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Pineapple Express Folks Reteam For Your Highness

BuzzSugar — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 11:30:58 PDT

Actor Danny McBride has been getting more and more recognition in recent years by starring in things like Tropic Thunder, Pineapple Express, Superbad, and now the HBO series Eastbound and Down, which he also helped create. Now he's written a comedy script and gotten a studio (Universal), a director (Pineapple Express director David Gordon Green), and a star (James Franco) to play a lead role alongside him.

Titled Your Highness, the comedy "follows two spoiled and arrogant princes in a medieval fantasy setting. When an evil wizard casts a spell on their father and kidnaps the older prince's fiance, they're forced to go on a quest to save their family and the kingdom."

I can't wait to see these two together again onscreen, and I'm glad McBride keeps getting more work because he's such a funny addition to any comedic lineup. And we know Franco rarely fails to delight!

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Buzz News Roundup, 10/1

BuzzSugar — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 13:31:07 PDT

Showtime has set January premiere dates for the final season of The L Word and the Diablo Cody series The United States of Tara. - Zap2it
Michael Sheen is the latest to join Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland movie. - Variety
Pineapple Express director David Gordon Green is writing an animated comedy pilot for Fox. - TV Week
Hilary Swank is set to star in the dramatic film Betty Anne Waters. - ComingSoon
After four years apart, Phish has reunited. - AP

TV legend Norman Lear is working on a pro-wrestling drama for HBO. - TV Guide

Red Tails, the WWII action adventure about the Tuskegee Airmen which George Lucas will produce, has found a director in Anthony Hemingway. - Variety

The CW is developing a series based on Batman's sidekick Robin titled The Graysons. - ComingSoon

Oh yeah, actors could still go on strike. - Hollywood Reporter

Photos courtesy of Showtime

Pineapple Express: More Than Just a Stoner Movie

BuzzSugar — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 12:30:48 PDT

How much you enjoy Pineapple Express may depend more on how charmed you are by the chemistry between James Franco and Seth Rogen and less on how funny you find pot jokes. Don't get me wrong, marijuana jokes abound in this comedy written by Rogen and his frequent collaborator Evan Goldberg, and they are funny. But I was surprised by how much more Pineapple Express falls into the category of buddy movies like Lethal Weapon, rather than the stoner category like Half Baked. I guess I'll put it this way: You don't have to be high to be entertained by this.

I've been feeling fatigued by some of cinema's leading funny men these days who keep pumping out the same old comedies left and right, and Rogen's shtick is definitely pushing it for me. But I was pleasantly surprised to see how well he plays the straight man (no pun intended) to Franco's snuggly drug dealer. They strike a hilariously delightful chemistry together, which I kind of didn't want to end. But there's more going on here besides the two lead actors. To see why I think the director of this movie was a cool choice and which scene-stealer I think earns himself a place in the Apatow kingdom,
read more
.

The term "Pineapple Express" is what the drug dealers in the movie have named the most powerful pot in all the world (Franco's character thinks this pot is so precious that every time he smokes it he feels like he's killing a unicorn). That's just a funny little side note, though, because how strong the pot is has nothing to do with how much trouble the two main characters get themselves into. Rogen plays Dale Denton, a childish loser in his twenties whose job consists of creatively hunting people down to serve them legal documents, like subpoenas. He's also dating a high-school girl and is threatened by the cooler, younger boys at her school.

Dale's dealer is Saul Silver (Franco), a dim but good-natured guy who spends most days in his pajamas, and cares deeply for his "bubby" (Yiddish for grandmother). He charms Dale into hanging around with him during their transactions, which annoys Dale because he just wants to pick up his marijuana and skidaddle. It's kind of like the pothead's version of making small talk on the sidewalk: a little awkward, forced, not something you look forward to.

