Considering it went before cameras over a year ago, we’ve been disappointed not to have seen more of Greg Mottola‘s “Paul;” not because we think they’re hiding anything — it’s a terrific script, director and cast — more because we’re so keen to see the film. It did make a brief appearance at Comic Con (and we caught up with some of the cast there), where a trailer was shown, but since then, all’s been quiet.
This weekend however, an international teaser trailer debuted in front of “The Social Network” in the UK, and this morning Simon Pegg announced the trailer was going live on the internet at MSN, via his twitter account. And it’s shaping up pretty well, we reckon.
It’s a brief (65 second) clip that plays up the action elements of the road trip movie, with helicopters, guns, explosions and car crashes galore. More importantly, we get our first look at the titular extraterrestrial (who escapes from government custody and goes on the lam with British comic book geeks, played by Pegg and Nick Frost), as voiced, and performed in motion capture by Seth Rogen, and we’re pretty impressed. He’s simple and iconic, but expressive and doesn’t seem too obviously CGI.
We’re surprised that there aren’t more gags in the trailer, but it might make sense to sell the action and CGI up front (particularly for the British audience the clips’s cut for — Pegg and Frost are much bigger stars there than in the States), but the sting has a pretty big laugh, and we know from the script that the filmmakers aren’t hiding anything away. If the domestic trailer delivers in the same way, this could shape up to be a fairly major mainstream hit — it certainly looks more appealing than, say, “Due Date.”
“Paul” opens in the UK on February 18th, and a month later in the US.
<a href=”http://video.uk.msn.com/?mkt=en-gb&vid=1b36d664-8609-4637-9dbb-892bd6918703&from=en-gb&fg=dest” target=”_new” title=”Exclusive: Paul – Trailer”>Video: Exclusive: Paul – Trailer</a>