Contributed by Rodrigo Perez
While director Greg Mottola ("Superbad," "The Day Trippers") is in the throes of doing press and promotion for his upcoming dramedy "Adventureland," he's also knee-deep in pre-production for next film, "Paul," slated for release via Universal.
A collaboration between British comedians Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (the writing-acting team behind, "Shaun Of The Dead," "Hot Fuzz," and BBC cult comedy, "Spaced"), the flick, written by the two English comics, centers on two British tourists on a roadtrip across the U.S. to San Diego's movie geek mecca Comic-Con, but along the way they run into a little diversion out of this world.
"They meet an alien. in the desert, in the middle of nowhere," Motolla said carefully. "But that's about all I can say."
By the sounds of it however, they befriend the extraterrestrial and he joins them on their pilgrimage. which Mottola describe as a mix of talky road-trip story and alien comedy, "Because he's an alien there are things that wouldn't happen in a normal road trip, but portions of the film should feel very naturalistic, he just happens to be from another planet, no big deal."
A mix of puppetry and CGI, Mottola started sporadic visual tests on the alien way back last summer as he was editing, "Adventureland, " but the hope and goal is to make him a living breathing character.
"Whoever plays the [alien] needs to do so like a three dimensional guy, he's kind of like just another character in the story and he's not just an [ET], I need a method acting performance out of this nonexistent person," the filmmaker maintained. "My joke is its 'Five Easy Pieces' with an alien. There's a fun factor to the film because it's an alien and you can't escape that and it has to be satisfying, but my goal is to make the audience stop thinking about it ten minutes after they meet him and really start to think about him as a character and a performance. Now that i've gotten deeper into how to pull that off, i realize its really f***ing hard!," he laughed.
Though their comedic sensibilities are different, Mottola's no stranger to oddball humor having directed "Superbad," and episodes of "Undeclared" for Judd Apatow and "Arrested Development" for Mitch Hurwitz and he's eager to start filming with Pegg and Frost. "They're very menschy with a wide variety of taste, real movie lovers, but with a breadth of interest, not just comedy mania, although they could start a comedy museum if they wanted."
You'll also see some familiar faces in side roles the filmmaker hinted. "We'll probably steal from the Judd [Apatow] Universe for some of the casting around [the lead parts], because we need funny people."
Just don't expect the director to try and mimic the style of Edgar Wright, the longtime filmmaking collaborator Pegg and Frost usually work with, who's busy bringing the "Scott Pilgrim" graphic novel to life.
"I'm not going to try and attempt to shoot it like Edgar because his style is very particular and i would fall flat on my face if i tried to emulate it. There will be some action moments, but a lot of it will be more handheld, low-key, conversational storytelling... for stretches at least."
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