ScreenCrave.com » Fanboys

Movie Releases: Push, Fanboys, Coraline

Mali Elfman — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 21:00:04 +0000

Finally, we got a few things worth going to the theaters for. Check out this weeks movies releases now…

The Pink Panther 2 | Andy Garcia Interview | Showtimes and Tickets
Push | Showtimes and Tickets
He’s Just Not That Into You | Showtimes and Tickets
Fanboys | Kyle Newman Interview | Showtimes and Tickets
Coraline | Henry Selick and Neil Gaiman Interviews | Showtimes and Tickets

Trailers below the jump…

The Pink Panther 2 trailer:

Push trailer:

He’s Just Not That Into You trailer:

Fanboys trailer:

Coraline trailer:

Interview with Fanboys Director Kyle Newman

Mali Elfman — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 01:59:59 +0000

As many of you know, there have been a lot of rumors about what’s been going on behind the scenes of Fanboys. From my understanding, the film was made by Kyle Newman (sadly that was the best picture I could find of him), then the Weinstein Brothers took the film and tried to edit out all the cancer content, and then Newman took the film back and made it his own again.

I was lucky enough to sit down for a one on one interview with the Director and ask him about what really happened with the film, how he happened upon one of the greatest comedic casts, and what he has coming up next. If there is one thing I learned it’s that Newman is a passionate film maker who truly loves film. He has a lot of intergrity and stands by his films no matter what.

But, don’t listen to me, check out what he has to say about Fanboys…

Did you try and get George Lucas do make an appearance in the film?

Kyle Newman: We did try to get him into the movie, I think he wasn’t as comfortable as an actor. We ultimately got his voice, which we used from a robot chicken where they recorded the voice on the phone, so that’s actually his voice when Danny McBride is speaking to him. So someway he’s really in there.

Was he supportive of the whole project?

Kyle: Super supportive. I mean his, at least Lucasfilm was, they gave us all the approvals to use all their visual stuff in the movie and verbal reference and then we have Star Wars in every scene in the movie. They gave us the approval to shoot at the ranch, which no one was ever allowed to do before, to actually landmark the film up there and we also did our post-production, our sounds out there and we even have a special effect from ILM in the movie, so it was a little bit of everything. And they’ve been so inclusive of us through the whole process, you know, helping us promote it at conventions and all the different appearances they do. They have always welcomed us to do stuff with them. Like at ComicCon they were always playing our trailer in their booth and stuff like that. So they’ve been very, very open about us being part of their family in a peripheral way, so its cool.

Where you a big fan of star wars?

Kyle: Obsessed, obsessed with Star Wars, yeah.

And what about Star Trek? You make so much fun of it in the movie.

Kyle: I like Star Trek too… As a kid I was really into all that, I really liked anything space oriented, you know. Star Trek was just another look at science fiction. It was all very real, it was a potential future of earth and its all very science based. And Stars Wars is always…it’s more mythical, it’s more like a space fantasy, and it’s more spiritual. You know they’re very different, but there’s room for both. I like them both.

How did you go about casting the film? It seems like you kind of cast the entire next generation of comedy actors in a way.

Kyle: We were really ahead of the game. Seth Rogen and Jay Baruchel hadn’t done Knocked Up and all these things that kind of opened them up. Kristen wasn’t doing movies, this is the first thing Dan filmed out of Broadway other than a couple smaller things, so our team had good foresight in putting these guys in the film. You know, we had a great casting directors and we all just had a really good sense of being specific as to what we wanted and just really finding just the perfect people to do it. So, I was happy with our cast, incredibly happy.

When did Kristen Bell join the all boy team?

Kyle: She was the original person on it. Kristen, Dan was the original person I wanted, Jay. Sam and Chris, I wasn’t sure which one was going to be Linus and which one was going to be Eric. They both came in and did auditions for both [and] I was so impressed by them. I knew I wanted both, I didn’t know which one. So, it was hard, I just wanted to get them both in the film somehow.

And you got Seth Rogen before he was kind of the super star Seth Rogen that he all know today to play three characters.

Kyle: Yeah, with him, he always said to me it was cool cause he got to play something other than himself, which everyone tries to cast him for doing that stuff. He came down, he had like a computer seller’s thing, and prosthetics and disguised himself as a few characters and really went for it. So I think that was liberating for him and fun. And it was cool for us cause he’s just such a great energy on set, you know, and he’s incredibly funny. So it steps up the game for everyone else. And our guys are already funny but once you bring in another funny person, it makes sense. It was really good, like the Star Trek argument with him, because kind of he likes Star Trek, he wanted to use the Star Trek rights. It was cool.