After a bonding session, Dale goes to serve some papers, but then happens to witness a murder committed by the drug lord who supplies Saul. This is when the entire movie becomes as funny as it is gruesomely violent, not to mention action packed (I never thought I'd say that about a Judd Apatow production, much less a Seth Rogen movie). People are dismembered, characters you care about are brutally shot, etc. Right when you're dying of laughter because of Franco's facial expression, someone actually gets a bullet in the stomach, or head, or ear and you know, it's a bit of buzz kill. Also, I just have to mention Saul's middleman supplier Red, played by Danny R. McBride because this actor steals every scene he's in, including a fight scene with Rogen and Franco that is one for the books.

Director David Gordon Green is known mostly to film geeks and art house fans for his smaller, poetic films (All the Real Girls, Snow Angels) so it's kind of amazing to see weird little scenes of his scattered throughout the film. These scenes are practically meditative, even though they basically feature just a couple stoners twirling around by a stream. Those strange and funny touches on this movie have endeared it to me. All in all it's a funny - if brutally violent - Summer comedy experience.

Jessica Biel Brings Her Ring to a Lakers Game With David, Tom, and More

Allie Merriam — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 06:32:26 PDT

Last night's Lakers vs. Celtics game was a star-studded one. David Beckham reported to the Staples Center to see the home team defeat the visiting Bostonians 94-97. New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady may not have been as pleased with the results, nor was Boston native Jessica Biel likely happy to see the guys in green lose. Jessica did have a reason to smile, though, since she sported her huge diamond from Justin Timberlake on her finger. We got a first look at Jessica Biel's engagement ring last week, though her fiancé Justin apparently proposed over the holidays. Other celebs who turned out to see the action last night included Joseph Gordon-Levitt and a fresh-from-Austin Tobey Maguire.

Danny McBride on Talking Dirty to Natalie Portman, Your Highness, and Being a True Southern Gentleman

Lindsay Miller — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 12:20:00 PDT

Danny McBride cowrote and costars in the medieval comedy Your Highness, which hits theaters on April 8. The actor plays the massively lazy Prince Thadeous to James Franco's Prince Fabius. When Fabius's fiancée is kidnapped, Thadeous is forced to go along on the wild ride to rescue her. Along the way, the bros encounter pervy old wizards, fierce female warriors, and even a fabled minotaur. Danny reunited with James in Beverly Hills for the movie's press day recently to talk about getting crude with Natalie Portman, working with Pineapple Express director David Gordon Green again, and which moments had him cracking up on set. Here are some highlights:

On the hardest scene to shoot: "You know, surprisingly the scene that I couldn't get through was the scene I had to do with Natalie where we're sitting at this table in this tavern, and I have to confront her about stealing this compass. And the way David Gordon Green directs, he is literally right out of frame of the camera. And he stands there and makes you say the most ridiculous things, and you can't really hesitate. You just have to keep going through with it. And in the scene, he's just like, 'Call her a bully and a whore!' And so I just started doing it without thinking about it, and as soon as I looked at Natalie and the word 'whore' came out, it just felt horrible, and I couldn't get through it. I just kept doing it over and over. That weirdly, was the hardest thing."

On getting Natalie on board for the film: "David had been in talks with Natalie about another project . . and in his conversations with Natalie, she kind of brought up this project and said she was dying to do a comedy and really wanted a chance to work with us. We were thrilled by that, because having actors like James and Natalie - to us, that's what separates this movie. It's not a movie that's just filled with your typical comedians as cast, but with a lot of prestigious actors. And I honestly was really embarrassed to hand Natalie the script for the first time. I was like, 'Should I just go through and take out all this dirty stuff?' I'm nervous to show her this, and David's like, 'No. We gotta let her know what she's in for.' And she was a total champ. The stuff I thought would make her blush, that's the stuff she thought was funny, and totally embraced it. And on the set she never shied away from that stuff. She could definitely hang with the boys. She wasn't intimidated by any of it."

For the rest of Danny's interview, just
read more
On how he's different from his on-screen characters: "Well, despite how I may come across on screen, my act is pretty clean. I tend to play it clean. And I got married last October, and so I have cleaned my act up. I was born in the South and raised to respect ladies and be a gentleman, so that's something that's always been important to me."

