… in Judd Apatow’s Untitled Stand-Up Comedy Drama. Elsewhere, he’s a laff riot. Kinda like Allan Havey.
“But isn’t Rogen playing a stand-up comic in this dramedy?” According to Devin, who chatted Monday with the extremely generous and frighteningly forthcoming star on the set of Jody Hill’s Observe and Report, he is. That said, Rogen’s character will apparently fall into that immense subcategory of “young, unfunny comic”, while co-lead Adam Sandler will play his much more successful mentor… of sorts.
Devin will chime in tomorrow with exact quotes, but since he’s not able to update via iPhone, here are some paraphrased specifics:
- It’s accurate to categorize this film as a dramedy, but Rogen isn’t crazy about that term. It’s just “real” – in that life is both comedic and painful.
- Per Rogen, Apatow is drawing (to some degree) on his own mentor-protégé relationship with Garry Shandling (who gave Apatow industry entrée via The Larry Sanders Show).
- Eric Bana is currently in talks to co-star.
- Rogen is writing two different sets: one that’s funny and one that’s not. The latter is coming along great; the former is kinda kicking his ass a little. He blames contentedness for his struggles.
- It’s possible that Rogen will hone his material at comedy clubs over the summer. Since he’ll be promoting Pineapple Express up until mid-August, it might be dicey to be bombing intentionally in front of potential ticket-buyers.
- The plan is to begin shooting this fall. Auditioning will begin as soon as Rogen is done with the Pineapple Express press tour.
Again, Devin will give you direct quotes tomorrow. My apologies if this interpretation is wildly inaccurate.