very interested in. DGG doing a script he didn't write, starring/written/produced by Freaks & Geeks.
Yeah, if he lenses this laffer, it could be boffo!
Heard has 'Pineapple' in pipeline
Source: Hollywood Reporter
Amber Heard has a ticket for "The Pineapple Express," the Columbia Pictures comedy starring Seth Rogen and James Franco.
The story follows two toking pals (Rogen, Franco) who get mixed up with a drug gang. Heard will play Rogen's girlfriend who makes him promise to give up the wacky tobacky. She later discovers he lied to her.
David Gordon Green is directing, while Judd Apatow and Shauna Robertson produce.
Heard, who appeared as the young Charlize Theron in "North Country," next stars in Kevin Williamson's CW series "Hidden Palms," which premieres May 30. She also stars as the title character in "All the Boys Love Mandy Lane," a horror movie from the Weinstein Co.
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Quote from: MacGuffin on April 30, 2007, 12:39:21 AM
Heard ... next stars in Kevin Williamson's CW series "Hidden Palms," which premieres May 30.
i bet there'll be many a hidden palm making an appearance that nite.
Rosie Perez said on David Letterman that she plays a badass cop in The Pineapple Express.
Pineapple Express Set Visit!
Source: Coming Soon
If you don't know who Seth Rogen is, you should. Not only was he one of the breakout stars in Judd Apatow's critically-acclaimed "Freaks and Geeks," but you saw him giving advice to Steve Carell on how to get laid in The 40-Year-Old Virgin and, in one of the most memorable scenes, ripping co-star and friend Paul Rudd about how he knows he's gay.
Rogen just finished his latest film, Columbia Pictures' Pineapple Express, which reunites him up with former "Freaks and Geeks" pal James Franco. The comedy focuses on drug dealer Saul (Franco) and his buyer Dale (Rogen) who are forced to go on the run after Dale witnesses a murder. In the film, Rogen is a process server and a major pothead. He buys his weed from Franco's character because he is the only one who has this new pot called "Pineapple Express." Saul wants to be actual friends with Dale, but Dale isn't really interested. He just wants to buy his pot.
After hearing the David Gordon Green-directed film was about to wrap, ComingSoon.net couldn't pass up the opportunity to hang out on the set the last night of shooting in Downey, California and watch the guys in action.
We walked into the house around 8 p.m. where the scene was about to be shot. Rogen, dressed in a tan suit with a blue shirt, and Franco, sporting long, straggling hair, a T-shirt and red striped Guatemala pants, were chilling out waiting to be called.
Kim Langlie, the film's publicist, explained the plot a little more and described the scene we were about to watch.
"He [Dale] goes to serve this guy named Ted. He's sitting in his car taking a couple of hits and a cop car drives behind him. The female cops runs from her car into the house that he's about to serve. The house is all windows and you can see everything inside. He's freaking out a little bit thinking he's busted for smoking pot. Then he watches through the windows and sees this white man and the cop he just saw, who is played by Rosie Perez, shoot this Asian guy in the head."
Langlie continued: "He's freaking out. He throws his doobie out the window. He takes off and goes to Saul's house. He says, 'Oh my God, I just saw this guy and this cop shoot this Asian guy.' They're trying to figure it out because they're thinking he might be the dealer. The big dealer. There's two dealers who bring stuff into Los Angeles. Sure enough they hear the car go back and forth so Ted and the cop go downstairs and find the smoking doobie. Ted picks it up and takes a whiff. He goes, 'Pineapple Express.' So he knows where he can find the guy who saw the murder."
Not only does Dale drag Saul into the situation, but Angie, his high school girlfriend, does as well. Two thugs, who Ted sent after the guys, are chasing them and he's worried they will find her too. The scene takes place at Angie's house and Dale runs over to warn her that she's in danger. He has Saul wait outside, but when he sees the thugs have found them, he charges inside and Angie stabs him in the back with a fork not knowing he's with Dale.
"Pull it out," Saul yells in agony.
As Dale yanks the fork out he shouts, "He's my drug dealer. Gross. Apply pressure to the wound. Why did you do that?"
"I'm Saul," he says as he's leaning against the kitchen counter for support.
Just as Dale's pressing a towel on Saul's shoulder, Angie's dad busts into the kitchen with a gun shooting at them.
Saul screams "Oh s**t."
"He's with me," Dale says as he grabs Saul, drags him to the ground and hunkers down on the floor trying to keep from getting shot.
Two gunshots go off and the guys are screaming for her dad to stop and are trying quickly to explain what's going on.
"Put the gun down," Dale begs.
"You assh**es do exactly as I say or I'll take you both outside and f**k you in the street," Angie's dad threatens as he stands over them with a gun.
"No," Saul pleads.
"Don't f**k us anywhere," Dale says freaking out.
"They're out there right now. They're coming in," Saul says, trying to convince Angie and her family that everyone was in jeopardy.
"Dale shouts, "It's super real."
"You've got to listen to us now," Saul whines.
"It's terribly real," Dale screams.
Everyone on set could not stop laughing at how comical the scene was and how brilliant Rogen and Franco were at improv. After every take, the cast would run over and watch the scene on the monitors and just crack up.
During one of the takes I asked Rogen if he made up the line "Don't f**k us anywhere" on the spot and he said "yeah." I laughed and told him it's my new favorite line.
But, it wasn't just Rogen who was great at improvisation. Franco held his own and came up with a few great quotes as well.
The guys were game to try anything in the scene and at one point; Rogen pushed Franco too far down on the counter and accidentally shoved his face in a plate of cupcakes. With frosting on his face, Franco kept going and didn't think twice about the mishap.
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Pineapple Express Set Visit: David Gordon Green
Source: Coming Soon
Indie director David Gordon Green isn't known for making comedies, but when he met Seth Rogen and the two really hit if off, everyone thought it would be interesting to see Green come onto Pineapple Express. Green talked to ComingSoon.net in his trailer on the set about what the transition from drama to comedy and his experience of working on a bigger studio film has been like. After talking with Green for a few minutes, it's easy to see why Rogen wanted him to direct his latest flick. He's funny.
David Gordon Green: Those are underwear that a guy wore, a g-string, in the movie that I just finished before this and the producer thought it would be a fun gag for them to stage them in my trailer today.
ComingSoon.net: Especially today of all days!
Green: Those belonged to Nicky Katt and I would never touch them. I would stay a mile away from those drawers.
CS: What is the project you just finished?
Green: It is a movie called "Snow Angels" it was up in Nova Scotia, a heavy drama, so I decided to come down here to the warmth and the comedic terrain.
CS: How did you get involved in this?
Green: I just met these guys and they were working on "Knocked Up" at the time and I started hanging out on that set a little bit and I don't know, they seemed like a good group of folks and they work in a very similar manner in studio comedies that I do and low budget dramas and in terms of style and the way we got to work with actors and stuff like that. We just thought it would be an interesting experiment to see what happened if we took some of my team and some of their team and tried to make a movie together.
CS: After "All the Real Girls" and "Snow Angels" what's it like doing an all out action-comedy?
Green: Honestly it is a ton of fun. The easy answer is it is a lot of fun. I needed, just for my head, after investing some serious level of passion and emotion in four movies, four dramatic movies, I just felt that it wouldn't come from a healthy place to do another dramatic movie until I kind of, you know, exercised other muscles. You know, you don't want to just do curls everyday, you want to every now and then go for a jog, otherwise you start getting weird, you know. Just trying to even it out, because there is nothing worse than a terrible drama that comes from an artificial place or that to me, my least favorite movies are really bad dramas. A bad comedy you can just have a drink or whatever and watch a little bit of it and have a snack and zone out on it, but a bad drama is just bad.
CS: Are all your movies this collaborative?
Green: Yeah. They always have been. On this team there are probably 15 guys on this crew that I went to college with. Same DP that's done every movie I've done since film school, same sound mixer, the guy doing the behind the scenes documentary I've known for the past 10 years so you surround yourself with enough people you trust and have a relationship with and you are able to adapt to the learning curve that a production like this requires and then you surround yourself with people who have been doing these movies for 20, 30 years. You've got enough wisdom and experience to balance out our somewhat naïve enthusiasm. So if you bring both of those it meets in this pretty amazing creative place that I think we're a breath of fresh air in terms of some of the guys who have been working in the genre a lot more frequently and have more expertise certainly, but we're not just punching buttons we are trying to reinvent it, we're trying to do different things and in a way a lot of these guys we're going to, even some of the older guys that we go to, we want this to play like a lot of the '80s action comedies that I grew up on. You know like Blues Brothers, one of my favorite movies and one of the big influences for something like this where it is so outrageous but it never turns quite into a cartoon, so bringing guys who had been working in the '80s on action movies, on comedies was one of the things we were looking for on resumes, which is kinda cool... stunt coordinators and special effects guys and bringing that sensibility to it because it is kind of a timeless movie, you know people who play Ataris on flat screen TVs, that's kind of what our world is here.
CS: What's it like working with a guy like Seth who is about to blow up it seems?
Green: I was telling someone earlier, it is a perfect time to be working with Seth and James because they are guys who have a fan base but they can still walk down the street and live everyday lives like normal people, but they're on the brink with "Spider-Man 3" coming out and certainly people are more and more able to recognize these guys and over the next few weeks when "Knocked Up" comes out it is going to shoot that guy's star through the roof. So this is the perfect time because you get the excitement and the enthusiasm and all the talent of a guy that you don't bring the burden and the baggage of expectation to so we are still inventing him, he's still inventing himself. He's introducing himself to an audience because nobody really knows what to expect. At this point we're starting to latch on to who Will Ferrell is, we are pretty damn sure what we are going to get when we buy a ticket to an Adam Sandler movie. But Seth's at a great groundbreaking point where he can say "I want to do this and then I want to do something totally different over here" and mix it up. I don't think he's looking to do Shakespeare but he's looking to have a good time and do different kinds of movies and every time somebody was like, "well we might not have the budget to do that explosion," he's like, "I want to do this movie, because we get to do a big explosion so let's find the money and make it bigger." We got a couple of extra days for the car chase sequence, otherwise they were trying to give us the comedy car chase sequence and we wanted the action movie car chase sequence. So it is cool getting a guy that people are wanting to invest in right now, but again without any of the baggage. So you don't have people banging down his trailer and he doesn't have an entourage. He's just a good guy who is young and hungry and having fun and at a really amazing moment in his career.