On the movies that sparked the idea for Your Highness: "David Green and myself went to film school together, and I was a freshman and he was in his second year of film school, and we both lived in the same dorm, and I met him the first week I started going to school there. And you know, when you go to film school, you've got all these guys who are trying to show everyone how smart they are, and they're bringing forward all the pretentious art-y films because they think those are the movies you have to like if you're going to film school and one of the things that David and I instantly clicked on was, we appreciate those films, but at the same time, appreciated movies like [fantasy films] Beastmaster and Krull and Dragonslayer and these fun movies that capture your imagination when you're a kid. So it was awesome being able to make one of those movies, and it just gave me a very good excuse to my wife of why I needed to be watching Krull on repeat all the time. 'Cause I really couldn't have gotten away with it unless I was getting paid for it, so it was a selfish reason to make this film."
On talking people into making the movie: "You know, the first day we came in and pitched it, we pitched it as Krull meets Barry Lyndon. And the executives were like, 'Never pitch this movie like that ever again.' But to us, that's what it was. We wanted to take it and approach it as a serious drama but at the same time, have that fun that we had with Krull, and you know, that was always the concept. That's what was interesting about being on this project, is like, can you make a legitimate fantasy movie like this and still find a way to find comedy without making it a spoof. And that was I think that's what interested me in creating it from the beginning. This was - this will be something interesting to try."

What to TiVo: Wednesday

BuzzSugar — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 23:59:00 PDT

8:00 The Middle (repeat)
8:30 The Middle (repeat)
9:00 Modern Family (repeat)
9:30 Modern Family (repeat)
10:00 ABC News Special: Caught in the Act (new)
12:00 Jimmy Kimmel Live (new, with guests Gordon Ramsay and Hanson)

8:00 Undercover Boss (repeat)
9:00 Criminal Minds (repeat)
10:00 Blue Bloods (repeat)
11:35 Late Show With David Letterman (new, with guests Jim Carrey and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley)
12:37 Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson (repeat, with guest Alfred Molina)

8:00 So You Think You Can Dance (new)

8:00 Minute to Win It (new)
9:00 America's Got Talent (new)
10:00Law & Order: SVU (repeat)
11:35 Tonight Show With Jay Leno (new, with guests Blake Lively, Blake Shelton, and Scotty McCreery)
12:35 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon (new, with guest Cory Monteith)

8:00 America's Next Top Model (repeat)
9:00 America's Next Top Model (repeat)

More shows to watch when you

10:00 Top Chef Masters (new, season finale)
11:00 Rocco's Dinner Party (new, series premiere)

10:30 Jon Benjamin Has a Van (new)
11:00 Daily Show With Jon Stewart (new)
11:30 Colbert Report (new)

11:00 Chelsea Lately (new, with guest Padma Lakshmi)

10:00 The Real World (new, The S#!@ They Should've Shown)

10:00 Tyler Perry's House of Payne (new)
10:30 Tyler Perry's House of Payne
11:00 Conan (new, with guest Tom Arnold)
12:00 Lopez Tonight (new, with guests Cee Lo Green and J.J. Abrams)
9:30 Extreme Couponing (new)

10:00 Toddlers & Tiaras (new)

9:00 Franklin & Bash (new)
10:00 Men of a Certain Age

NYU Students May Be Hot For New Teacher James Franco

Katie Henry — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 12:12:42 PDT

James Franco stopped by The Late Show in NYC last night to tape an interview with David Letterman that airs Friday. The actor was there to discuss his latest release, Your Highness, which was directed by Pineapple Express's David Gordon Green and also stars Natalie Portman and Eastbound and Down's Danny McBride. James popped up on the East Coast following a stint in LA promoting the project. James, who will get his Master's from NYU this May, has apparently been hired to lead a graduate class for their Tisch School of the Arts on adapting poetry into short films. He'll fit that latest commitment into an already packed schedule that includes another stint on the promotional trail before Rise of the Apes is out this Summer.