So you had someone to represent Star Trek?

Kyle: Yeah, I mean he likes Star Wars too, but it was definitely like… he wanted to support the due Trek right.

I’m actually have to admit not a Star Wars or Star Trek fan and I actually really enjoyed the film. It was really fun.

Kyle: Well, that’s good. See, I wanted it for people that weren’t fans. You don’T have to know the reference but you know the spirit behind the reference, the passion behind the guys. That’s what you get behind… they could be saying anything, they could be into something else and if it’s their passion and you like them, you’re going to go on this trip with them, you’re going to believe in the story so that’s good to hear. You know, I want to make it work for people that weren’t into it. And it won’t work for everyone if they’re not into it. But there’s a lot of people I think that will still get something out of it even if you’re not familiar with it or that big of a Star Wars fan. There’s a lot of pop culture stuff too. It’s very much coming from the 80′s and it’s also a time capsule for 1998, so that’s what made it fun.

There have been PLENTY of different rumors circulated as to why this film wasn’t released a while ago. I heard that there were many different cuts of the film and this cut, the cut that I saw, was actually your cut or the one that you wanted. Is that true?

Kyle: It’s close to true. There was the original cut of the film and then they did some other stuff to it and then they gave me a window of time to go tape their version and turn it back into my version. So it’s pretty damn close back to mine. Taking all the best of everything we had previously. It’s the best version of the film we’ve ever had for sure, there’s no question about that. If I had another two days, could it be even better? Absolutely. It was just like, “You have two days to recut the whole movie,” and why not five? You know, I’ll pay for the other days myself. It was really that kind of conversation. it was like, “No. Two days.”

That’s amazing that you even got to go back and fix it, did you have to fight for that?

Kyle: Yeah, they came back and said go back to the version you guys all believe in, the one the actors want, the one the producers want, the one the writers want, the one you set out to make. So it was like common sense prevailed and it came back to us.

That rarely happens, common sense!?

Kyle: It was the fans, I think. The online fan movement that really opened people’s eyes and put the pressure to do that which is unprecedented. I don’t know if the people would admit that but I think that’s definitely what happened, in my opinion.

What were some of the scenes that you had to fight for to keep in?

Kyle: Anything that was really cancer stuff. Any reference to it.

That was where the whole heart of the story lied!

Kyle: I mean yeah, we developed it, we worked at it, I wanted it to be real, I wanted it to be emotional. When the movie gets real and you have these moments, there’s not many in the movie, but there are some, I wanted it to have emotional weight and I wanted the movie to have a purpose. It’s about friendship and there’s something really on the line, and there’s a time line, they’re doing this for a friend before he passes. So if you didn’t feel anything, you know, that’d be a failure on my part. I want people to at least feel something, I didn’t want people to necessarily make people cry, but it was just made people sober for a second. It’s not all about the comedy, it’s about friendship and something real, it’s not about the movie its about this dynamic between two life long friends, who are kind of like brothers, you know, coming back together and finding reconciliation before one of them passes on. So I wanted it to be a very real and heartfelt scene.

So the whole sad part and the reality of it. They wanted to get rid of that part?

Kyle: Yes. It was a very screwball, ungrounded, pointless road trip. Without, I mean why? You’re just going to go break in to have fun and break in. How do you rally behind those characters? There’s no timeline, why do they have to do it then? What’s they motivation and what’s at stake? And in the end, so it was all about the movie and that wasn’t the message with us. It’s not about the movie, how do you convey that message when there’s nothing to default to? Instead of, “Oh, we got the movie,” and they watch that version and then, “Oh, this is no good,” and then they throw it out the window. And it’s like that’s an ending? That’s a terrible movie!

It’s so refreshing to hear a story of a filmmaker standing up for what he believed and by what it sounds like, winning the fight! Why do you think that people don’t necessarily fight for their films to the extent that you did? Is it just too hard? They’re afraid of losing money? Film politics? What?