CS: I noticed online there is a lot of buzz about you doing a comedy. Do you feel some pressure from your fans and what they might expect from this?
Green: I don't know. I think all the films I've made have had a degree of humor in them and I just felt somewhat monitored by the fact that to a degree there is a line you don't want to cross in a dramatic movie and still be faithful and considerate of the characters and respectful of the material. Again, bringing so much of the same manner and sensibility, you know we are doing a little bit different lighting in this movie because you light differently for comedies. It is a totally different tone and it is ridiculous and over-animated sometimes. I always divide people, people love one movie and hate the next. Hate all of them, love all of them so for me personally it is valuable to do something totally different and if it sucks or I'm not happy with it or audiences don't respond it might be difficult to do it again or I might not be interested in doing it again, but right now I think the funnest thing to do would be the unexpected.
CS: Seth was telling us a little about your directing techniques. Can you tell us a little bit about your style and does it differ from when you are directing a drama?
Green: The great thing about this entire ensemble is they bring wonderful improvisational skills to the table so you won't see me looking through a script on set. If a scene works... we want to make sure we hit certain beats and I'll have the script supervisor say "This is an emotional point we might want to nail" but we are so unspecific about it, so that's kind of how I do all of my movies. Here you are searching for a laugh, you are searching for what makes it a little bit different. I think it is a similar bag of tricks and tools, just trying to do things that are outrageous and throw people curve balls because what I try to avoid is people who are so rehearsed and prepared and performances that are so designed and scenes that are so story boarded and kind of prefabricated that it just feels manufactured. So I just try to make it feel loose and imperfect, because imperfect to me is a lot more interesting.
CS: So you are ok with them just going and riffing on each other?
Green: I don't know who was there for the last take where... you know the scene is done and just let them see what comes out because you might just find a button there that you can cut to for the last beat. So the whole thing is pretty much in that manner. Yesterday we had one set up and I said let's get Craig and Kevin, who were two kind of side characters, and got this lighting set up, there were going to be some wardrobe changes for the other characters before they would be ready and just bring them in and improv a scene and see what happens if Kevin is eating coos coos here and Craig wants to get him out of there. What happens there when you film them and shout stuff off camera to them, see if they throw a line. If I've got an idea I'll give it to them and say "say this" and then they will take that as a cue and go off on some tangent. This is the first time I've ever really had the value of basically infinite film stock. That's the cheapest part of this movie is burning film and you want to capture all those little moments because that's what makes this interesting. All the movies that Judd and the producers are really supportive of in finding an enormous commercial following is being able to have those kind of loose and ridiculous actors that riff and improvise and shoot it like this, which is not so stylized and composed as how I might approach a drama, but performance wise it is some of that same energy.
CS: How involved has Judd been? Has he been on the set a lot?
Green: Yeah, he comes by a bit. He's got like three movies going right now. He's juggling a lot. I have a lot of questions for him and I learn a lot from him and as far as having a producer who is supportive of what you are doing I couldn't be in a better situation for making a studio transition. Everyone including myself look to him for answers. The studio says how do we make good movies, how do we make people laugh and how do we get people to buy the DVDs? They look to him because of his track record the last few years. I look to him to see how I might approach something a little more economically in terms of not wasting time and getting right to the joke without it feeling like a set up and a pay off. How do you write a comedy when you are balancing, you know we have some pretty brutal violence, but you know I want to make sure it doesn't feel cartoony. So there is a lot of value in his experience there. There is always some degree of some political and financial, not battles but issues that your dealing with and trying to balance and iron out because you only have so much money and so much time and he's just got a lot of experience on various scenarios and budget levels so it is great to have a big brother for sure.
CS: Speaking of violence are you guys looking at a PG-13 or an R?
Green: I don't think there is any way around a pretty hard R.
CS: Good to hear.
Green: Yeah, there is some pretty graphic gore.
CS: Oh, fantastic.
Green: There is unstoppable language and pretty substantial drug use.
CS: Oh, thank God! We need more hard R.
Green: I agree too, because again going back to the '80s and things when movies really could push the envelope a little bit and those are the movies we look back to in terms of comedy because they were less fleeting. Kids today are still watching "Caddyshack" and "Meatballs" ...
CS: "Animal House."
Green: Yeah, they just live longer. I'm trying to make something that doesn't feel like it is so contemporary that it is out of style by the time it comes out. It is different too because I didn't write this movie which is a breath of fresh air in a way and Seth and Evan being the writers and producers that are unpossessive of the words. I had one impression of it when I read it and another impression when we started talking about it and sculpting it and now the actors who are there are the characters. I don't feel any authorship to it so I get to surrender it to the actors a lot more so they really do take it in some outrageous directions.
CS: How much stoner exclusive humor is there here?
Green: I don't think any of it is exclusive because I'm not a big pothead and I can't stop laughing at these guys, so trying to make something that is not so genre specific that would only appeal to Cheech and Chong fans. I did my homework and watched a lot of the stoner movies of the last decade and I don't think any of them are particularly funny and I even tried getting high for a couple of them and it still didn't (laughs)... so it has got to work on different levels. This is a movie that hopefully 17-37 year olds will really sink their teeth into and be able to identify with some of the situations. There is enough fart jokes to keep the kids happy, but I think it is pretty subversive and interesting sense of humor that they are bringing layers to it that it is not too ... well you know we are shooting so much that who knows what will be in the editing room. I'm getting assemblies all the time and I'm watching sequences, but we already have three hours of movie edited and it could go in a lot of different directions and that is another situation I'm unfamiliar with is what happens when you start test screening it? I want to make a movie that the crowd likes, because you don't make this for yourself. That's why I'd go make "Snow Angels 2" or whatever, you make this to have a bunch of college kids rolling in the aisles and when it is not funny, it is not funny. It is not like "well, I think it is funny and I'm going to keep it and fight for it" if nobody is laughing you look like an idiot. You know what I mean? So that will be a fun learning experience there. Then the MPAA, it's like are we allowed to have 13-year-olds smoking weed in movies?
CS: This will probably be your first huge DVD too, right?
Green: Yeah, we're actually having a whole day where we are having the actors back on Tuesday to do some crazy things that we've designed and we have some guest actors coming in to do cameo appearances and some stuff – it will totally be freestyle improv stuff. Behind the scenes documentary that the guys there, Darius he's here all the time everyday catching every bruise and chuckle. It is good to have that kind of a document I think. It would be great if an audience turns out for the movie. I've never had the pleasure of having a commercially received movie. This seems as primed for that as I've been a part of. The other good thing that would be funny is that "Snow Angels", my last movie, is probably going to come out in '08 – I would love nothing more than within a month to have this really bleak heavy winter drama and this totally ridiculous far out stoner comedy – just to give you guys something to write about (laughs). I've also woven in some minor subtle links between them too, so we'll see, they are for totally different audiences, but we'll see. It's all a great experiment and experience. So far there hasn't been any drastic drama. Everybody is on the same page. We are all just shooting a film and having a lot of fun and hopefully that translates to the audience in the same kind of way.
CS: This is your last night?
Green: Yeah, I've been shooting all night all this week and I can't sleep during the day time so I'm kind of a zombie right now. I'm glad we have that DVD day because otherwise it would be saying goodbye to all these people. You know, I made a ton of new friends on this movie, some days we have like 600 people working on the action scenes and set pieces so it has been huge and I would hate to be totally out of it on my salute away. It would be good to get a couple days, clear head come back and have a good fun loose day where everybody gets crazy and then part ways and maybe gather again for the sequel. You know what I want to do that will never happen, but would be amazing is to do a sequel to "Tango and Cash" and "Pineapple Express" at the same time so you'd get, I like the idea of combining sequels like "Alien" and "Predator" or whatever. Bringing two franchises into the same sequel would be pretty cool. I like the idea of taking the director of another franchise and he directs his actors and I direct mine ... doing something weird. Try something different. We'll see what's next.
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AICN visits the set of The Pineapple Express...
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/32812
JoBlo visits the set of The Pineapple Express...
http://www.joblo.com/set-pinneapple-express
Wow. Seth Rogen looks a lot like a young John Goodman there.
This and Knocked Up are sending me on a wave of Freaks and Geeks nostalgia.
Quote from: modage on May 28, 2007, 09:15:48 AM
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is that eliza dushku?
Apatow's 'Express' set for '08
Film co-written by 'Knocked Up' star Rogen
Source: Variety
Summer seems to be Seth Rogen's season.
Sony has slated next summer to launch the Rogen topliner "Pineapple Express" -- which "Knocked Up" helmer Judd Apatow produced -- on the heels of a successful summer launch for Universal of the latest Rogen-Apatow tag-team "Knocked Up" last weekend.
Sony brass said Tuesday that it has pegged August 8, 2008, to bow "Pineapple," the stoner comedy co-penned by Rogen with Evan Goldberg.
That August date would tentatively pit "Pineapple" against the second frame of U's "Hellboy 2" and directly against New Line's Brendan Fraser pic "Journey 3-D," according to movie data service Rentrak.
"Pineapple" centers on a delinquent duo of dudes on the run from gangsters after one inadvertently witnesses a drug-related murder.
