Seth Rogen Talks "The Green Hornet," "Ghostbusters 3," "Observe and Report" and "Funny People"

By: Adam Quigley Posted: October 20, 2008 Filed under: Interviews

Seth Rogen has such a surfeit of new projects on the horizon, it's nearly impossible to keep track of them all. Luckily, the good people over at Collider were kind enough to get Rogen to offer some updates on these upcoming projects and help provide a more clear idea of what we can expect from them.

When asked about his participation in Ghostbusters 3, Rogen immediately dismissed any involvement, stating that nobody has contacted him about starring in it.

It’s hard to imagine that would be good, isn’t it? I mean just as a movie fan I am the first guy to be skeptical of that. It sounds like a terrible idea when you first hear it. At first hearing it sounds like the worst idea ever. I dunno. Maybe. I mean, that would have to be one mutherfucking good script.

There goes that rumor...and I couldn't be happier to hear it. At least we know now that if Rogen ends up starring in the film, it must have a really "motherfucking good script."

As far as projects that Seth Rogen actually does have involvement in, he made some very interesting Scorsese references when talking about his new film Observe and Report, which is written/directed by Jody Hill (The Foot Fist Way).

Well, it’s the exact movie we wanted to make. It’s a super dark comedy. It’s really dark. It’s like ‘Taxi Driver.’ It’s like a comedic ‘Taxi Driver.’ That’s literally what we wanted to make. Jody and I sat down and we were like, ‘We want to make a comedic ‘Taxi Driver.’ If martin Scorsese put me in a movie and wanted it to be kind of funny, but still very dark.’ And that’s exactly what it is and I love it. I think as a film fan I watch it and go, ‘How in the hell did we get away with this?’ It is fuckin’ crazy. It is by far the most edgy movie I’ve been in. The most balls to the walls and most unabashed movie I’ve been in. But I love it. I could watch it over and over and over again.

Rogen also discussed his shooting experience on Funny People.

It’s a different movie. It’s tonally a little more dramatic at times. So, that actually makes it a lot easier, so we don’t have to think of jokes all day. We’re not constantly pressuring ourselves to make it hilarious in every scene. The fact Janusz (DP) is shooting it takes off a lot of pressure. The one problem people have with our movies sometimes is that they don’t look that good. So, it’s somehow a battle of how can we improvise a lot and keep it visually interesting, but Janusz is such a genius he’s found a way of shooting with three cameras at once and it looks as beautiful as anything you’ve every seen. So, that has actually made it a lot easier and taken a lot of pressure of and it’s been a lot of fun. Working with Sandler is great. He creates a very relaxed environment. It’s actually been the most relaxed shooting experience I’ve ever had.

You can check out more of Seth Rogen's project updates, from Monsters vs. Aliens to Fanboys to The Green Hornet, by reading the full interview.

Speaking of The Green Hornet, CHUD spoke to Rogen about some of the previous comments he had made indicating a more tonally serious picture, and how the hiring of Stephen Chow in the director's chair seems to indicate a different direction.

We feel no obligation to live up to anything I've said to any of you people in the past. When we're writing I can't go, 'Fuck, I told CHUD we weren't going to do that! Let's do it anyway!' Me and Evan [Goldberg] talk a lot of shit. We have one rule when writing, and that's don't get attached to anything. One day we want to make a serious film and then Stephen Chow comes in with a good idea and we're like, 'Well it's funny.' Should we not do it because we originally wanted to do a serious film? We come from, nah fuck it, we'll just take the idea that seems good. So it's definitely less serious than a serious film, that's for sure. We want the action... I say now that we want the action to play serious but Stephen could come in tomorrow and say 'You know what? I want to throw you 400 feet in the air!' and I'd go, 'OK, that sounds cool.'

We're very open now. Right now is when we're in the process of deciding what this movie is going to be on a practical level. The story is the same; we've always known the story we wanted to tell, so it's easy within that to discuss the various sensibilities and reality levels and humor levels and stuff like that. To us, we hoped the director would come in and give us lots of ideas and directions to work with, and that's what he's doing.

With all these new Seth Rogen films coming out each year, it's a only a matter of time before people start to tire of him, much in the same way that happened to Will Ferrell. Overexposure really has a way of halting careers in their tracks. I hope that doesn't happen to Rogen though, because while Ferrell may be better at the "silly funnyman" schtick, Rogen's projects (both in terms of acting and writing) serve as a bright light in a cesspool filled with bland remakes and generic Hollywood dreck. Creativity is slowly becoming more and more of a rarity in the film world as of late, so as far as I'm concerned, we need all the Rogen projects we can get.

[Source Collider, CHUD]