Kyle: Its hard. It’s absolutely hard. It’s money. Uhhh, I got paid virtually nothing for this movie and I’m not going to make anything off this movie, but I just felt like my fans and LucasFilm trusted me to do it. In a way, my name, my reputation was on the line, cause I convinced everyone that we were making something with one spirit and one vibe to it and we were going to change it into something. My name is still on it. I just stayed very close to it, you know. I just didn’t want anybody to get too crazy with what they were doing and I knew maybe the opportunity would come if it fell back into my lap, in which case I wanted to be ready and have all the information. So I went to all the screenings. I went to see every version and how people responded and if there was good stuff being discovered while they were re-cutting things then I’ll use it, why not. I wanted to make the best movie, I’m not going to say, “Oh, I didn’t come up with that.” That doesn’t make the best movie. Someone had to be a very objective, ego-less process. Even though there was bad stuff going on that was very disheartening, there was still, maybe I could use all that if I collected the information and make a better final goal if they opportunity arrives. So, I felt like I had to do it. It was kind of like a passion project, so I needed to see it through and see it through properly.

Are there a lot of extra scenes or anything like that, that we can look forward to on the DVD?

Kyle: The DVD will have a lot of deleted scenes, I think it’s like seven or eight things. There’s definitely a few things I didn’t want deleted. There’s some alternate versions of scenes, some really funny stuff in there, and there’s just tremendous behind the scenes footage. We had like a guy on set everyday, all day, following people around. And not just doing boring stuff, he was like doing funny gags and stuff with them offscreen, stuff I didn’t even realize they shot…they just had so much fun. Even off camera people were doing really cool things. There’s great commentary on the DVD too. It’s myself, two writers, producers, it’s also Kristen Bell, Dan Fogler, Chris Marquette and Sam Huntington, so a lot of the actors are on it. It’s awesome, it’s going to be a fun DVD too. So, a lot of extras. There’s an extended Kevin Smith, Jason Mewes scene, which Kevin Smith wrote… It’s cool.

How did you arrange all the cameos and get everyone to sign up?

Kyle: Yeah, we had Ethan playing that. I think once we had Billy Dee Williams, Carrie Fisher, Ray Park, those are the Star Wars people…William Shatner, we got him…

How’d you get William Shatner? That was so cool!

Kyle: I think he saw all the Star Wars people were coming to do it, and there was this great up and coming cast and it was just a fun thing. You know, everyone was making fun of Star Wars, everyone was making fun of Star Trek, it was poking fun at yourself a little bit. It was all in good fun, the spirit of it was right and I think he thought that the script was great so luckily it worked out. You know, we just kept getting more and more cameos that were asked for, it was great. It’s a lot of cameos but it’s fun, I think we balance it well.

Like you said you had the fans behind you, and I think you had a lot of celebrities and a lot of great people behind you, so what is next? What are you looking to do for your next project? What are your goals for that one?

Kyle: I have a couple of different projects I’m looking at, With Helping Myself, Wolfman Jack biopic, Bridget Bardo biopic, there’s a comic book called Emo Boy, it’s kind of a subculture of that music, it’s a cool book. That scripts almost done, I just got it in today actually, we’re going to start casting that. And a couple independent ones I’m looking at which are really enticing to me, you know, they’re like really grounded. They’re comedies but I can find my angle into it, you know stuff I love. But I don’t want to only do comedy you know? I like a little bit of everything. As long as it’s real, I can get passionate about it and the characters are passionate, or movies that go through emotions. If they’re to technical I can’t get into them, it’s gotta have like a spirit to it. Otherwise, why put in years and years of work? You know, this is almost six years from me so…there’s no point if it was something really surface, I couldn’t really see myself getting passionate about it. Maybe that’s why people, they’re making the wrong movies, I figure that’s why they don’t fight to the end, they give up to easy. If your going to do it, do it, you know, do the best you can and stick with it. That’s how this whole thing came back to us and we got to do this proper version.

Do you think that with the recession that smaller more passionate Directors looking to make a film like Fanboys, might have trouble with them?

Kyle: It’s definitely going to be harder to get the average thing paid for until there’s clarity on the actor’s strike and maybe we won’t have full clarity because of the economy, but I think it is to your advantage as a film maker, if you go in there with that passion and it doesn’t just feel like your cramming things together and punching numbers to make something happen. The only time your ever going to get something magic out of a movie is when you at least have that element behind it. Whether it the producers, the directors, the cast, that has that deep passion about doing it. Otherwise, you’re never going to get magic on screen. So I think people are trying to realize you need that a prerequisite for success. You know, that’s why The Dark Knight, not only is it a great character, but you have a great team of people that are extremely reverent towards the subject matter, embraced it and not only know just how it’s going to fit into this time and how to appeal to the fans but also make a movie that they would want to see themselves. It’s a movie that you can tell they’re proud of. It’s a good movie regardless of it being a superhero.