Pic - helmed by indie darling David Gordon Green ("All the Real Girls") -- also stars James Franco, along with Danny McBride, Gary Cole and Rosie Perez.
Modestly budgeted laffer "Knocked" opened last weekend to No. 2 behind "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" by taking in more than $30.6 million.
Are 'Pineapple' Pair Seth Rogen, James Franco The Next Harold & Kumar?
'Knocked Up' funnyman, 'Spidey' baddie team up for stoner comedy/ action flick 'Pineapple Express.'
Source: MTV
CULVER CITY, California — At first glance, schlubby "Knocked Up" comedian Seth Rogen and overemoting "Spider-Man 3" actor James Franco might not seem like an obvious team. But with two of the summer's biggest hits under their belts, everybody is talking about them these days — which is fortunate, since they can't talk about "The Pineapple Express."
"I don't know if I can say what it really means," Rogen explained recently, punctuating the statement with his now-famous staccato laugh. "Well, it's the name of a drug. It's the name of a type of pot that is the catalyst for the main story of the movie. It's the pot that gets us in trouble, I would say. This is a cautionary tale about the Pineapple Express."
"It's about the two guys who are least equipped to deal with any type of danger, and they are thrust into danger," said Franco, standing in the middle of a Sony Pictures soundstage wearing a long-hair wig. "I play a low-level pot dealer, and Seth plays my client. Because of some circumstances, we get into a lot of trouble."
Ask Franco about "Express," and he'll say flat-out, "It's a comedy." Ask Rogen, and he'll reply, "It's an action movie." And to make things even more confusing, it's being directed by one of the most acclaimed art-house filmmakers of the past decade.
"We knew the action would be cool — you just get a good stunt coordinator and a good [director of photography], and it's going to look cool no matter what," said Rogen, who also serves as co-writer and producer on the flick. "But we wanted to make sure that the story was really good, that the characters seemed real and that it was emotionally resonant at the same time. So we thought indie guru David Gordon Green would be able to inject all of that."
"After doing four relatively dramatic films, I thought it was an important thing for me to get a breath of fresh air, sit back and have a good time," Green explained. "But my process is pretty similar in both [comedies and dramas]. It's all about having a good time and getting a good group of people who work creatively and collaboratively."
Green, the visionary director behind such eye-popping low-budget epics as "George Washington" and "All the Real Girls," is the third wild card in the "Express" equation. On the set, as Franco tried to get into character, Rogen cracked jokes with a production assistant and Green meticulously choreographed the umpteenth take of a silly scene, one couldn't help but wonder: Who introduced these guys to each other?
"Judd Apatow," Franco said, dropping the magical name that fuels so many film productions these days. Apatow is serving as a producer on the flick and has contributed to the story as well. "He's done '40-Year-Old Virgin' and 'Knocked Up,' and the script [for 'Pineapple'] is pretty out-there. Then they hired David, who usually does very art-house films. So I think it's the perfect combination to make a funny movie, one that is somehow elevated above the rest of the stoner movies."
So imagine, if you will, Harold and Kumar caught up in the world of "Donnie Brasco." Cheech and Chong meeting Tony Montana in a back alley. Or ... sequels to barely remembered action flicks starring Bruce Willis and "Rowdy" Roddy Piper?
"Shane Black was a big inspiration to us," Rogen said of the script he co-wrote with "Knocked Up" co-producer Evan Goldberg. "He wrote the 'Lethal Weapon' movies and 'The Last Boy Scout.' I'm a big fan of his."
"We've used those as references a lot, but I've used John Carpenter's 'They Live' with Roddy Piper," Green revealed. "I've watched that a lot, in terms of the fights that feel like real people really getting hit. I've also looked to movies like 'The Blues Brothers' and 'The Big Lebowski' as movies that work within genre conventions but don't use the textbook in their engineering."
In the scene we witnessed, Rogen frantically abuses the downstairs buzzer to Franco's apartment, disturbing the stoner's half-conscious state. Getting up from his couch, Franco gazes lovingly at a hilariously over-the-top portrait of him and his grandma hanging above the TV, tends to the panicked voice on the other end and then starts returning to the couch. His foot-shuffling is interrupted, however, when Rogen maniacally buzzes again. "I missed the door!" he shouts.
"Me and James, we witness a murder and it sends us on the run from a drug dealer played by ['Office Space' actor] Gary Cole," Rogen said of the scene. "We're basically the two dumbest guys in the world trying to figure out how to outsmart these criminals and save our loved ones, and we become good friends in the process, which is nice."
In real life, Rogen has befriended the on-set medical crew, as he's learned that being an action star isn't as easy as it looks. "There are many fight scenes and car chases and AK-47s being shot throughout this movie," he said. "I broke a finger, and I got many, many bumps and bruises along the way. There are a lot of injuries, I would say, on this set."
"I got three stitches right in my head — I ran into a tree," Franco added. "They cut it down after."
"Franco cracked his head open our first week of shooting," Rogen teased. "We're not action people. Well, I'm not — Franco is. But I've done more physical activity making this movie than in the past 10 years."
"Everybody gets injured on action movies," explained Franco, getting ready for another take. "One of the best things about doing all the action on this thing was Seth's reaction. If a punch was thrown or a gun was fired, he was excited. But I think he soon realized that you get injured in action scenes, so he started tallying up all the injuries."
We'll see how this oddball mix comes together when "The Pineapple Express" hits theaters in August 2008, but this much seems certain: The heat coming off Franco, Rogen and Apatow virtually guarantees Green the biggest opening weekend he's ever had.
" 'Spider-Man 3' [made] film history by breaking the opening box-office-weekend record," Franco teased his director. "Do you think 'Pineapple' will beat that record?"
"I have a wonderful track record on the other end of that financial spectrum," Green replied.
really wanna go see this tomorrow, but it's pretty far (woodland hills - so cal talk) and dont know if ill make it there in time.
Four minute scene preview:
http://www.joblo.com/video/player.php?video=Pineapple-Express
Disappointed to see Seth Rogen doing the stoner thing again. Maybe because I feel some resentment heading his way, like with Ben Stiller's shtick, and Jim Carey's rubber face. I don't want him to play a serial killer or anything it's just that this scene could have been a 'Ben Stone visiting his dealer', deleted scene from Knocked Up.
- The bizarre mish-mash of creativity behind this film has to form its own trifecta of film-making power.
- It seems to me like this films main influence is The Big Lebowski (not just because Rogen looks like John Goodman, still)
- Desario and Miller - together again!
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg248.imageshack.us%2Fimg248%2F100%2Fpineappleexpress1hk7.jpg&hash=3c1ba7b79ec95894810b31fff19b5a82abac83aa) (http://imageshack.us)
red band trailer
edit: http://www.traileraddict.com/trailer/pineapple-express/red-band-trailer
thanks for the link fix mod
What song is that?
it's M.I.A., can't remember the name of the song though...
Quote from: ddiggler on February 12, 2008, 09:34:14 PM
it's M.I.A., can't remember the name of the song though...
Paper Planes
Wow, Yes! Fuck! Shouldn't have watched that.
looks.. high-larious.
everything from the beginning of that jump quadrupled my expectations for this. and best use of a song in a trailer of 2008 so far.
I'm kind of over the whole idea that people smoking pot is hilarious. Haha, look! He's giggling more than a person in similar circumstances would giggle were he not smoking pot! What other comic hijinks await? Silly man, snack foods aren't the most important consideration in a life or death situation!
but its seth rogen and james franco.
Quote from: polkablues on February 13, 2008, 07:56:03 PM
I'm kind of over the whole idea that people smoking pot is hilarious. Haha, look! He's giggling more than a person in similar circumstances would giggle were he not smoking pot! What other comic hijinks await? Silly man, snack foods aren't the most important consideration in a life or death situation!
that's like dismissing everything those kids have done as a teen comedy or a romantic comedy or a movie parody.
I expect this movie to be better than average, but it still abuses (and I admit I'm judging solely from the trailer) the same sorts of characterizations that Cheech and Chong had already worn out back before I was even born. It's sort of akin to a new, talented stand-up comic walking on stage and telling "What's the deal with airline food?" jokes. It was funny enough once, but at some point I stopped laughing at it, and I'm not sure even Seth Rogen and James Franco can make me start again.
Quote from: pete on February 14, 2008, 02:16:01 AM
that's like dismissing everything those kids have done as a teen comedy or a romantic comedy or a movie parody.
I wasn't trying to dismiss the movie as a whole, just the specific usage of pot-smoking as a comedy device. If there's more to the movie than obvious stoner jokes, that would be awesome. I hope they put those parts in the next trailer.
Polka, did you see the right trailer? Because it sounds like you're describing that long, mostly unfunny clip on the Superbad DVD.
i think that looks amazing. the use of m.i.a. rules.
This looks awesome, and I don't really like pot films. Franco's foot through the blood-spattered windshield of a cop car flying through the air is probably worth the price of admission by itself.
Screenplay:
http://listentomewhine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/Pineapple.pdf
i'm seeing this tomorrow night.
hook it up.
Green Band Trailer here. (http://video.aol.com/video/movies-the-pineapple-express-trailer-no-1/2085870)
How long until we turn on these dudes?
Quote from: MacGuffin on March 13, 2008, 01:44:07 PM
Green Band Trailer here. (http://video.aol.com/video/movies-the-pineapple-express-trailer-no-1/2085870)
Green.. hahaha
damn, those quick fades after rogens superman jump are pretty sloppy. that music queue was the best thing about the red band trailer.
this really just looks horrible
Quote from: Stefen on March 13, 2008, 03:03:49 PM
How long until we turn on these dudes?
