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David Gordon Green's upcoming action-comedy "The Sitter," starring Jonah Hill, was already looking like it was going to be a lot of fun. Written by Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka (they're actually writing the "Baywatch" feature too), the script we read earlier this year was an enjoyable blast of comic silliness, probably not far off in tone from Green's "Pineapple Express" in 2008.
Well, it just got that much better. Sam Rockwell is evidently in final negotiations to play one of the two drug dealers in the film that chases Hill's character around town for losing his cocaine in a wild night of danger and adventure. Rockwell already worked on Green's low-key indie drama, "Snow Angels," and the filmmaker has always talked fondly about that collaboration so it doesn't surprise us they decided to work together again. Though the drug dealer role was originally African American. Can you see Sam Rockwell pulling a Gary Oldman a la "True Romance"? One can only hope.
This likely means most of the key casting pieces are complete. Max Records, the lead in "Where The Wild Things Are," essentially has the lead child role (the elder neurotic boy), while Kevin Hernandez, who'll be seen in Mel Gibson vehicle "How I Spent My Summer Vacation,"and Landry Bender play the other two children that Hill's college kid character is forced to babysit at the behest of his mother since he's been expelled from school. J.B. Smoove, the stand-up-turned-actor best known for his role as Leon Black in "Curb Your Enthusiasm," has the other drug dealer role, and Ari Graynor who is perhaps best known for her drunken friend role in "Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist," will play Hill's selfish girlfriend. The aforementioned mom role is basically the last piece of the puzzle, though there is one more small slot for a fun, dumb, jock role.
"The Sitter" is already set for a July 15th, 2011 release and Green's "Your Highness" will hit theaters April 8th, 2011, so that will be two films from the prolific director in one year (and less than three months apart) and three comedies in a row. [The Wrap]
"We talk about it all the time," director David Gordon Green told MTV about the possibility of a "Pineapple Express 2." "The most interesting spin is to go in the 'Scarface' direction. I want to see them in the Miami coke scene. It could get a little gruesome."
The idea appears to be no deeper than the pitch stage though. "We keep talking to the studio. They're going to organize a dinner someday," Green said. "This dinner has been talked about for about two years now, where we're going to get together and throw all the millions of ideas we have into a pot and see if there's any reason to make that movie."
It's nice to think of a "Pineapple Express" sequel, the original was kind of unremarkable, but a whole lot fun and all the cast and filmmakers have repeatedly said they'd love to make a follow-up film (including producer Judd Apatow, actors Seth Rogen, James Franco). Even co-writer Evan Goldberg told us this summer that its the one sequel everyone agrees they'd like to make (unlike say, "Superbad 2" which they have no interest in repeating).
However, with all these guys' schedules, we don't see it. Surely they all want to try different things and by the time they need this sequel (i.e. Don't have the Tinseltown juice they once had), it'll have been 10 years and will people care? Then again never underestimate nostalgia. We have no problem with a "Pineapple Express 2," but frankly we'd like David Gordon Green to make about five films first (including his gestating "Suspiria" remake) so we won't lament too much if it doesn't happen anytime soon or at all.
Meanwhile, the "Pineapple Express" writers Rogen and Goldberg have a new "secret" project lined-up called "Sausage Party." All we know so far is that it's a "CG film and involves Seth [Rogen] and Jonah [Hill] who star, and Conrad Vernon (voice actor, "Monsters Vs. Aliens," "Shrek Forever After") and Mark Osborne (director "Kung Fu Panda") are involved," Goldberg told us. Hopefully more details emerge soon.
This past weekend, New York Comic Con audiences were witness to a big treat: the first footage and trailer of David Gordon Green's medieval stoner comedy, "Your Highness" starring an all-star cast of James Franco, Natalie Portman, Zooey Deschanel, Danny McBride and Justin Theroux (a multitude of photos arrived recently, and note McBride is writing a prequel comic).
The panel was moderated by actor/director Todd McCarthy for some reason ("The Station Agent," "The Visitor") and to be perfectly honest, the footage looked excellent; funny, thrilling — like a deeply irreverent and filthy version of "The Lord Of The Rings" made by some of the core guys who created "Pineapple Express." The picture looks like a blast and if Universal markets this thing correctly — what do they really have to do other than let it sell itself — they should have a pretty decent-sized hit on their hands.