One last question would you have liked to see The Dark Knight nominated for an Oscar?

Kyle: I would, I really enjoyed that movie, I thought it was great. They tried to make a great movie, same thing with Iron Man, that happened to be a comic book movie. As opposed to, let’s make a comic book movie and hope it’s great. Which is the way you have to approach it, you have to really go for the great movie first and figure it out that way.

Thank you for your time Kyle!

The movie is in theaters February 6th. Check out the trailer below…

Why Does ‘Fanboys’ Keep Getting Dumped On?

Krystal Clark — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 20:00:08 +0000

In May of 2007, a good friend of mine got to attend the 30th anniversary celebration of Star Wars at the L.A. Convention Center. Fans were treated to some early footage of a little film that represented the true brotherhood of the Star Wars community. That film was Fanboys, and for almost two years now it has been avoiding theaters like the plague. If your like me, you’ve been following the roller coaster of drama that has surrounded the film and it’s distributors, The Weinstein Co. Fanboys release date has been pushed back several times within the past year and the cause seems to change each time. Rumors of storyline issues, re-shoots, and production problems make me wonder if business took the pleasure out of the Fanboy experience?

The first release date I remember hearing for Fanboys was for September 19, 2008, and it’s been changing ever since. The film’s story takes place in 1998, and centers around a group of friends (Jay Baruchel, Chris Marquette, Dan Fogler, Sam Huntington, and Kristen Bell) who hatch a plan to break into George Lucas’ workstation, Skywalker Ranch. Their goal is to steal a pre-released print of Star Wars: Episode I-The Phantom Menace for a mutual friend of theirs who is unfortunately dying of cancer. The motivation behind their heist is morbid, but sweet in a way. The first full length screening of the film took place in July of 2007 at the Star Wars Celebration Europe, where producers got to see the honest reactions of some die hard Star Wars fans. Yet,whatever happened after the screening must have not been to their liking, because from that point on Fanboys has been in constant rotation on the “upcoming” movie slate.

One of the strongest theories behind what’s to blame for the films constant troubles, has to do with it’s central cancer storyline. According to FilmSchoolRejects, a study was conducted to see if the plot could rack up laughs with such a morbid motive at it’s core. “Apparently the Apatow people have done research which says most people won’t laugh for 5 or 10 minutes after cancer is mentioned” When I read that the first thing that came to my mind was when did Judd Apatow get in the mix? He’s not listed as one of the producers on IMDB, what’s going on? After I did some digging I found out that Apatow’s producing partner Shauna Robertson was involved with the film’s re-editing process. There were some re-shoots and shuffling of scenes to rework the film’s central plot to make it more appealing to audiences.

While all of these changes were being made to the film it’s release date continued to get pushed back even further. It was no longer due in the fall of 08, but the winter, and then January of 2009, and now February 9. I find it really interesting that the studio and producers are so nervous about this film and the topic of cancer, when I’ve seen films centered on murder, rape, and drugs get released at the drop of a hat. Oddly enough a Fanboys co-star Seth Rogen gave his two cents on the matter, and pretty much said the real fanboys were to blame for the films woes.

“I think it’s a good lesson in not listening to people on the Internet. I think [the producers] got scared by Internet buzz and I’m of the thought that Internet buzz is literally influenced by 500 people with laptops. And I think they let Internet buzz changed it and then changed it back and then make some other weird version of it. Let the filmmakers make their movies and don’t worry about [what] early reactions are.”

This statement could be seen as a double edged sword in terms of its meaning. For one, I do agree with the fact that sometimes the fear and uncertainty of preview screenings can overshadow a good film. Executives get so concerned with getting rid of the bad material, that sometimes they end up losing the good. On another note, with a film with Star Wars fandom as it’s center, you can’t ignore the Internet buzz. With anything that has a built in audience, the fans are always going to look to see how the filmmakers treat the source material. In a lot of ways being able to hop onto a message board and see whats flying and whats dying can save you a lot of grief. The trick is to find the balance between creative freedom, and corporate interference.