Your Highness: The Dark Ages Done Dirty

Shannon Vestal — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 03:00:00 PDT

Your Highness may have a marijuana reference right there in the title, but it's not exactly Cheech and Chong in tights. It is, however, an amusing spoof from director David Gordon Green, who reproduces the comedic tone of his last movie, Pineapple Express. He also reunites with a couple of its cast members; James Franco stars as Fabious, a virtuous prince in line for the throne, and Danny McBride plays his brother Thadeous, who's far less concerned with courageous quests and much more into drinking, smoking, and women.

Fabious returns from a quest with a bride, Belladonna (Zooey Deschanel), but their ceremony is crashed by evil wizard Leezar (Justin Theroux, disguising his handsome face). Leezar kidnaps Belladonna, intending to take her virginity as part of a dastardly plot. Naturally, Fabious wastes no time in embarking on a new quest to get his bride back, and underachieving Thadeous has to step up so he can accompany his brother. This adventure and the characters they meet along the way (including Natalie Portman) set the scene for a raunchy takeoff of the medieval genre. To find out why I found myself chuckling at Your Highness, just

McBride, who co-wrote the script with Ben Best, has the biggest role, and he uses his time in the spotlight to shine. He's funny and natural, with more goofball moments than anyone else in the movie. Franco, meanwhile, is a lampoon of a dashing knight in shining armor, and he's perfectly cast as a dopey dreamboat. Together, they're the ideal pair of comedic complements.

Portman makes her appearance about halfway into the movie, and though her character isn't necessary to move the plot forward, it's refreshing to have a woman thrown in the boys' club. It's even better that it's Portman, who's still fresh in my mind as an uptight ballerina in Black Swan. It feels like she's letting her hair down here and just having a good time, which in turn makes her fun to watch. However, there are lesser-known actors in the ensemble who steal the show, like Theroux, who makes his villain as silly as he is wicked. Likewise, British newcomer Rasmus Hardiker, who plays Thadeous's right-hand man Courtney, earns giggles even when he's just pulling a funny face.

Your Highness's biggest shortcoming is in its sluggish storytelling. Though the elements of films set in the Dark Ages make a great leaping-off point, the story loses its cleverness. Still, the combo of well-timed f-bombs and the incorporation of modern slang almost make up for the lack of the narrative's follow-through.

The great cast and humor are the real draw, but this is far from a classic comedy; the movie offers many passing laughs, but it never reaches a comedic crescendo.

What to Rent: New DVDs This Week

BuzzSugar — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 03:05:00 PDT

Your Highness

This medieval times-set comedy lets Danny McBride and James Franco don armor and speak in silly accents as they embark on a quest to rescue the bride of Franco's character, who's been kidnapped by evil wizard played Justin Theroux. They do drugs, fight creepy creatures, and encounter warrior woman Natalie Portman in this movie, which has a few laughs, but relies heavily on lowbrow humor. The DVD's extras include a gag reel, deleted scenes, alternate scenes, and a commentary track with director David Gordon Green, McBride, Franco, and Theroux.

26%

Paul

British comedians Simon Pegg and Nick Frost play a couple of alien-obsessed friends who take the ultimate geek pilgrimage to Area 51 and find an actual alien. Named Paul and voiced by Seth Rogen, he becomes their little stowaway because a shady Man in Black (Jason Bateman) is after him. Fellow funny actors Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, and Jane Lynch also star; if you're a fan of them or Pegg and Frost, you'll enjoy the lighthearted comedy. DVD extras include a gag reel and featurettes on some of the individual actors.

71%

One more release this week when you

Super

In this indie, Rainn Wilson plays Frank, a fry cook who dons a homemade superhero costume after his wife leaves him for a drug dealer (Kevin Bacon). He tries to get her back and fight the crime in his town, despite the fact that he doesn't have any real super powers. Instead, he uses a big scary wrench and a psychotic sidekick in Ellen Page as his weapons. The premise is interesting, but be warned: there are lots of scenes of graphic violence. The extras on the DVD include behind-the-scenes footage and the trailer.

45%