McCarthy saw the film earlier in the week and described it as "a hell of a ride. There's a lot action, it's funny as hell and there's some serious gore going on. But it's dramatic too. It sucks you in and you really care about these idiots in a really great way," he said to much laughter from the cast on the panel.
For those that are still wondering and puzzled as to why David Gordon Green went from lyrical dramas such as "George Washington" and "All The Real Girls" (the former of which made our best of the decade list) to relatively big-budget studio films about stoner princes trying to rescue a maiden from an evil wizard, they should realize eclecticism is big on the filmmaker's agenda.
" 'Pineapple' was a 180 turn from anything I had done before," Green said alluding to his early career of independent films that he joked that "three people saw." "But I really wanted to get into that [genre]. For me it's about the project and the cast and wanting to shake things up and try different things that I've done before and there's a great leap from drama to 'Pineapple' and an extraordinary technical leap from 'Pineapple' to 'Your Highness' and I'm always looking to take some left turns and do what's different, so I feel like the unexpected is the most interesting for me." 
Asked whether the studio was nervous about such a wild and strange picture or had reservations, Green shrugged and said Universal and he were on the same page since day one. "I don't think they would have let us out of the gate on something like this if we weren't clear about the tone we were going for," he said. "There's some degree of risk. Any time you're gonna do something that's left of center I think people are a bit nervous about it, but when you're all looking at each other and thinking, 'This is someone we wanna get into business with, let's fucking do it.' It worked out great for everyone."
McBride did however admit that their first version of the script was unwieldy and overly ambitious. "The studio breakdown for the first draft was like a 200 million dollar movie, which is a little higher than we were shooting for," he laughed. "So we decided to be creative with it and pull it back and make it something that a studio would be willing to take a risk on and wouldn't sink a small nation."
One of the joys of the trailer and looking to be a scene-stealer throughout is Justin Theroux as the evil wizard Leezar. McCarthy also noted that Theroux's character was one of his favorites. "He [something]... he kinda breaks your heart in a wizard way," he said. Theroux's objectives and inspirations were simple. "I watched a lot of Gary Oldman," he said. "And I just thought, 'If I could kick Oldman's ass...if I could do better than he has, I'd be OK.' I just kinda hammed it up."
The trailer is impressive, and as noted before, looks like a comedic riff on "Lord Of The Rings" without simply being a spoof. The action is almost as impressive as that Peter Jackson film, at least in the extremely entertaining and well-cut trailer. And Green said creating a movie that looked believable was paramount.
"We wanted the movie to be real, we wanted to be hands on, we wanted it to be tangible," he explained. "There's puppets in the movie there's guys in creature suits (made by Spectral Motion, the company that did Guillermo del Toro's creatures in "Pan's Labyrinth"), there's stop motion elements, CG and we kinda just took the best of the technology. We love and prided ourselves on finding beautiful locations and construct sets that were massive yet elegant and constructed as if we're making a serious period piece and approach it dramatically knowing the more serious we took the movie, the funnier it would get."
However period exactitude wasn't on their minds. "We pride ourselves on the historical inaccuracy like trying to slip in some powdered wigs," he quipped.
Though a fantasy film with spectacle-like set-pieces James Franco noted the shoot wasn't distinctly different from "Pineapple Express" and improvisation was still an important element in shaping the film and its comedy.
"You can [be free] to go anywhere," Franco said. "And that's the environment that David creates and that is unusual. With David you depend on the chemistry and relationship you have with the other actors. Despite the action and effects he does create a space where actors can discover things on set."
While it may remain to be seen what mainstream audiences will think of the film — it's conceivable, it could run into the same issues "Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World" did — there is no doubt that movie geek and fantasy types are going to flip for the trailer.
Filthy and hilarious, it also boasts a lot of action and one of the sheer delights is watching Natalie Portman really going for it and treating the material (and her action sequences) deadly serious (which of course causes more comedy). The trailer begins with melodramatic music right out of a "Harry Potter" film before segueing into the White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army" and there's no doubt the picture is going to be very R-Rated (the trailer shown to NYCC fans was definitely a red-band one). When James Franco's doofus prince character asks the wizard played by Theroux how he's going to steal his princess Deschanel away, the sorcerer answers simply," Magic... Motherfucker!" There's another line about Zooey Deschanel's vagina that we won't spoil here, but suffice to say all those in attendance were rolling in their seats.
Given the thumbs-up reception the trailer received we don't doubt Universal will be putting it in front of audiences and online soon. "Your Highness" is set for an April 8, 2011 release and to be honest, we kind of can't wait.
