Nick Frost and Simon Pegg’s Paul has been lurking under the manic buzz machine even after ComicCon. Whereas everyone has been foaming at the mouth for tidbits from Captain America or The Green Lantern, fans of our favorite English duo have had to survive on Twitter hints.
CHUD has had more inside baseball info than most. You may remember Devin Faraci attended a Paul set visit for our glorious site. He wrote it up beautifully. Read it again to brush up.
Full disclosure so no one Googles and screams bias — I was there too! If you look carefully at that last image, I’m the purple stripe lurking over Frost’s shoulder. Funny story, actually. I was originally in the front row before loudly deemed “too pretty” to be a SDCC attendee, and placed out of frame. It was the most backhanded compliment ever.
Anyway, between the set visit and SDCC press, I’ve heard lots of things about the film, but I haven’t seen one frame of it. But now we can watch together! The first trailer is up at MSN Movies and they’ve been kind enough to provide an embed.
It’s a teaser, so there’s really not much to go on. It looks fun. It’s just a basic outline of the adventure (Frost and Pegg meet an alien, the FBI wants him, lots of wackiness ensues), but it’s awfully good to see Frost and Pegg falling into their familiar chemistry. The character of Paul is awfully rough around the CG edges, so I hope there’s a major improvement there, but I like the design and squishy eyes. They’re not shying away from the Steven Spielberg homages even in this early marketing, and I hope that speaks to what kind of heart Paul will ultimately have. I don’t think it’s all going to be slapstick.
I’m not just being nice because of the set visit, believe me. (Come on! My role of ComicCon Extra didn’t even make the cut, denying me a close-up that would catch the eye of Clint Eastwood for a role in his next bit of Oscar bait. Grrr!) I’m praising it because it’s Frost and Pegg, and I would follow them into whatever cinematic wasteland they would take me.