After scoring a hit with Superbad, Greg Mottola followed it up with the seminal ’80s flashback Adventureland, a comedy that was ignored when it was released in 2009 and has yet to be discovered on home video. In 2011, Mottola looks to rebound with Paul, an alien comedy that features a duo that is well known in United Kingdom and has found many fans across the pond.
Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are most notably recognized for the two Edgar Wright comedy homages Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. Is it a little strange seeing them paired again but under the direction of someone else? Yes it is. But this comedy looks to have some things going for it in terms of road trip antics and the ensemble that Mottola as well as Pegg and Frost got to be in it.
Seth Rogen voices the titular character, an alien who escapes a top-secret facility but is in no rush to phone home. The cast list also includes Jane Lynch, Kristen Wiig, Sigourney Weaver, Bill Hader, Blythe Danner, Jeffrey Tambor, David Koechner, Jesse Plemons (TV’s Friday Night Lights, Observe & Report), Joe Lo Truglio, John Carroll Lynch (The Drew Carey Show, Zodiac) and Jason Bateman as Special Agent Lorenzo Zoil. What are the chances we’ll get a half dozen Lorenzo’s Oil jokes?
Paul is a road trip comedy from the minds of Pegg and Frost. Like Harold & Kumar but with an alien instead of Doogie Howswer, the comedy involves Graeme and Clive (Pegg and Frost), a pair of UFO junkies and Comic-Con fans, being chased by special agents wanting to capture Paul, who just so happens to be riding along in Graeme and Clive’s RV. During the road trip, Graeme and Clive accidentally kidnap a woman (Wiig), which causes her father to join in on the chase.
Paul opens in the UK on Valentine’s Day. Its US release date is March 18, 2011.
