Pineapple Express: The opposite of drug runners

Seth Rogen continues to be mentored by Judd Apatow, and Rogen's loving it. First, Apatow gave Rogen a break by hiring the then burly 16-year-old Vancouverite as an ensemble player on TV's Freaks and Geeks. When that show was cancelled in 2000, Apatow enlisted him the following year to be one of the sitcom writers and co-stars on Undeclared, which lasted one season. Unemployed and aimless a few years later, Rogen was adrift at 23. Apatow came to the rescue again, getting him acting jobs on Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and The 40-Year-Old Virgin. Last year, Apatow graduated Rogen to comedy headliner in Knocked Up, an R-rated smash. And he's continuing his mentoring ways by producing and co-writing Rogen's latest romp, Pineapple Express, which opens on Aug. 6. In the R-rated joke fest directed by David Gordon Green, the 26-year-old Rogen plays a dope-smoking process server who inadvertently witnesses a murder then goes on the lam with his dealer (James Franco). The fact that Franco co-starred with Rogen in Freaks and Geeks is no coincidence, either. Apatow enjoys reuniting actors, writers and directors he's previously worked alongside. In other words, it's fun to be a part of the Apatow Happy Gang. Just ask Rogen. It was Apatow who suggested Rogen and his Vancouver pal Evan Goldberg do some sort of "weed action movie." After all, Goldberg and Rogen managed to do a decent writing job on Superbad, the gross-out farce based on quasi-autobiographical silliness about Rogen's and Goldberg's teenage days in Vancouver.

Rogen, on the other hand, assures that Pineapple Express is completely fiction - sort of. "The original idea came from Judd," Rogen confirms. "We originally wrote Franco's part for me, then when we got Franco involved; we thought it was a good idea to switch." Rogen wears a suit in the movie, but not too convincingly. The handsome Franco - who made a name for himself playing the lead in a James Dean TV biopic - looks almost unrecognizable as the stringy-haired stoner. And yes, he is meant to be reminiscent of Brad Pitt's cameo as a pothead in the crime thriller True Romance. "That was the idea," Apatow says. "After I saw True Romance, I wondered what would happen to that guy." A lot more than anybody bargained for, according to Rogen, Apatow and Goldberg's Pineapple Express, in which crooked cops and rival drug syndicates track down the not-so-dynamic duo of the doofus and his dealer. Along the way, a copious amount of pot smoking takes place. No research was required for that, Rogen says. "I grew up in Vancouver," he adds, smiling. Meanwhile, back to his flourishing career: Besides showing up in director Kevin Smith's Zack and Miri Make a Porno next fall, he's returning to his early days playing a stand-up comic in Apatow's next big comedy Funny People, which will start shooting soon with Adam Sandler. For research purposes, Rogen returned to the stage to do stand-up at Just for Laughs in Montreal last week. He was also there to honour Apatow, who received the comedy person of the year award. Still, Rogen plans to leave the comfort of the Apatow nest to star as a very different crime-busting superhero in The Green Hornet after he finishes Funny People. Smoking pot won't be an option for Green Hornet, however. "No, I don't think so," he says. And that's despite the fact that Rogen and Goldberg co-wrote the script for the film, which has a June 25, 2010, release date. "Mark that on your calendars," Rogen says, "if you think you're going to be really busy."

Bob Thompson, National Post