Interviews · Movies

Pineapple Express Haze Clears to Reveal Atom Egoyan is Directing The Green Hornet!?!

You don’t even know who Atom Egoyan is, do you?
By  · Published on July 27th, 2008

That’s obviously not true. Or is it? And how awesome, slow-moving, and sexy would The Green Hornet be if it were?

Judd Apatow, Seth Rogen, James Franco, Evan Goldberg, Danny McBride, Amber Heard, and director David Gordon Green sat down to discuss all things Pineapple-related, and I may be getting a DVD production credit after our exchange. More on that in a moment. Right now, let’s focus on this Egoyan business shall we?

I asked the Pineapple Express gang (not to be confused with The Apple Dumpling Gang, although the similarities are eerie) if there were any other predominately dramatic actors or directors (like Franco and Green) that they would like to corrupt by bringing into their fold. Apatow replied, “We do! We always think ‘Okay who’s too good to work for us?'”

Rogen chimed in with the bombshell of Canadian proportions, “Atom Egoyan is going to make The Green Hornet.”

Improvisation seems to be a pretty big part of most of Apatow’s productions, and Pineapple Express was no different. Unlike Jonah Hill’s claims of improv on Superbad, which Apatow happily corrected, McBride’s character apparently went off script several times in the new film. The bathroom scene about reincarnation and anal beads is the most obvious one. You’ll know it when you see it… easily one of the film’s funniest bits.

Asked if the weed in Pineapple Express was strictly a ploy to draw in the stoners, Green admits “it was a trick to get you guys to go to see a wonderful relationship about two buddies going through the adventure of a lifetime.” If you’ve seen the movie, you know something called a “cross joint” plays an integral role. I asked if they plan on including a special feature on the DVD that gives step by step instructions on how to build and roll the “cross joint”.

“You know I feel like we should have, it’s so sad,” Rogan said, but Goldberg said there were technical impediments. “We did shoot it, and the lighting didn’t work… but we should do it, we’ll put it alongside the ‘James Franco Acting Class’, ‘How to Roll Joints with Seth Rogan.'” Goldberg continued on the theme, saying “The cross joint is merely the beginning. Have you seen the Christmas tree joint? Or the Menorah joint? I’ve seen that. It’s on the Internet.”

The only Green Hornet info Rogan and Goldberg would share (aside from the Egoyan scoop!) is that the script is finished and was actually just handed into the studios Friday night. So expect to see it in theaters sometime in 2010. Pineapple Express opens considerably earlier, and is definitely worth a look…

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Rob Hunter has been writing for Film School Rejects since before you were born, which is weird seeing as he's so damn young. He's our Chief Film Critic and Associate Editor and lists 'Broadcast News' as his favorite film of all time. Feel free to say hi if you see him on Twitter @FakeRobHunter.