7:16pm EST
Quote from: I Love a Magician on March 13, 2008, 06:16:49 PM
this really just looks horrible
Seriously, my money is on the movie after this one.
it was really funny. what i saw was supposedly the final cut with unfinished sound and color correction issues, but i felt like i was watching the real thing. it may not be as funny as superbad or knocked up, but its still consistently funny. its not really a david gordon green movie in any way though. the real shining star here was danny mcbride, who is easily the best part of the movie. i was just watching all the real girls again and i remembered how incredible he was in that. he is just so funny here, it makes me appreciate his recent conan appearance even more. also, now i really want to see the foot first way (http://youtube.com/watch?v=eXaR4wlGu3s).
definitely worth some sort of excitement. everybody was having a good time.
I was just watching the trailer and realised Rosie Perez was hidden away in this. I'm surprised they didn't give her more face time.
At the start of the new trailer I was wondering if Rogen was going to drop the joint in his lap, start pouring beer over his crotch to put the fire out and then crash into a dumpster. However, I get the feeling that Franco is going to outshine Rogen in this. I mean, the funniest thing in the trailer for me is Franco's laugh at the sitcom on the TV....what is that show?
JG, glad to hear it's a winner. What's the film like for pop-culture references? Is there any "Eric Bana in Munich" type stuff?
Quote from: Redlum on March 16, 2008, 07:10:18 AM
what is that show?
227 (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088470/).
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg396.imageshack.us%2Fimg396%2F4659%2Fexclpineappleposterbigff8.jpg&hash=01b818f8640e1562cecf40c0e7ef0c14f4bbe802) (http://imageshack.us)
Well, in case anyone was wondering, these trailers are alot funnier when you're stoned.
Quote from: Stefen on April 03, 2008, 10:33:40 PM
Well, in case anyone was wondering, these trailers are alot funnier when you're stoned.
So is TWBB, The Sopranos, and pretty much everything else you do when you are stoned!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080602/ap_en_tv/mtv_movie_awards_fake_marijuana
Franco: MTV gave us the bag of 'fake weed'
Sun Jun 1, 11:00 PM ET
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UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. - Like the stoners they play in the upcoming "Pineapple Express," Seth Rogen and James Franco stumbled unkowingly into trouble Sunday at the MTV Movie Awards.
And of course, the weed was someone else's.
Early on in the show, Rogen and Franco took the podium to present the award for best summer movie so far, joking that MTV chose them because only "two potheads like us" would be willing to announce such a strange category. Then they pulled out a bag of "fake weed" and a "huge fatty joint" — and proceeded to light it.
"Kids, don't really smoke fake weed like this," Rogen told the crowd at the Gibson Amphitheatre, with a degree of sarcasm to suggest that the only fake thing was the idea that it was fake.
But before TV audiences could see the "contraband," the cameras pulled to an extremely wide angle, and stayed that way until Rogen and Franco left the stage. The awkward moment made some in the audience laugh, but left Robert Downey Jr. — who accepted the award on behalf of "Iron Man" alongside director John Favreau — with a puzzled look.
Backstage, Franco told The Associated Press that MTV put them up to the joke, even supplying the script, the fake marijuana and the fake joint — then had a last-second change of heart about the bit.
"MTV wrote it! ... Then backstage there was this big commotion: 'You guys can't say that,'" Franco said. "It says right in the script: 'Lights fake joint.'"
He liked the bit, saying: "that was the joke, because the No. 1 question we get about 'Pineapple Express' is, 'What kind of research did you guys do?'"
Franco said he was disappointed that the cameras went wide.
"I think they killed the joke," he said.
So what was really in the bag?
"I don't know! MTV gave it to us."
i'm trying to ignore it but the fans are preemptively killing this movie for me.
that's usually the case with stoner comedies.
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.blogsmithmedia.com%2Fwww.cinematical.com%2Fmedia%2F2008%2F07%2Fpemainstoned.jpg&hash=807e6c1580de710441acac7fbcc2fbc6b94aa629)
I'm getting tired of this crew.
I wish I could be the designer for Apatow's posters. That must be the easiest job in the world.
I like Seth Rogen usually but the guy puts me off because he seems unwilling to change one bit of his average appearance for anything. I mean dude, you look the same, talk the same, dress the same, and say the same jokes in every fucking movie. His "screen persona" is not that interesting and he obviously is capable of more but seems as if no one cares to tell him. Maybe I'm exaggerating but it would be cool if he shaved his head or grows a beard or comes out with long hair or something different for once.
Quote from: Stefen on July 01, 2008, 08:24:11 PM
I'm getting tired of this crew.
me too.. after this one.
Quote from: Alexandro on July 02, 2008, 12:16:31 PM
Maybe I'm exaggerating but it would be cool if he shaved his head or grows a beard or comes out with long hair or something different for once.
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ugo.com%2Fimages%2Fgalleries%2Fthe40yearoldvirgin_dvd%2Fthe40yearoldvirgin_13_th.jpg&hash=dfe9bd38282623d51a66c24e9f778d5df2795525) (https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.ctv.ca%2Farchives%2FCTVNews%2Fimg2%2F20070817%2F160_seth_rogen_070817.jpg&hash=17780399c8f7d06077757a95a960171595050e28)
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.arktimes.com%2Fblogs%2Flittlerocking%2FImage%2Fseth-rogen.jpg&hash=137bbddbc43c343aa72e543fe199177b20bbbe6b) (https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.post-gazette.com%2Fpg%2Fimages%2F200803%2F20080312ho_monroeporn_500.jpg&hash=44d8619153476aeaa747889c40bc5c65b197c57c)
plus he's really only starred in 2 films. Knocked Up and Pineapple Express.
pineapple express is an action comedy and knocked up was nothing like that.
Quote from: MacGuffin on July 01, 2008, 07:31:24 PM
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i want to punch these posters.
http://www.myspace.com/pineappleexpresssoundtrack (http://www.myspace.com/pineappleexpresssoundtrack)
Huey Lewis theme song up and functional for your listening "pleasure."
Quote from: modage on July 02, 2008, 02:52:25 PM
Quote from: Alexandro on July 02, 2008, 12:16:31 PM
Maybe I'm exaggerating but it would be cool if he shaved his head or grows a beard or comes out with long hair or something different for once.
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ugo.com%2Fimages%2Fgalleries%2Fthe40yearoldvirgin_dvd%2Fthe40yearoldvirgin_13_th.jpg&hash=dfe9bd38282623d51a66c24e9f778d5df2795525) (https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.ctv.ca%2Farchives%2FCTVNews%2Fimg2%2F20070817%2F160_seth_rogen_070817.jpg&hash=17780399c8f7d06077757a95a960171595050e28)
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.arktimes.com%2Fblogs%2Flittlerocking%2FImage%2Fseth-rogen.jpg&hash=137bbddbc43c343aa72e543fe199177b20bbbe6b) (https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.post-gazette.com%2Fpg%2Fimages%2F200803%2F20080312ho_monroeporn_500.jpg&hash=44d8619153476aeaa747889c40bc5c65b197c57c)
plus he's really only starred in 2 films. Knocked Up and Pineapple Express.
pineapple express is an action comedy and knocked up was nothing like that.
Yeah, with the exception of the one in which he's dressed as a cop, he still looks like the same guy in a different time of the year.
sorry, i'm having trouble deciding if this ridicule of Seth Rogen's appearance is meant to be sarcastic or not?
No, it's not sarcastic. And it's not to ridicule his looks. It's not like I'm dismissing everything he has done because of that. Maybe I'm wrong in that it's not his looks any less than the fact that he plays mstly the same kind of character, or maybe a version of himself, in most movies and his choice of wardrobe and hair style doesn't help to create discernible differences in each character. Usually, from film to film, actors change the way they look, if not physically, in the way they are dressed o the haircut they have. Even stars whose "screen persona" is stronger then the performances themselves do this.
I mean look at James Franco there.
I don't know what you guys are talking about...dude's got range.
Exhibit A:
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fbp2.blogger.com%2F_2GMlhUrYuhI%2FSB_TLU_49CI%2FAAAAAAAACvE%2FRUxAd7mffTs%2Fs400%2FKung_Fu_Panda_Characters_Master_Mantis_Seth_Rogen_Pic_8.jpg&hash=5ebfce1a9d24f75ea678ef8d465c62296161dd85)
Exhibit B:
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fl.yimg.com%2Fimg.movies.yahoo.com%2Fymv%2Fus%2Fimg%2Fhv%2Fphoto%2Fmovie_pix%2Ftwentieth_century_fox%2Fdr__seuss__horton_hears_a_who%2Fseth_rogen%2Fhorton.jpg&hash=83218fc97815ab39030f046015b2001052f662ac)
Exhibit C:
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fthemovingpicture.net%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fspiderwick_chronicles.jpg&hash=f6926120e5386d669157d611e8004dae1dc97ec4)
I think someone owes someone else an apology.
I think the marketing tries to make the movie as familiar as possible because it wants to remind everyone that 2007 was rogen's year. but I think alexandro is a little too quick to judge based on the posters. I've never seen him in an action movie, and I think that is him trying something new. it's only been like a year too, since his rise.
Rogen's played the immature-but-lovable guy a few times, but that vague outline of a persona hasn't gotten repetitive the way Will Ferrell's overly-cocky-(insert profession) persona, for example, has. And Ferrell has changed his appearance far more drastically than Rogen.
the film itself has me pretty excited actually.
the ferrell and rogen comparison, well...i got tired of that guy back in fucking anchorman...so maybe i'm not too patient with that kind of thing.
rogen is a lot less lovable here, i'm not sure if it affects the film.
Judd Apatow's indie auteur gets stoned
Source: Los Angeles Times
You would only know David Gordon Green's name if you were a hard-core indie film fanatic. Full of lost love and wonderful characters who make bad choices with tragic consequences, his movies are beloved by critics but hardly seen by anyone outside the art-house circuit. Green's most recent film, "Snow Angels," grossed $400,000, a small tick down from his most accessible film, 2003's "All the Real Girls," which earned rave reviews and made $549,000.
