News broke last month that Todd Phillips was developing a John Belushi biopic — the latest in a long string of efforts to thrust the “Saturday Night Live” funnyman’s life in front of the camera — and the “Hangover” director was anything but pleased.

“That’s something that gets released by some agent of somebody and then you get asked questions about it,” Phillips told MTV News, in what we believe are his first public comments about the project. “It’s in its very nascent stages.” But ever the good sport, Phillips expanded on what has been reported in the trades.

The biopic will likely not have the easily digestible character arc that we’ve seen in recent Oscar-bait biopics and the man who eventually plays Belushi could be either a household name or an unknown actor.

“Our goal is not to do a traditional biopic approach with it that people expect, whether you’re talking about ‘Walk the Line’ or ‘Ray.’ All good movies, but our goal is not to make that typical biopic,” Phillips explained. “We want to make a movie that, if John Belushi saw it, he would be happy that it captured his spirit. Sometimes I feel that they don’t entirely capture the spirit of the person they’re about. Our goal is to capture the spirit of Belushi, not necessarily make a straight-ahead biopic.”

At the moment, Steve Conrad (“The Pursuit of Happyness”) is still working on a story treatment with Phillips and hasn’t even begun work on the actual script. As Phillips puts it, “Steve Conrad, who’s a f–king brilliant writer, is working on a story for it.”

Now, it’s all well and good to assert that you’re not going make a traditional biopic, but what exactly does that mean? Perhaps a more compressed timeline, one that spans years or even months rather then decades?

“It could mean that,” he said. “There are a lot of ways to interpret it. One of the reasons I’m being a bit vague is because we haven’t nailed it yet. It’s in early stages. I’m really talking about the very television-narrative approach that a lot of biopics take. We don’t want to do that. We’re trying to take a very renegade approach to who I think was one of the most renegade comedy actors of all time. It’s about nailing the script down at this point,” he said. “If it’s a new face or if it’s someone people are familiar with, we haven’t figured that out yet. It’s not even so much about nailing down the script as the renegade approach to a renegade actor.”

And just who might play that renegade? A bunch of names have been floated in the press — including Jack Black, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen and Zach Galifianakis, one of Phillips’ frequent collaborators — but at this point it’s simply too early in the process for Phillips to speculate. (Source)

This hasn’t been confirmed yet, but sources are saying Seth Rogen is attached to star alongside Barbra Streisand in the film, “My Mother’s Curse.” “My Mother’s Curse” is comedy scheduled for a 2012 release.

An inventor and his mom hit the road together so he can sell his latest invention.

Daniel Radcliffe is in talks to star in comedy horror movie Jay And Seth Vs The Apocalypse. Knocked Up star Seth Rogen and The Sorcerer’s Apprentice actor Jay Baruchel are remaking the short they made in film school for the big screen – and the Harry Potter star is rumoured to have asked to audition for the lead role.

A source revealed: “Daniel Radcliffe is keen to get involved.”

Jay was asked about the rumours at a junket for The Sorcerer’s Apprentice at the weekend and said: “No comment. I can neither confirm, nor deny that.”

Jay and Seth made the short film back in 2007 at film school with friend Jason Stone and it is now set to be made into a 3D feature film, set for release in 2012.

A spokeswoman for Daniel said: “Daniel is confirmed to star in Hammer Films’ forthcoming feature The Woman in Black which films this autumn and then in 2011 he will transfer to Broadway to star in the musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. He has no other firm commitments beyond this point at this time.”

Source

Budgeted at $27 million, “Pineapple Express” went on to make $87 million at the box office, now it sounds like fans can possibly look forward to a sequel. Evan Goldberg, Seth’s writing partner, sounds off on his thoughts belows:

“Pineapple 2″ is something that we pressured the studio to do for a while, and they require no pressure. Everybody wants to do it, it’s just we all have the chance after the success of those movies to do whatever they want, and everybody took that chance, and they made ‘Your Highness’ and Judd went and made ["Funny People"] and we went and made stuff. I would not be surprised if we all got back and made ‘Pineapple 2.’