One of the best performances by a kid we've seen in recent years was the brilliantly-named Max Records in Spike Jonze's outstanding "Where The Wild Things Are" — totally unforced, natural and feral. So, really, we couldn't be happier that Records has landed another role, in a project helmed by a director with a track record in getting excellent performance from children.
Records, and relative unknown Kevin Hernandez, who'll be seen in Mel Gibson vehicle "How I Spent My Summer Vacation," if it ever sees the light of day, have joined the already-cast Landry Bender as the three children that Jonah Hill has to look after in David Gordon Green's currently-filming comedy "The Sitter." Hernandez will presumably play Rodrigo, a semi-psychotic, destructive 10-year-old Latino kid, while Records will be Slater, the eldest of the kids, a neurotic 13-year-old (man, he's perfectly cast in the role) and Landry is Blithe, an 8-year-old obsessed with Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian.
Ari Graynor ("Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist") was already in the cast, as Hill's girlfriend, and there's another new addition in the shape of J.B. Smoove, the stand-up turned actor best known for his role as Leon Black in "Curb Your Enthusiasm." Smoove will play one of a pair of drug dealers in pursuit of Hill (Joaquin Phoenix was reportedly offered the other, although as far as we're aware, the role hasn't been cast yet).
It's all shaping up to be one of the more promising comedies of next year, particularly with Hill having shown new depths in"Cyrus," and with Records coming on board. The film will be released on July 15 next year, as neat counter-programming to the final "Harry Potter" movie. [The Wrap]
You've got to hand it to Universal Pictures. They've had a string of bombs, or pictures that severely underperformed in the last two years -- "Public Enemies," "Funny People," "Brüno," "Green Zone," "The Wolfman," etc. -- and still they have the balls to greenlight something like David Gordon Green's upcoming medieval stoner film, "Your Highness" which sounds like it might be the most balls-out, craziest mainstream studio film we've seen in some time (or at least since "Brüno," which ended up being a lot tamer than we envisioned).
The picture stars James Franco, Danny McBride, Zooey Deschanel, Natalie Portman and Justin Theroux in a bizarre, fantasy movie about an arrogant, lazy prince (McBride) and his more heroic brother (Franco) who must complete a quest in order to save their father's kingdom.
In the past, Green and McBride have called the film a mix of "Krull" (the oddest film the venerable Peter Yates ever directed) and "Barry Lyndon" and right there, that hilarious and strange concoction demands you buy a ticket. Anyhow, the film will be appearing at New York Comic Con next weekend so Universal is unveiling promo and production photos (via Hitfix and Hitfix) from the film and giving thego ahead to publish various set visits from the film that took place last year in Ireland where the film was shot (more photos below)
From all accounts it's a pretty nutty film and most of the principal cast are surprised with what they got away with. "We just locked 'Your Highness,' Danny McBride recently said in an A/V Club interview. "David and I watched that and looked at each other and said, “I can’t believe people are letting us do some of the stuff we’re doing.” [Laughs.] I don’t know if I would."
Zooey Deschanel also extolled its filthy virtues recently and yes, it's R-Rated. "[It's] the dirtiest medieval comedy you will ever see," she said. "I will guarantee you that. Oh my God, it’s ridiculously dirty. I mean, it’s like the most dirty humor that you could possibly come up with."
At SXSW, Green called the film a "tough shoot" and "by far the most expensive movie, by about double anything I’ve ever done. There was huge special effects, it’s just got so many different elements working [at once]." He also noted that English actors like the great Charles Dance thought they were off their rocker when making the film which bodes well for its levels of absurdity. "We had these amazing British thespians that have worked on the stage of London who thought we were fucking retarded."
Additionally, while "Your Highness" was delayed and was supposed to hit theaters this October originally, the picture was shot for a more modest $45-ish million so Uni will have less worries on return (though the additional time they've spent in the editing room and on effects has probably added up). The picture is set for a April 8, 2011 release date and you should be hearing a full Playlist report from NYCC next weekend.
>>> New Promo & Set Photos Of 'Your Highness' Starring James Franco, Danny McBride, Portman & Deschanel >>>
David Gordon Green's upcoming action-comedy "The Sitter," starring Jonah Hill, was already looking like it was going to be a lot of fun. Written by Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka (they're actually writing the "Baywatch" feature too), the script we read earlier this year was an enjoyable blast of comic silliness, probably not far off in tone from Green's "Pineapple Express" in 2008.