But that's all about to change. Green's new film is "Pineapple Express," the latest knockabout comedy from the Judd Apatow assembly line. Due out on Aug. 8 on several thousand screens across America and full of stoner high jinks from James Franco and Seth Rogen, it should outgross all of Green's previous films by sometime early Friday afternoon. In the past, Apatow's comedies have been helmed by guys like Greg Mottola ("Superbad"), Jake Kasdan ("Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story") and Nicholas Stoller ("Forgetting Sarah Marshall"), who became Apatow pals while working on "Undeclared" or "Freaks and Geeks," his under-appreciated TV series. So how did David Gordon Green get a gig doing stoner comedy?
Calendar reporter Chris Lee tracked down Green and files this report:
The notion of David Gordon Green pulling off an action stoner comedy is about as logical -- at least at first blush -- as a fish riding a bicycle. I did a double take when I first heard the indie auteur behind the downbeat art house dramas "George Washington," "Snow Angels" and "All the Real Girls" was directing a goofy Seth Rogen-starring movie for producer Judd Apatow with Sony's blessing.
Turns out Green was an inspired if not altogether obvious choice. He more than capably pulls off the kind of improv-heavy, zeitgeisty, male bonding comedy for which Apatow productions have come to be known. At a screening packed with teenagers I attended earlier this summer, "Pineapple Express' " bong-hit humor and bloody, surrealistically funny action sequences were killing.
I admitted how surprised I was to Green in a phone conversation earlier this month.
"I go out to make and produce stories I'm obligated to," Green said. "It got to a point where I have money and a cool girlfriend. I said, 'Let's blow up stuff and have a car chase!' Seriously, for a number of years I've been trying to make a comedy."
Danny McBride costars in "Pineapple" and has been Green's buddy from the time they went to film school together at North Carolina School of the Arts. When McBride got cast in the film by Apatow, he put the bug in Apatow's ear about Green's comedy skills -– in college, all but one of Green's student productions were "wild comedies." "His first-year film, it was one of the funniest things I've ever seen," McBride told me. "Then he got out of school and directed 'George Washington.' It was a change of tone and he followed in that genre."
"Pineapple Express" costar James Franco admitted that Green was "an unusual choice" for the job but praised the writer-director's "improvisational approach." As well, Franco outlined Green's comic horizons. "I think Dave wants to do bigger comedies," Franco said early this month. "Still action, but a 'meta' take on the action movies of the '80s. That's what came out on 'Pineapple Express.' He was referencing 'Tango & Cash!' "
At the Aero, Friday, August 1 – 7:30 PM:
QuoteSneak Preview! PINEAPPLE EXPRESS, 2008, Sony Pictures, 111 min. The team from SUPERBAD (including co-producer Judd Apatow) reunites for this action-comedy directed by David Gordon Green. Discussion following with David Gordon Green.
Got my tickets.
I saw it ... it's pretty funny if you watch it with a good crowd ! I saw it with Judd Apatow, Seth Rogen and that guy from SNL (for real tho ! they were just behind me!)
I think there was too much fighting and gunning and exploding ... but James Franco is awesome, much funnier than Seth. Seriously James Franco might be the most underrated actor right now. He can be everything.
For real it feels like a reallly really good student movie. I liked it and my girlfriend absolutely hated it.
i saw it with DGG (and Sam Rockwell).
Consistently funny but ultimately disappointing. Considering the director's resume I'm surprised that no attempt was made to ground the ridiculous in the recognizable. Franco and McBride give hilarious performances here but the film would've been better had there been more motivation for their actions. The final scene almost makes the whole thing worth it but in the end the film reminded me of Hot Fuzz as another action-comedy that just missed the mark.
Comic-Con: Judd Apatow bonds with a fan at "Pineapple Express" panel
Source: Los Angeles Times
One fan carrying a Chewbacca backpack got Judd Apatow to do what no other Comic-Con panelist has done so far. Apatow took off his shirt.
"Oh, my god, he's got a back like yours Judd," Rogen said before the fan was able to ask his question at the "Pineapple Express" Q&A.
"Yes," Apatow replies, before lifting up his shirt to reveal his own chest carpet to the crowd. "This is a hair bond," he told the fan. (Unfortunately, I was not quick enough with my camera to snap a picture. Instead, a lovely shot of "Pineapple Express" stars Seth Rogen and James Franco.)
The other bad news is that although Apatow and Rogen killed at the session, so much of it was R-rated and I can only give you the clean bits:
What does Pineapple Express, the fictional type of pot the film is named after, taste like? "It tastes like your throat is burning," Rogen said.
Asked why Rogen and "Pineapple" co-writer Evan Goldberg were inspired to make a stoner pic, Rogen explained: "It was a hard sell to make a weed movie for me and Evan," he said. "Judd had the notion to make a weed action comedy -- we said that sounds [censored] rad. We felt very personally close to the material. Guys smoking joints and shooting AK47s -- that's the movie I want to see right now."
Costar James Franco fussed over his outfit. "They told me I had to wear the wig and the Guatemalan pants. That was a big argument."
The best part about working with director David Gordon Green? "You can say anything because you don't have to memorize your lines," actor Danny McBride said. "You don't even know how to read." Added Rogen: "A lot of directors give direction like, 'Do it faster,' 'Do it with more energy,' 'Be more serious.' David says, 'Do it like you're a robot, or like you're doing karate or like your taking a [bleep].'"
Franco is a better kisser than actress Amber Heard. "You're a better kisser because you know the male anatomy and what I like," Rogen told Franco before turning to Heard. "Sorry, he's got the home field advantage."
Asked if any of the inventive pot shots -- a three-ended joint, for example -- were inspired by real-life moments, Rogen fessed: "There's one shot I'm smoking in a fish bowl. We did that in high school. It was stupid. I don't know what we expected the outcome to be, but yeah, we did that."
Rogen doesn't have a favorite movie role, but he enjoyed making "Pineapple." "This movie was fun because I got to shoot machine guns," he said. "It definitely makes your day go by faster. Take that knowledge home with you, kids."
Saw this last night. David Gordon Green phoned in afterward
Quote from: Bethie on July 29, 2008, 10:29:58 PM
Saw this last night. David Gordon Green phoned in afterward
from what i remember of the film, he phoned it in
during too!
zing.
Quote from: modage on July 30, 2008, 08:12:04 AM
Quote from: Bethie on July 29, 2008, 10:29:58 PM
Saw this last night. David Gordon Green phoned in afterward
from what i remember of the film, he phoned it in during too!
zing.
DING!! :bravo:
i had fun. i wanted a piece of gum badly before the show. my friend knew a couple girls that were there and i kept begging him to ask them if they had gum. he goes, "they were drinking diet soda" i go "they probably have sugar free gum."
it was violent movie for potheads. im not into violence and im not a pothead. so whatever. and i never got any gum.
A week early and still late. Would be the Xixax banner here.
This one I liked as much as Superbad, which means I liked it as much as my favorite of this group of comedies. One thought during the movie, though: how many more of these can I take? DGG said he looked to 48 Hrs. and Beverly Hills Cop for inspiration - that's probably why the action wasn't as good as Hot Fuzz. Not a lot of DGG's voice.
Exclusive: Pineapple Express's David Gordon Green
Source: Edward Douglas; ComingSoon
The last time ComingSoon.net spoke to filmmaker David Gordon Green, it was for his excellent character drama Snow Angels, a movie which tragically very few people saw in theaters. (You can read that interview here.) At the time, we spoke to him briefly about his upcoming studio debut, the action-comedy Pineapple Express penned by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg of Superbad fame, a movie which will ultimately be seen by millions more viewers than most of Green's movies put together.
In the movie, Rogen plays process-server Dale Denton, who ends up on the run from thugs and gangsters along with his pot dealer Saul (James Franco) when he witnesses a murder. Indeed, it's a very different movie than we've seen from Green in the past, being first and foremost a comedy but one that harks back to Green's underrated '70s homage Undertow. Many have wondered how Green would go from being one of the pioneers of indie filmmaking in the 21st Century to doing such a high-profile studio movie, and one can expect that those who like Pineapple Express will be going back to check out some of Green's former work especially All the Real Girls, the acting debut of Danny McBride, who arguably steals Pineapple Express from the better-known leads.
So last weekend, ComingSoon.net was at Comic-Con, taking a little break from the onslaught of footage and interviews being hurled at us to sit down and prepare some questions for Green, when we were asked to speak with the director a little earlier than planned, so the interview is a little more "freestyle" and not as "preconceived" (as he put it) than our norm, which hopefully ended up being a good thing.
ComingSoon.net: So the last time we spoke, you talked about how you met Judd Apatow on the set of "Knocked Up" and "Superbad," so at what stage in development was this project when you were on the set and they approached you about it?
David Gordon Green: I think they were on their second draft of the script. I think it was on the set of "Knocked Up" that I visited and met with them all about it. Let me see, I met them on "Knocked Up" and then two weeks later I got the script, that's how it was, and then went to the set of "Superbad" and watched how they were working, Seth and Evan as writers and producers, and just really had a great affinity and an affection for the way they were putting a project together. It really was just a matter of bringing some of my sensibilities to their sensibilities, so it was a pretty perfect fit—some of their team, some of my team.
CS: They've created a very specific way of working, especially Judd and Adam McKay said the same thing, where they basically throw out lines and improvise stuff on set. Since you're more of the director, you can't do that, but do Seth and Evan do that on set while you're filming?
Green: Everybody had ideas, but all of my movies are highly improvised, so I'll do that even on the dramatic films a lot of times. I just really like to work with actors who have creativity and energy and don't need scripts, because they know their characters so well, so they don't need the boundaries.