My final gripe with the overall handling of Fanboys has to do with the fact that its in super limited release. According to TheForce.net, the only cities that will get the film when it’s finally let out of the vault are Los Angeles, New York, Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago, Houston and Austin, Texas. Where’s Detroit, Cleveland, St. Louis, Miami, and every other major city in the country?! Some of the films followers are writing in to the Weinstein Co. to get the film released in their respective states. What’s so hard about putting out a movie that had a 8 million dollar budget? Was it really necessary to chop and screw the films script, just for a seven city release? Fanboys isn’t a big budget film, but it’s not a super indie pic either. Therefore the general disrespect that it’s fans and supporters have been dealing with for the past year is beyond ridiculous. When I finally do see the film, I hope to see it’s original story still in place. Free from meddling hands, with selfish motives. The film can deliver if you just give it an honest shot. Maybe if it’s backers spent more time supporting the film as opposed to dumping on it there wouldn’t be legions of frustrated fans venting over their 500 laptops.

The films “official” release should be next Friday, February 6th. Hopefully!

What do you think? Have you heard any other rumors about this film? Are you excited to see it or have all the grumblings scared you off?

Check out out exclusive interview with Fanboys Director Kyle Newman, Monday on ScreenCrave, where we talk about what went wrong, why he felt he had to fight for his film, and who got the final cut.

Round-Up: Sin City 2 Update, New 2009 Movie Photos, Terminator vs. Transformers

Krystal Clark — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 16:30:47 +0000

Here are some of the top stories you may have missed over the weekend..

New promotional photos have been released from this years upcoming film roster. Check out stills from Couples Retreat (above), 2012, Avatar, Fanboys, Where the Wild Things Are, Funny People, Fast & Furious, and many more! [LA Times]
During a press junket, promoting her new movie My Bloody Valentine: 3-D, actress Jamie King gave an update on the status of Sin City 2. According to her, Frank Miller has just completed the script, and she’s hopeful that shooting will begin this year. [Latino Review]
Australian actress Teresa Palmer (The Grudge 2, Bedtime Stories) has been cast in The Sorcerers Apprentice. She”ll co-star alongside Nicolas Cage and Jay Baruchel in the fantasy film, based on the Mickey Mouse story from the Disney classic, Fantasia. [Cinematical]

Terminator vs. Transformers? Director Michael Bay went to his official website to let fans and filmmakers know that Transformers is in a league of its own. “We’ve seen the great year end movies, and watched the upcoming clips of the upcoming summer fare. We’ve seen certain movies coming out even try to duplicate Transformer size robots in their ads. Please, come on.” McG, is he talking to you? [Michael Bay.com: Shoot for the Edit Forum]
The Mike Tyson documentary simply titled, Tyson, has gotten picked up by Sony Pictures Classics for distribution. The film already premiered at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, and will make its North American debut at this year’s Sundance. Tyson is directed by James Toback, whose credits include Black and White, and Harvard Man. [Cinema Blend]

NEW FANBOYS TRAILER: You Need to Watch This…

Mali Elfman — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 21:49:18 +0000

Personally, not a Star Wars fan, and not a fan of Star Wars fans, but this looks f-ing brilliant. The fact that the trailer says “Featuring the Warehouse Guy from The Office,” “The Guy from Tropic Thunder,” “Jay,” “The Guy from Die Hard 4,” and “The Hot Chick from Sin City” is amazing. I mean we all know an actors resume helps them get to where they’re going, but here what they’ve done is who they are. Who the hell calls Kevin Smith the guy from Die Hard 4??? Amazing! And of course there is an appearance from none other than William Shatner. A god among geeks and nerds everywhere.

Check out the trailer below and tell us how excited you are…

What do you think?

Interview: Seth Rogen for “Zach and Miri Make a Porno”

Travis Weir — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 01:39:35 +0000

To say that Seth Rogen had a very good ‘07-‘08 run would be a gross understatement. No other actor under thirty, save for Michael Cera, has crashed the spotlight so readily. Knocked Up literally put his face all over town, but then he unleashed the perverse, endearing Superbad (as brilliant as Cera’s work is, the point still goes to Rogen), and built a cache of action cred in Pineapple Express.

Now Hollywood has been desperately trying to categorize him. But they’re wrong. He’s not the new Will Ferrell. He sure as hell isn’t the new Chevy Chase, and if his ballsy upcoming slate says anything, it’s that the studios are slowly but surely figuring that out.

