When Get Him to the Greek was announced as a starring vehicle for British comic Russell Brand and Jonah Hill, I thought it was just cast that way because of the chemistry the two had on the set of Forgetting Sarah Marshall. But yesterday I had a one on one interview with Judd Apatow and he revealed that the film is actually a spin-off from Sarah Marshall – Brand will be playing the same character in Greek.
This time, Brand’s rock star character has fallen off the wagon and Jonah Hill has to get him safe and in one piece to LA’s Greek Theater for a show. I don’t actually know if Hill is also playing the same character (my lack of journalism skills have now been laid bare), but I hope not – while I like Hill, and while I think Brand was the highlight of that movie, their interactions on screen were Sarah Marshall‘s weakest point. I just don’t know that I could do two hours of Jonah Hill being hilariously in love with Russell Brand – in fact, I’d imagine that the obvious starting point in any movie like this is that he hates Brand’s character (the original synopsis has Hill as a fresh-out-of-college insurance adjustor, not the kind of guy who would be interested in rock star antics, one assumes).
Sarah Marshall director Nicholas Stoller has written and will be directing this one, which Apatow seemed very excited about (I didn’t even bring it up, he did. Has my lack of journalism skills been laid bare enough now?).
With Funny People about to start shooting this fall, Get Him To The Greek is one of a tiny number of projects on Apatow’s producing plate, which also includes the wrapped Year One. I’ll have the full Apatow interview in just a couple of days.
If you’re interested, my on-camera interview with Brand remains my favorite on-camera interview to date. You can watch that here.