CS: What kind of shape was the script in when you got it? Was the story in place with beginning, middle and end and they knew exactly where it was going to go?
Green: Yeah, but again, it being so highly improvised, there was a different ending, like we improvised that ending. "Well, let's see what happens if we just turn a camera on these guys at a coffee shop afterwards and they recap the movie." That was just an idea, that wasn't in the script. It ended at the barn initially, so it's just all very loose.
CS: I'd guess when you're doing your own independent movies, they're a little more freeing because you don't have to answer to a studio, and you'd think that it would be hard to do that sort of thing when making this kind of movie.
Green: No, perfect transition because it was a supportive studio that didn't bother us about things, and they really trusted our instincts. It was really pretty awesome, and in a way, I had more freedom, because I wasn't limited on the film I had to burn and the budget was substantial enough to do what we needed to do, so I could put all my creativity into working on the performance of this thing.
CS: Last time, we talked a bit about doing genre movies, and "Undertow" was very genre-based. This one has a bit of the stoner comedy, buddy action comedy, definitely some genres that are new to you. Did you watch other movies like that to get into the right head to make this?
Green: Yeah, we talked a lot about "Midnight Run" and "The Blues Brothers" and "Running Scared," the Billy Crystal and Gregory Hines movie, as well as like "Stir Crazy" and some of the classic buddy movies. One of my favorites is a movie called "The Gravy Train" from the early '70s. It's just great and fresh chemistry and it's all about being alive.
CS: Was some of the music in this influenced by those movies as well?
Green: Yeah, Graeme Revell was our composer and I just played him music from "48 Hours" and "Beverly Hills Cop" and "The Warriors" and movies that had really synthesizer-heavy theme songs, and kind of came up with the score that way that had a little '80s retro feel to it.
CS: Did you get him on board fairly early or was it after you finished filming?
Green: It was after we'd shot it, and we kind of had an idea for some of the songs. We wanted Belle Biv Devoe and Shaquille O'Neal music in there, so we had some pretty eclectic ideas about where we wanted to go with the music and then an idea to bring a score that had that sensibility just seemed kind of natural to what we'd made.
CS: Did you ever see the movie as a period piece or was it just a matter of these characters living in the past?
Green: I just wanted it to be timeless. I wanted it to be a movie that you can't really quite date. It's not so specifically contemporary that it'll be out of style next year. It's kind of designed to already be out of style, so we have some modern devices: cell phones and everything about what they're watching on TV, what they're talking about, any pop culture references are twenty years old.
CS: I wanted to talk about your relationship with Danny McBride who appeared in "All the Real Girls" but who is really popping right between this movie, "Tropic Thunder" and his upcoming HBO series in development. Can you talk about bringing him onto this? I mean, who was attached when you were brought on to direct this besides Seth?
Green: Seth and James were on board. They'd actually filmed a table read to see if the script was working to see if it was a project they wanted to get serious about. (Danny) is actually the one who introduced me to these guys. After he'd done "The Foot Fist Way"—Judd and Seth were big fans of that movie—so they invited him out to meet and then they talked to him a little bit about this project as an idea they had, and he threw my name in there and said, "Hey, you might want to meet with David" and they were familiar with my dramatic work, and they thought that was so weird it might work. I really have to credit him with that introduction.
CS: While this is a comedy, there's also a lot of violence, which is done in a very realistic and graphic way, but there's also the jokes in between. I was curious about trying to find the right balance of those things so you feel they're in danger but still keep it light.
Green: It was interesting and we were worried about that at first, but we really just followed our instincts about what movie we wanted to see, and started putting that in front of an audience and the more we pushed the audience, the more they responded to it. The gore we added and the strange humor we added, the weirder the movie became, the more positive the reaction became, so there was really every incentive to maximize its strange qualities and non-traditional qualities and really follow our initial instincts of what that balance would be.
CS: When I saw it in New York, it was with what I guess some would call an "urban" audience and I was surprised how well it went over. The audience was just loving it.
Green: Really? Great! Love that, that's good to hear. You know, it's interesting because I watched it a couple nights ago in New York for the first time to see an East Coast reaction, and it's strange that the rhythm of humor and sense of humor is a little different on both coasts. You'll see some little textures to the differences of how they respond to it.
CS: What was the gameplan for shooting the action sequences? How much of it was written in the original script and described on what happens in the car chase?
Green: No, because we were given a comedy budget for the movie, and so we really didn't know what we were able to pull off until we started asking favors. I met with people I was passionate about working with, the stunt coordinator that had done some wonderful movies and the guys that did the car chase for us were the guys that did the "Bourne Identity" and had done some pretty amazing car stunts. So getting people whose work I admired on board was the first step and then trying to maximize every dollar so we could turn what on the script was just a couple sentences or something more manageable, we wanted to make it outrageous and push what the potential would be.
CS: Where was the location where you did all the stuff in the barn as that was a pretty cool location?
Green: Yeah, it was about an hour outside L.A. We built this barn up on a mountain. The underground was a different set, that was a newspaper printing place where we got the roof on fire when we set the bomb off and that turned into quite a debacle on Thursday night.
CS: Doing that kind of stoner comedy, you knew this was going to be R-rated and there was no way around that. Has anyone ever suggested that you had to cut back on anything or did everyone knew that this is what it was and that's that?
Green: Again, everybody was just so supportive, it's crazy. There is a thing that for the version that's going to be released in the U.K., you can't have minors and marijuana or you can, but then noone under 18 will be allowed to go see the movie, so we did make a compromise for the British version of it, which is somewhat frustrating but I guess their censorship was a lot more severe there.
CS: So you had to cut the scene where they're selling pot to the school kids?
Green: Or we just massaged the scene so that implies more than it shows.
CS: At this point, after doing this movie, do you think you can go back to doing an indie movie? I imagine this budget was more than all your other movies combined.
Green: Oh, yeah, easily. Times five. So yeah, the idea is just to do what my heart tells me what to do next and never become stale, and always try new things and new challenges and in some ways, spending more money is a challenge and in other ways, being inventive with a few dollars is more of a challenge. I was at a point with this movie where I just wanted to recharge my dramatic batteries and now I feel like I've exercised (or maybe he said "exorcised"?) a lot of the comedic and action impulses, so I'm developing things from an animated TV series to a huge Arctic war movie and a couple comedies and horror films. I write things that are all over the place and just see kind of what opportunity seems to present itself.
CS: What's going on with some of these scripts you've been developing like "Suspiria" and "Goat"? Are you writing all of these for yourself to direct?
Green: "Goat" is for another director, this director Jeff Nichols who made this movie last year called "Shotgun Stories," he's going to direct that, and "Suspiria" is a script that's finished and we're out trying to find the right supportive financial institution that wants to take a risk and make a really bold, distinctive and unique horror film. It's not the obvious... it doesn't slip naturally into the niche market of contemporary movies. I think it has the potential of being classic and a lot more artistically inclined than some of the contemporary horror stuff.
CS: Was that a producer who optioned the property and brought you on board? Obviously, there isn't a studio involved at this point.
Green: It's an Italian production company that is developing it. It will be a European production and doubtfully have any American ties to it.
CS: Theoretically, you'd make the movie and then shop it around after you finish it?
Green: Yeah, probably do something like that. We're trying to find financing that would take the risk with us but it's another one that takes a lot of risks, let's say, as you can imagine from the original.
CS: Yeah, I can't even imagine someone trying to remake it, so I guess that's the challenge. Have you started looking at the cast or you might want to be in it?
Green: Yeah, we have the cast coming together. Nothing I can say yet, but it's pretty exciting.
CS: Could that theoretically be your next movie?
Green: It could be. There's also a movie that Danny McBride wrote called "Your Highness." It's a medieval movie about Danny that we got set up and we're looking to do a rewrite on that right now. It's about a prince in the Middle Ages who fights dragons. Just Danny and a world of creatures and the possibilities there would be great because I haven't really worked in some of the special effects that could teach me. A few other things.
CS: It's amazing how Danny is everywhere now because I remember seeing him in "All the Real Girls" but he hasn't been doing that much since then. Why do you think everyone is suddenly noticing him?
Green: I think "Foot Fist Way" really made its way around the industry and it had a small release here recently but before that, it seemed like everyone in town got a hold of it and it was like a splash of water in the face to what comedy could be. He breaks all the rules and that's what we love about him.
this looks so funny!
Q&A: 'Pineapple Express' director David Gordon Green lights up
Indie film auteur David Gordon Green talks about getting hired by comedy king Judd Apatow to direct the stoner movie 'Pineapple Express.'
By Denise Martin, Special to the Los Angeles Times
If you know who David Gordon Green is, chances are you were surprised to hear he was directing the Judd Apatow-produced action-comedy stoner movie "Pineapple Express." If you don't, the 33-year-old indie film director has been heralded within critics' circles for his work on his small slice-of-life films "George Washington," "All the Real Girls" and "Snow Angels," as well as the low-budget Southern thriller "Undertow."
Before he took the stage to promote "Pineapple" alongside stars Seth Rogen and James Franco at last month's Comic-Con, Green took some time to explain how he hooked up with Apatow, got Franco to go ugly and stunned his parents into total silence.
So how did you get involved with the Apatow camp?
Through Danny McBride. Danny did "The Foot Fist Way," which they all freaked out over, so Apatow's people called him and asked him what else he wanted to do. Danny told them that we'd actually been writing and that I was dying to get the opportunity to direct one, but no one had given us a shot. They said, "Well, that's weird because we have the power to give people shots." So it was really that.