Rogen talks with Screencrave about his personal stake in Zack and Miri Make a Porno, why audiences should look past the title, and why they should be ready to see a whole lot more of him. Figuratively speaking.

The first thing to notice is that the Seth Rogen doing interviews looks nothing like Zack (probably on your TV right now thanks to the marketing blitz). The beard and gut are gone, and don’t think he hasn’t noticed other people pointing it out.

“Yeah, yeah, I know the implication,” Rogen shoots back to a remark on his newly-svelte appearance.

“I’ve been eating well and dieting. It’s such a lame answer, No one wants to hear that. Yeah, I’ve been exercising. I hate it. I hate what I’ve become.” And Rogen signals it’s okay to laugh with his own guttural heh-heh-heh.

The subject turned to the marketing of the movie, a small bit of controversy involving the MPAA, and the stick figures that are the sole portion of the American print campaign. Rogen doesn’t share all of the frustrations of director Kevin Smith.

“It’s good! I like it, I think it’s a funny ad. It looks startlingly like me.”

Better than the head shots?

“Yeah, I don’t feel the urge to get my face up there, no way,” Rogen shuddered, assuming the question referred to the campaign for Knocked Up, rather than the blatant oral implications of the international poster.

“Oh, no, that one is waaaay better. Canada got it right, yet again guys. Take your cues.”

Co-star Elizabeth Banks mentioned earlier that she was prepared to go fully nude because she knew Rogen would be on top of her.

“Yeah I cover a lot,” he laughed and continued, “ It wasn’t my decision [to go naked] but yeah, I was ready. I don’t know what his plan was. I was prepared to show up and ask ‘what are we doing today’ and [Smith responding] ‘today you’re pulling your dick out’ but he didn’t say that. He said, ‘hey, we’re going to shoot it like this.’ I said okay. I’m up for anything, I’m a team player.”

Was Smith as comfortable with onset lovemaking?

“He was a little awkward about it. Not bad. There wasn’t a ton of direction that day. It was very professional.” Rogen observed. He was also candid about the differences between working with Smith and longtime collaborator Judd Apatow.

“Well the movies are similar, in how they mix raunch with sweetness, but their styles onset are very different. It’s as simple as Judd not knowing what he wants, but he knows what he wants the scenes to be about. How the information comes out, what the jokes are, he discovers that while we’re shooting and Kevin is very specific. He knows what the shots are, he literally edits the movie, so that’s the fundamental difference. But [Kevin] is totally open to changing lines and changing jokes. There was a fair bit of improv there.

“They’re both great. They both have the things that make them more fun and more relaxing and things that make them a little more difficult. But I wouldn’t want to do only one [style of comedy] either way.”

Comparisons aside, being in a Kevin Smith movie was on Rogen’s to-do list long before he started picking up momentum.

“Yeah, that was always a goal of mine and it’s thrilling that it finally happened. I was very flattered, It was shocking he even knew who I was. We’d met very briefly before, but when someone who inspired you really wants to work with you, and have you do what you do in the first place is thrilling.”

As if he couldn’t have gotten any luckier, Rogen also starred alongside Elizabeth Banks. The rapport they started with The 40 Year Old Virgin grew into a rare onscreen chemistry at the heart of the buzz around Zack and Miri.

“She’s great! We’re friends, I think that helps. You can tell we really know each other. She also has a really dirty sensibility which is one of the reasons I thought she’d be good for Miri in the first place. And she wouldn’t sue me. I give her all the credit.

For women [sex] is a more emotionally driven act and for men it’s a more physically driven act and I think it’s as simple as that. [ZacK and Miri’s love scene] gets into that. They think one thing is going to happen and then emotions develop. It’s the unspoken love. I think a lot of people are friends and in love and it takes an event to bring that to the surface. In this movie that event is making a porno. It’s a very relatable premise, just brought to an [R-rated] place.

Good friends make better lovers?”

“That’s what I think. Absolutely. That’s why Superbad works.” Rogen quipped. He’s also been hearing himself cast as a “Romantic Nerd,” at the forefront of a cinematic trend in less-typically dashing male stars.

“I just try to do the movies I would like to go see, and romantic comedies if handled right can be a very great genre. That’s all the thought I put into it.”

Chances are that label will get crushed beneath the wave of fascinating (if not slightly risky) projects he has on the way, one of the most anticipated being Judd Apatow’s Funny People.