We have the whole story planned out. But I don’t know, it’s still a toss up. Because that movie I’m very proud of, I don’t want to tamper with it. It kind of begs a sequel, but I don’t know. ‘Pineapple ’2 is the most likely [Judd Apatow-produced project] with us all. We kind of made the classic mistake of people who had a successful film: we then booked everything we could because we thought it’d be our only chance. It still could be our only chance, but man are we booked.”

Source

Actor Seth Rogen is rumored to be in consideration to play Lonny in the upcoming film version of Rock of Ages, Toronto’s thestar.com reports. Rogen attended the Toronto production of Rock of Ages on July 17, telling people that “he was just there to enjoy the show.” Accorinf to the report, however, Rogan may have been taking in the production for more professional reasons. No casting informaiton of any kind for the film has been released to date.

The film is to be directed by Adam Shankman and will most likely begin shooting in 2010. The film is currently set to be released in the summer of 2011.

In 1987 on the Sunset Strip, a small town girl met a big city rocker-and in LA’s most famous rock club, they fell in love to the greatest songs of the ‘80s. It’s Rock of Ages, an arena-rock love story told through the mind-blowing, face-melting hits of Journey, Bon Jovi, Poison and many more.

Source

We’ve got to admit, Seth Rogen and Chris Pine are two of our favorite men in Hollywood right now, and they’re both pretty sought after commodities. So when The Wrap learned that they might soon be starring in a film together, our attention was piqued.

Of course, the potential casting reminded us immediately of the unlikely match of Seth and James Franco in “Pineapple Express,” which turned out to be perfect because of their pitch-perfect chemistry together. While Seth and Chris haven’t worked together previously like Seth and James did in “Freak and Geeks,” we still think the comparison fits.

While neither Seth nor Chris have been confirmed for a role in Fox’s long-in-production romantic comedy “This Means War,” TheWrap seems to believe they are the two most likely candidates to land the parts. Each would hypothetically play best friends whose friendship is torn apart after a woman (Reese Witherspoon) moves into their spare room. Their fighting gets so violent that they end up destroying such important New York City landmarks as the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty. McG is set to direct it.

The plot seems a little hokey, but we like the idea of Seth and Chris fighting over Reese in a romantic comedy. And it turns out we weren’t so far off on our “Pineapple Express” comparison. James Franco had originally been offered the role of one of the best friends, but has since turned it down. TheWrap seems to think Seth would move over and take the part James gave up, thus allowing him to star opposite Chris.

Fox has been chasing a number of high-profile actors for the character of FDR (one of the best friends and the role for which Seth and Chris had originally been short-listed), according to Production Weekly. In addition to Seth and Chris, Robert Downey Jr. and Matt Damon are potential candidates. But TheWrap got news that Robert isn’t considering the role and that Matt hasn’t even looked at the script yet, which is what helped lead them to their assumption.

“This Means War” was originally purchased by Fox in 1998, which means the project has been sitting in production hell for more than 12 years. While the film now has Reese and McG attached and the script is getting a rewrite from “Role Models’” Tim Dowling, there are no guarantees when or if the film will hit theaters. Still, the idea of Seth and Chris starring opposite each other is enough to get us excited enough to keep an eye on the project into the future. (Source)

IESB is among the several sites reporting that after years in development, The Green Hornet film has been underwhelming the suits at Sony. The phrase “displeased with the results” was used. Another was quoted as saying the “tone is too campy, they’re not happy with the work from director Michel Gondry and Seth Rogen does not look the part. At all. In fact, the feeling at Sony is the movie is a disaster.”

Sony declared the reports “complete garbage” and went on to say the executives have screened one third of the movie and find the results “outstanding… remarkable”. We’ll get a clearer idea based on what the studio cares to show fans at Comic-Con International in July. (Source)

If you’re in the market for yet another big-budget remake of a marginally popular horror franchise, prepare to enter a glorious world of unimaginable bliss. According to an anonymous email we received early this morning, Verne Troyer and Elizabeth Banks are set to star in Ben Stiller’s upcoming “interpretation” of writer/director Mark Jones’ much-maligned 1993 horror/comedy “Leprechaun.”