The next week I had lunch with Apatow on the set of "Knocked up" and found out that we had a very common sensibility. Strangely, their process was really similar to mine, the way they make movies, the highly improvised performances, the collaborative energy of the crew. Two weeks later they sent me the script and asked if I'd be up for it. We were e-mailing back and forth trying to set up a time to hash it out, but we never really did. He finally just said, "Why don't we just make it?" It was bizarre.
Was he familiar with your movies? Not one is a comedy. Quite the opposite, really....
They were familiar with my work. I was familiar with theirs. And I think there was just a peculiar feeling of "How weird would this be if we just work together?"
A lot of people seem to think that Franco is the real revelation in this movie.
I love that he's the discovery in this movie. The guy probably has more money in the bank than any of us. But, yeah, he's great. It was a new turn for him. When we first met each other we were kind of sizing each other up -- like I was thinking, "What are you doing here?" and he was thinking, "What are you doing here?" But it was a perfect fit. We actually had a lot in common. We just made that commitment to each other. We kind of said, "Let's just trust each other and go to some pretty wacky places." I told him, "I'm not going to make you look bad. I'm going to make you look just bad enough."
We did kind of butt heads over what he was going to wear. And then I won those battles and so it was cool.
What did he want to wear?
He wanted to look cool. I was like, "You always look cool in movies. Look dumb for a minute."
What was the most difficult scene to shoot?
I actually had to excuse myself from set a couple of days because it was so funny. I have a cackle laugh. And if you have Danny, Seth and James in a room.... I'm thinking of the scene in Red's [McBride's character's] house when they're across the counter from each other, and they're riffing on the dead cat. It's all improv and I'm eating these stuffed animals, trying not to laugh. But I was ruining the takes so I had to leave. It was more tough on the actors.
How so?
I got them all hurt. We beat them up really bad because they did a lot of their own stunts. Franco split his head open on a tree. That's why he wears a headband through a lot of the movie, because he has stitches. And Danny, he split the back of his head open when Franco hit him with a bong. Seth broke his finger. They all got hurt. It was all them. They're all really getting thrown around.
I heard your parents just watched the movie last night. How'd they like it?
I couldn't really tell. They're not really the target demographic. They're a pretty conservative 65-year-old couple from Texas. But it's fun watching them watch it.
Did they laugh when they were supposed to?
No. There was a lot of silence. Really, for like 90% of the movie. They need to see it again. I think they were just confused, like, "What's going on?"
Tell us about getting Huey Lewis to write the title track.
The studio was super-happy after one of our first test screenings and asked us, "OK, what do you want from us?" We said, "How about like a kick-ass soundtrack where all our dreams come true?" They said all right, and at first I was trying to sell Seth on Ray Parker Jr. for the theme song. But he had just gotten sued by Huey Lewis for the lyrics to the "Ghostbusters" theme song because it was too similar to Lewis' "I Want a New Drug." So Seth said, "Well, why don't we just get our idol Huey Lewis to do it?" He was actually on our list to play [the villain] Ted in the movie because I really liked when he [bared it all] in "Short Cuts." Huey was unavailable, but he did agree to a meeting. Seth sat down with him and talked about how we wanted it to be like an '80s song: a lot of sax and saying the title a lot. Seth says Huey wrote the lyrics down on a napkin while they were at lunch. Really, it's all downhill from here.
What are you working on next?
Danny's written a script called "Your Highness" that's about Danny in the Middle Ages, fighting dragons. We're working together on a new draft of it. That's definitely one I'm excited about. I'm working on a horror movie, a remake of the Italian movie "Suspiria," about a coven of witches in a German dance school. It's a classic cult horror film. I'm also working on an animated TV series, a movie about Arctic warfare and this family film about kids that are the pit crew for a NASCAR racer.
So no more small movies?
No, there is a lot like that. But those are kind of intimate, and I need the paychecks of a couple of these other things so that I can do them. The indie financing world is in a really difficult place right now. It's hard for people to want to invest when you see the returns of a movie you spent two years of your passion on. That doesn't mean don't do them, but it does mean control them and be careful. The last thing you want is someone to have invested in your passion and then do what they want with your heart. I want to make sure I get to a point where I can control stuff that I'm really intimate and possessive about.
this is one confused ass movie... pretty funny, but mainly confused-ass...
it's not quite a stoner comedy, not quite an action comedy, not quite a DGG film, not quite an Apatow project, but everytime it gets close to being one of those, it takes a hard right and just distracts the hell out of you...
S
Now normally, violence doesn't get to me too much, but here, it clashes with the context so hard that it's completely off putting... every killing was so unexpected and brutal that if i were stoned when i had seen it, i probably would have cried. maybe i just liked the actors/characters too much, especially Rosie Perez and Craig robinson's characters, but i really dont think it was crucial to see either of them get mushed by a daewoo. nor his foot shot off right after.
S
it's as coherent as DGG directing an action weed comedy with an Apatow crew could be i guess... but judging by the trailer, it could have been really cool.... may i coin the term,
Betrailer? If it would have just kept going where the opening sequnce seemed to be going, it would have been a lot better... but i like it.
Franco gets gold. Danny McBride, silver. Rogen, a bong. and I'll recommend:
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi17.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fb59%2F72teeth%2F1047661010A.jpg&hash=9d103603ebccf3065c658dd330ea82a8aae188a7)
I really dug this. I think I actually liked it more than Hot Fuzz (whatever). I saw it completely sober just to make sure it wasn't funny just when you're high. But i think 72teeth is right about it being too violent for your average pothead but I guess that's why i really liked it. The last bit of the movie turns into a pretty awesome action movie. And I really felt bad for Craig Robinson, he was so lovable in this. I had a ton of fun watching this and I thought Franco was pretty great. I guess getting an unabashed pothead to play an pothead was a pretty good idea. There's only one moment in the entire film where I felt that David Gordon Green feeling and thats in the woods where they're trying to find their way out and they end up screwing around and dancing in slo-mo. But even thats a stretch. I haven't seen that much this year but I say 1)Dark Gnights 2)Wallzee 3) Pineapple Express.
It was more amusing than funny. I loved James Franco's performance because he is playing guys I know, but the movie never took its good idea and transformed it to be really funny. I believe the success of these new comedies are based on all the funny, lovable characters in them. Pineapple Express concentrated the story on just Rogen and Franco and it got a little tired. It also had too slim of a story. Superbad also was about the events over the course of a night, but the film had a lot more characters and story to it. Pineapple Express short changed a lot of things that were essential. I'm dissapointed because any new comedy with these guys in it is always going to be compared to Superbad and Knocked Up and this one didn't live up to those standards.
I've always been a huge Bulletproof fan and I was hoping this movie was going to be as mean and nasty as that but as others have said, it never really excels in any of the directions it chooses to go in. It does everything reasonably well but it just never equals the sum of its parts. I also saw this sober and I think the scene with them being paranoid in the forest would have had me curled up in the fetal position. My hopes were pretty high for this one and am mildly disappointed but only because it was Apatow/DGG/Pot/Guns all in a film together and that's pretty much a dream come true on paper. The theatre was also full of total chachholes who will no doubt be building cross joints and calling all of their weed Pineapple Express until they become cops or lawyers or something else equally annoying.
So is it a good idea to see this wickedly baked, or no?
Depends on the person I think. The only panic attacks I've ever had have been while stoned so if that gives you any idea of where I'm coming from...I think you'll be fine. I still get freaked out watching How High when they start digging up corpses to smoke. Shit is just weird.
Sometimes when I smoke, I get real anxious, too. Is that what happens to you?
'Express' riding high at box office
Comedy nabs record-breaking $12.5 million
Source: Variety
Sony's R-rated stoner comedy "Pineapple Express" opened to hearty $12.1 million on Wednesday, laughing right past the record-breaking $8.5 million earned by "The Princess Diaries 2" on its Wednesday August bow in 2004.
Younger girls turned out in droves for Warner Bros.' "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2," which opened to equally strong results on Wednesday for its genre. Sequel grossed $5.8 million on Wednesday, while the first "Sisterhood" grossed $9 million over its entire opening weekend.
Both pics opted for a midweek bow to take advantage of kids still being out of school, and, albeit to a lesser extend, to get out of the way of Friday night's telecast of the Olympics Opening Ceremony. The move paid off.
There was still plenty of love for Warners' "The Dark Knight," which declined 10% from the previous day to $5 million on Wednesday for a domestic cume of $410.7 million. Film is now predicted to end up just north of $500 million in domestic ticket sales, making it the second highest-grossing pic of all time, ahead of the $460 million earned by the first "Star Wars." "Titanic" safely remains the No. 1 domestic title of all time, having grossed $600.8 million.
"Pineapple," starring Seth Rogen and James Franco, was produced by Judd Apatow. Sony's co-financing partner on the film is Relativity Media. It is the second Judd Apatow-produced and Sony laffer to enter the market in under two weeks.
The first is Will Ferrell-John C. Reilly starrer ``Step Brothers,'' which declined roughly 23% on Wednesday from the previous day, suggesting that ``Pineapple'' might have taken a bite out its aud. ``Step Brothers'' grossed somewhere in the neighborhood of $2 million on Wednesday.
"Sisterhood 2" reteams the stars of the first pic, America Ferrera, Alexis Bledel, Amber Tamblyn and Blake Lively.
Oh yeah. It always happens when I smoke too much. My mind starts racing and it's bad news from there on out. It's even worse if there are people around...so yeah, I don't smoke and go to the movies very often.
Did Pineapple just make more in one day than all of DGG's other films have combined??
The first 30 minutes or so were damn near flawless. Once the action plot kicked in I lost a little interest, but the film was still funny. The girlfriend subplot was half-assed and left unresolved.
Winner: James Franco
A friend and I saw it a couple months back when he got tickets to a screening for a little special they did for the MTV Movie Awards and there was a Q&A afterwards with Seth Rogen and James Franco. Franco was real quiet and Rogen was an asshole, but when we were leaving...we were in the parking garage at the Landmark Theater (in LA) and parked right next to my Corrolla is a beautiful Astin Martin. James Franco is getting inside and nudges his head. "Sup?" he said.