“We just started shooting, we’re three weeks in and it’s great. It’s me and Adam Sandler and Jonah Hill, Jason Scwartzman, Eric Bana, Leslie Mann, and a slew of stand-up comics and it’s been a lot of fun. I play a stand-up comic and Sandler plays a comic as well and it’s a really interesting movie.”

In what way?

“It’s a little heavier. Definitely in its subject matter. It deals with death in a lot of ways, an interesting mixture of penis jokes and death jokes. That’s new for us. And it’s a beauty! Janusz Kaminski is shooting it which is incredible to watch.” For those who don’t watch credits, Kaminski is currently Steven Spielberg’s cinematographer of choice.

“It’s great to see Janusz because people always say our movies don’t look good so now they can fucking shut up about it. Judd was like ‘how can we get people to shut about this?’ and he hired Janusz. He’s found ways of shooting our improv, he shoots with three cameras at once and it still looks beautiful. That’s really fun to watch.”

If that won’t alter moviegoers’ perceptions of Rogen then Observe and Report will. Director Jody Hill earned the admiration of Will Ferrell and Adam McKay with his twisted debut The Foot Fist Way.

“I think it’s amazing, I’m unbelievably proud about it. It’s a very dark dark comedy, like a comedic ‘Taxi Driver.’ That’s what we’re going for and they somehow let us do that. It’s a very edgy, dark, hilarious movie and probably one of my favorite if not the favorite movie I’ve ever been in. I can’t believe how balls-to-wall it is.”

And in March shooting begins on Rogen’s biggest gamble, a big screen take on tv superhero The Green Hornet.

“Stephen Chow is directing! He was always our first choice, and we like to consolidate our team so having a guy direct and play Kato is really nice. We love his movies, we’re huge fans and we think he’s hilarious and we got him!”

It’s true, they are excited, but with Chow on board what kind of movie are they making?

“We actually don’t know. Originally we were going for kind of a serious action movie, but we feel no obligation to live up to anything we’ve told any of you in the past.” Rogen deadpanned. The rumor was that Chow was in the Four Seasons hotel that day wrestling with that issue. The future Hornet welcomes the challenge.

“We’re really right now in the process of discovering what the tone is exactly. We know the story we want to tell, that’s going to be the same, but you don’t bring a guy like Stephen on and say ‘No! What are you doing? We don’t want your ideas!’ He is a genius, obviously, so it’d be stupid not to let him inject some of his own sensibilities.”

His zen attitude is a healthy approach considering that isn’t the only vague hurdle the project has to clear.

“The Green Hornet always just fought criminals. There were never any villainous characters, it was always men in suits. We’re taking that as our cue.”

At that point Rogen was informed that the press kit for Zack and Miri mentioned that Jason Mewes was in The Green Hornet. This was news to Rogen.

“It Does?? Uh, maybe, I dunno. We’ll let him go for it. But… no. That is not official.”

Regarding the release of the much-delayed Fanboys, Rogen’s take is, “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

Not that he needs the exposure. Currently demand is high, and Rogen admits he has been fortunate to avoid financial situations as dire as his onscreen counterpart.

“[Early on] No, it was never that bad. I did have to punch up a Hilary Duff movie, once.”

And if he did make a post-Jade Caruso-like dive into obscurity, Rogen wouldn’t rule out making a porno to make ends meet, being a fan of the “down and dirty stuff.”

“I honestly don’t know who would see it, but…maybe, yeah! I’ve thought about it, yeah. I’ve worked with porn stars in literally every single movie I’ve been in, so it was not weird to work with them [in Zach and Miri], it was par for the course. To me you need a porn star on set, just to make the film.”

So who would be the co-star of the Rogen sex tape?

“I would choose Jonah Hill.”

And the porno moniker would be? Pet’s name first, street name last?

“Alowishus St. James.”

Sure to get a boost in promotional sales from Zack and Miri is a male masturbation aid called the Fleshlight, an item Zach mistakenly spends his last few dollars on. One would assume they’d come knocking for an endorsement.

“No! I don’t think they are. I don’t think they exist.”

They exist, alright.

“They do? Really? They didn’t even send me a free one. What ya gotta do?”

So which legendary Hollywood director, in the fictional porn auteur’s mind, would make the best porno flick?

“I’d like to see a Cassavetes porno. It’d be really real, really raw porno.” Rogen laughs.

“And he’d put his whole family in it.”

Zack and Miri Make a Porno glides into theatres October 31st

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