Working from a script co-written by collaborator Justin Theroux, the picture is rumored to be a “shot for shot” recreation of the original film, much like Gus Van Sant’s grossly misguided 1998 atrocity “Psycho”. With both Seth Rogen and Judd Apatow handling producing duties, it’s a pretty safe bet that they’re approaching this ambitious project with tongues firmly inserted into respective cheeks. Filming is scheduled to begin this fall. From where I’m sitting, 2011 just got a little sweeter. (Source)

“Jay and Seth Vs. the Apocalypse” is one of those “white whale” movies. You know, “Moby Dick”? Captain Ahab’s relentless pursuit of a white whale, a hunt which ultimately costs him everything? A much-talked-about movie isn’t going to be dragging anyone down into the depths of the ocean of course, but it’s certainly caused some trouble now and again for “How To Train Your Dragon” star Jay Baruchel, as he told MTV contributor Ryan Downey at the “Dragon” press junket last week.

“['Jay and Seth Vs. the Apocalypse' has] been something else” — like “Goon,” a long-talked-about comic book adaptation for Baruchel — “where… once or twice a year, there’s a bit of news about it,” he said. “[Co-star Seth Rogen's] made me look like an ass for saying that we’d be working on it by the end of the year and stuff.”

Not familiar with “Jay and Seth”? Baruchel runs through the history.

“Rogen and I were in this short film years ago that we made with our friend Jason Stone who graduated from film school at USC. We put the trailer for the short on YouTube and it got a bunch of hits in the first week and we had different studios in LA saying ‘We’d like to see this as a feature.’”

Fine, right. So Rogen and Baruchel are both incredibly busy guys, and “Jay and Seth” has been continually pushed aside as a result. The question remains though… when are we going to see this movie get made?

“I’m not gonna– I know better than to make any promises that are going to make me or Seth look bad,” Baruchel said. Drat. Lesson learned. He offers some encouragement though. “This is something we both very much want to do, which would be the two of us in LA when the world ends, basically. Playing ourselves.”

Could it be in 3-D, Ryan asks?

“It could definitely be in 3-D,” Baruchel replied, laughing. “Two sarcastic Canadians talking s–t to each other during the apocalypse.”

Source

Seth Rogen readily admits he’s a reluctant dieter. But is his public avowal to turn his lovable, Teddy Bear body into a lean, mean fighting machine for his lead in The Green Hornet coming undone? Spies say the Vancouver actor may be falling off the broiled fish and fruit wagon. Rogen, 28, a former regular at the In-N-Out burger joint near his L.A home, has been visiting the drive-through again.

“He’s been back in lately ordering the double/double (hamburger) with onions and fries,” said a well-placed source. When Rogen started his regime after Christmas, and lost at least 30 pounds through diet and exercise, the plan was for him to don the skin tight hero’s outfit for The Green Hornet this summer.

“I’m selling out, guys,” he apologized to fans of his movies such as Knocked Up, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Superbad and most recently, Funny People, roles where he plays the attractive and charming, but overweight schlub. “(The diet) is for The Green Hornet. The only reason. There’s no other reason.”

But The Green Hornet, which he co-wrote, suddenly became a lot bigger and more expensive with the signing on of Cameron Diaz as his love interest and the ongoing search for the villain — rumoured at one point to be Nicholas Cage — caused the shooting to be postponed by months. (Shooting still hasn’t begun but sets are being built and Sony Pictures has committed to a June, 2010 release date).

“He didn’t think he’d have to diet this long and it’s got to be hard for him,” said Hollywood paparazzo Richard Terry, who follows Rogen regularly. “He shrunk to almost nothing for a while there and now he’s seeming a little bit heavier, I’m seeing that.”

As a consummate professional, I’m sure Rogen will be doing extra sit-ups to make up for any diet slips before he shoots love scenes with the gorgeous Diaz.