“This Is The End” looks crazy.
This is another of those moments where I sort of can’t believe what studios are willing to greenlight, and I thank god someone’s a big enough lunatic to make the films I want to see.
I know “Your Highness” didn’t do big money at the box-office, and I couldn’t care any less. I got to see it, and if no one else dug it, I still got to see it. I am delighted that Universal was willing to spend their money on a film that seems so ridiculous when you describe it that it sounds like an April Fool’s Day joke that got out of hand, with no one willing to admit that they were kidding all the way through the day of release.
“This Is The End” has had a long strange path to get to the screen, starting life as a short film that was a student project. The film, for those who still don’t have it on their radar, deals with the end of the world as experienced by a group of soft Hollywood actors who hole up in James Franco’s house to try and survive. The cast is all playing themselves, but exaggerated versions of themselves, and you get a real sense of that in the opening half of the new trailer for the film that just came out today.
You also get a real sense of just how filthy this movie is. Whether it’s Mindy Kaling’s description of Michael Cera or Chris Mintz-Plasse’s reaction to have a tray full of cocaine blown into his face or the dude at the end of the trailer who is just desperate to get into Franco’s house, this trailer pulls no punches, and this thing look deliriously R-rated.
I like that this trailer doesn’t really give away the game of the film. There are still things that they’re not telling you, and it’ll be fun to see how they handle that stuff as we get closer to release. I just read some hand-wringing on another site claiming that the red-band trailer is a desperate act in selling a film. I think of it more as an honest look at the movie you’ll actually see. If you made something that is unrelentingly dirty and crazy, sell me that. I’m all for the red-band trailer as long as it’s honest. For example, here’s the new red-band trailer…
… and we’ll have more interviews with the cast and with Seth Rogen and his writing/directing partner Evan Goldberg in the days ahead.
“The End Of The World” arrives in theaters June 14, 2013.