Apatow, Rogen Lose the Fat, Find the Funny
Posted by Paige MacGregor (paige@filmschoolrejects.com) on June 3, 2008
It looks like comedy duo Seth Rogen and Judd Apatow may have woken up, smelled the coffee, and realized that using Jonah Hill in every other freaking comedy that they produce (whether together or individually) is not the greatest idea in the world. Although Hill did deliver in several of his roles—specifically in Grandma’s Boy, Knocked Up, and other movies in which he was not one of the main characters—I can personally attest to the fact that sitting through all 118 minutes of the festering crap known as the unrated version of Superbad (or as I like to call it, “Jonah Hill’s bitch fest”) was enough to make my eyes bleed.
But what’s my point, you ask? At Friday’s screening of Pineapple Express, Rogen was caught discussing his still-unnamed collaboration with director Judd Apatow that will star Adam Sandler, the well-established funnyman who recently joined the ranks of Jim Carrey and Mike Meyers when awarded an MTV Generation Award (more on MTV.com).
According to Rogen, the film will center on stand-up comedians, with the number of confirmed cast members currently at three: Sandler, Rogen and Leslie Mann (you know, that chick who puked up shellfish on Steve Carrell in The 40 Year Old Virgin). When asked about doing stand-up, Sandler commented: “It’s been a long time. I haven’t done stand-up in, like, 10 years. Even more. That’s why I want to kill Judd Apatow right now. I was so much happier doing nothing!”
Regardless, I’m sure the 41-year-old star of You Don’t Mess With the Zohan, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry (2007), The Longest Yard (2005), 50 First Dates (2004), Mr. Deeds (2002), Big Daddy (1999), The Waterboy (1998), The Wedding Singer (1998)… you get the picture… will far exceed his (and our) expectations, as always.
Sandler will be getting his stand-up legs back this summer performing under the lights in several L.A. comedy clubs. “You will see me bomb for 15 minutes and walk off [the stage] and punch Judd,” Sandler joked.
Although Rogen and Sandler are both comics, the film is categorized as a dramatic comedy, and as Sandler cautioned it will have some “pretty heartbreaking” moments.
“It’s very, very funny,” said Sandler. “[Me and] my friends who have read the script, all of us were baffled how funny it is. But there’s a lot of stuff going on in the movie.”
Indeed, director Judd Apatow (Drillbit Taylor, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, Superbad, Knocked Up, etc.) has seconded Sandler’s warnings, citing this collaboration as the most dramatic film he has ever written.
“It’s a comedy, but it has more drama in it. A hilarious drama is what I’m going for,” Apatow said. “Every movie, I’m trying to find a way to go deeper, to tell stories about subjects that are important and make them less and less broad while making them equally as funny. [This film is] another step in that progression.”
According to Rogen, the unnamed Adam Sandler project is scheduled to begin shooting this September.
Read more articles by Paige MacGregor
