In 2007, “Jay and Seth vs. The Apocalypse,” an end-of-the-world short starring—you guessed it—Jay Baruchel and Seth Rogen, went up on YouTube. In two weeks, it had more than 50,000 hits. Evan Goldberg (“Superbad,” “Pineapple Express”) and Jason Stone, who co-wrote the short with Rogen, started shopping around for a feature based on it, with several companies vying for the rights. Mandate Pictures picked it up, but there hasn’t been much movement on it since, aside from Baruchel saying the hope is the film will be filled with celebrity cameos.
‘Jay and Seth,’ the short, was written directly after production ended on “Knocked Up,” and filmed in late 2006 and 2007. The short follows two friends who have barricaded themselves in their apartment as the world ends, but when their rooftop water-collection system clogs up, one of them must venture out to face the chaos to fix it.
Goldberg and Rogen (who scripted the upcoming “Green Hornet” as well as “Pineapple Express” and “Superbad”) will be collaborating on the screenplay, although Goldberg told our Playlist reporter at Comic-Con that they would be “getting the actors on board before we write it.”
While not penned yet, Goldberg says it’s on the table and actively being developed now. “We’re right in it.” As for the other actors and purported cameos in the film Goldberg said, “I’m not telling you my secret. But needless to say I could not be more excited about our secret people who will be in the film. We’re going full speed on that, and I couldn’t be more excited to make that movie.”
But who’s directing? Hours later at “The Green Hornet” press conference Rogen and Goldberg said they might try and direct it together. This would be the first foray into directing for the two, and we’re interested to see how they might handle something like this. Based on the short, though, if there is a project for Goldberg and Rogen to take the helm on, this one is as good as any.
Here’s that original piece again if you’ve never seen it or could use a refresher.