We asked him if he wanted to smoke a quick bowl with us in my car. Of course, he declined, but it was a good time.
I liked the movie. Good plenty of good laughs.
I've always thought the Apatow movies were just okay... cute stories with a couple of laughs.
But this! I really, really liked this, and laughed a lot. I don't understand the criticism that some reviewers had that the movie doesn't know what genre it wants to be--I felt like the movie had a very clear idea of what it wanted to do, and did it really well. Perhaps some people felt that the violence and goofy comedy didn't mix, but I found that it mixed very well--I was laughing and I was excited by the action!
As far as Green's work goes, I like this better than Snow Angels, maybe better than Undertow. I saw this a couple of days ago and I'm having a difficult time thinking of any major criticisms. I might have criticized the story line with the younger girlfriend if it didn't turn out to be so funny, and if Amber Heard wasn't so ridiculously beautiful in this movie. The movie reminded me how much I love Rosie Perez, I liked Gary Cole in his robe while swilling beer, LOVED Danny McBride, and the ending scene is so good that I laugh every time I think about it. The ending scene has my vote for best ending of the year so far.
Yeah, I guess I pretty much loved it. I can't wait to own it. I saw it sober by the way.
Quote from: cinemanarchist on August 07, 2008, 02:24:53 PM
Did Pineapple just make more in one day than all of DGG's other films have combined??
Considering that all of DGG's other films combined have made less than $1 million at the US Theatrical Box Office.... yes. I'm sure that Pineapple Express, just in the first day in the US, made much more than the worldwide theatrical and video gross combined.
saw it last night, I liked the chats, but the bigger moments weren't that funny. for example, the belt buckle scene, or the last scene at the diner - I liked what they were saying in those scenes, but the premises were just ok. rosie perez was amazing. the action sequences were ok, though they felt pretty hard-hitting, just as Undertow did. I was expecting more in the action department, actually, after everyone saying how it turned into an 80s movie at the end. I just didn't think any of the stuff with the guns was particularly exciting for funny. average. also, my buddy Lin, one of the stunt guys in the end, was never credited! wtf?
i agreet with Gete.
I really enjoyed this even though it felt a bit awkward at the diner scene. Maybe it's because I have some friends like that who make more out of something that doesn't have enough substance as you think it does. The action was spectacular, especially the scene in red's house. Danny McBride is awesome!!!!!!
I was honestly surprised that I had so much fun watching this. I think this film is really about being stoned so much as what would happen if you just dropped two stoners into an action movie. A lot of it, and this didn't occur to me just now and it's kinda weird, reminds me of Last Action Hero, in a way. The way they fire the guns and they land punches and bullets hit, it seems like it shouldn't be happening, but it's working in a fantastic kind of way. But forget that Last Action Hero comparison, the movie is really funny and not heavy handed with the pot humor. Munchies, digressions, etc are left to the background of the action plot, which serves the film well.
The first five minutes were a bit of a bust. Poor Hader, I normally love him but he just acted drunk. I will have to see if the cross joint is actually possible.
yea this film had a lot to prove after the dud of an opening scene. i was surprised at how franco played saul, going for a more awkward lonely stoner than a cool wisecracking one. i wasn't prepared for the overall mood this went for, but ended up liking the film better for it in the end.
spoilers:
did anyone else think of raising arizona during the fight between dale, saul and red?
Quote from: ddiggler on August 17, 2008, 09:25:33 PM
spoilers:
did anyone else think of raising arizona during the fight between dale, saul and red?
I could see that. I felt it was a cross between that Goodman/Cage fight and a couple of the fights from Kill Bill (The Bride/Vernita Green, The Bride/Elle Driver).
For months, I've been saying "There's no way this movie could be as good as that trailer" so I went in with low expectations.
I enjoyed it a good deal. Obviously, it's no break-thru in comedy and I'd probably only ever watch it one or two more times, but still... a good time was had.
I think too many people (not you guys, oddly enough) are picking this apart too much. It's totally an 80s whacky adventure with better characters.
McBride takes the cake, of course... I don't get how it took this long after ATRG for him to get more recognition.
pretty funny movie
Quote from: El Duderino on August 09, 2008, 05:13:27 AM
...and parked right next to my Corrolla is a beautiful Astin Martin. James Franco is getting inside and nudges his head. "Sup?" he said.
We asked him if he wanted to smoke a quick bowl with us in my car. Of course, he declined, but it was a good time.
From imdb.
Franco Turns Down Free Drugs20 August 2008 9:01 AM, PDTActor James Franco is frequently offered drugs by fans who confuse him with his pot-smoking character in stoner comedy Pineapple Express.
Franco and funnyman Seth Rogen play two drug-users on the run from gun-toting villains in the new film.
And though Rogen has admitted he is a regular drug user, Franco insists he stuns fans by refusing to smoke marijuana with them.
He says, "Already, I have had people come up to me in cafes and say, 'Hey, you're James Franco, right? Hey, I can't get a hold of my guy - do you know where I can buy some good weed?'
"Even in class (at UCLA) I've had someone come up to me and be, 'Hey! What's up, man?' and give me a handshake and palm me a little bag of weed.
"I haven't done drugs, I haven't even smoked pot, since high school."
Quote from: Franco on August 20, 2008, 05:19:59 PM
"I haven't done drugs, I haven't even smoked pot, since high school."
uhhh....bullshit
http://filmdrunk.uproxx.com/post.phtml?pk=770 (http://filmdrunk.uproxx.com/post.phtml?pk=770)
Quote from: squints on August 21, 2008, 10:34:14 AM
Quote from: Franco on August 20, 2008, 05:19:59 PM
"I haven't done drugs, I haven't even smoked pot, since high school."
uhhh....bullshit
http://filmdrunk.uproxx.com/post.phtml?pk=770 (http://filmdrunk.uproxx.com/post.phtml?pk=770)
"Soderbergh period"....HILARIOUS.
Quote from: squints on August 21, 2008, 10:34:14 AM
Quote from: Franco on August 20, 2008, 05:19:59 PM
"I haven't done drugs, I haven't even smoked pot, since high school."
uhhh....bullshit
http://filmdrunk.uproxx.com/post.phtml?pk=770 (http://filmdrunk.uproxx.com/post.phtml?pk=770)
Holy shit. That was hilarious. .....Soderbergh Period was indeed the best part.
Meh.
I watched this wanting to hate it to legitimize my claim that this crew is played out, but I thought this was funny as shit.
Danny McBride was the best part. I hope he makes more movies with F & G's guys and isn't just a DGG dude. It was more a collection of funny scenes surrounded by a plot that is too ambitious for it's own good. It fails as a plot driven film, but ultimately succeeds as a 2008 version of Cheech & Chong. It being an ambitious hybrid of many genres may have more to do with DGG mixing with Rogen and Goldberg than anything.
10 times funnier that other recent stoner flicks like Harold & Kumar. This was legitimately funny and wasn't just putting scenes together that are supposed to be funny, but aren't.
Also, the montage where they're smoking weed with those school kids they just dealed to is one of the best montages I've seen in awhile.
Quote from: The Gold Trumpet on August 07, 2008, 10:28:40 AM
It was more amusing than funny.
Pretty much agree with this. It was enjoyable, but no Superbad. Less stoner than I thought it would be, and the characters are likable with their bromance, but it was pretty thin on a storyline that that should have given the characters more to do than just keep running.
Quote from: Stefen on October 26, 2008, 11:15:26 PMIt fails as a plot driven film, but ultimately succeeds as a 2008 version of Cheech & Chong.
Funny you say this because I thought, "This is Dumb & Dumber's plot with Cheech & Chong."
I finally watched this. Being a DGG fan and consistently enjoying the Apatow crews output (sometimes begrudgingly), I'm surprised it took me this long. I missed it in theaters, and my Blu-Ray player was inoperable for the last month, meaning the Blu-Ray of it I had purchased only managed to collect dust and taunt me until last night.
I really enjoyed it. After all the talk about the violence, I actually thought it was pretty restrained in that department. It was a bit silly, but not careless or needlessly cruel either.
I was surprised how many of Green's fingerprints were on this. I kind of expected Rogen to overshadow what Green could bring to the project - but that worry turned out to be unfounded... there some really delicate, natural moments in the films that were totally unexpected and entirely appreciated. I'm glad to see Kevin Corrigan turning up in these films, too.
Basically, it reaffirmed that DGG is the luckiest director alive. A rock solid filmography, friends with Malick, and raking in Apatow funny money without compromising his worth.
Seth Rogen Aims High For 'Pineapple Express' Sequel
Source: MTV
Did anyone watch the Oscars this year, or was it just me and a few million other brave souls?
If you did tune in, surely you remember Seth Rogen and James Franco reprising their "Pineapple Express" characters in a hilarious skit co-starring famed cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, whose collaborations with Steven Spielberg have yielded a couple movies called "Saving Private Ryan" and "Schindler's List."
Which brings us to a recent interview in which Rogen indulged the possibility of a "Pineapple Express" sequel. "Of all the movies we've done, that's the only one that I would actually like to do a sequel to and we talk about it," Rogen told us.
And since Rogen and Co. already smoked villains Gary Cole and Rosie Perez, this reporter suggested he reunite with Kaminski. "I would like to bring back Janusz. He would make a great villain in a "Pineapple Express" sequel. He can be terrifying at times."
The idea has some Werner Herzog-esque possibility but Rogen realizes its inherent silliness. "If Janusz would shoot it, that'd be good," he said. If bringing on an Oscar-winning cinematographer is what it takes to get a "Pineapple Express" sequel greenlit, I'm all for it.