A lot of the chatter in the indie-world film this week is whether indie-auteur David Gordon Green has “gone pop,” now that his Judd Apatow-produced action comedy, “Pineapple Express” is hitting theaters in two weeks (August 6). In fact, this talk is growing louder in New York given ‘Express’ is having its Brooklyn premiere early this Thursday at BAM’s cinematek in honor of the David Gordon Green curated film festival that’s running this week (we saw Peter Weir’s 1975 dreamy mystery “Picnic At Hanging Rock” this weekend and its strange tones can be vaguely seen in things like Green’s “Undertow.”). The influence of Green’s “new direction,” can be seen in some of his curated picks like “Tango & Cash,” but anyone who’s paid attention to his career, knows he’s wanted to do comedies as far back as 2003 and has always had an eclectic palette (in an interview in 2004, he told us/me how much he loved the absurdity of “Bad Boys II,” a film not far off the mark here).
Is ‘Express’ Tarantino with a sense of humor or more Apatow with a bit more violence? We’ll all find out soon enough, and meanwhile here’s the international trailer for the film which features more Amber Heard (Seth Rogen’s girlfriend in the film) and a line about marriage that made us practically spit-take on our computer. Good stuff. Oh and big DGG fans will want to note, Vulture has got their mitts on a copy of one of the filmmaker’s first shorts called, “Physical Pinball,” which features Eddie Rouse and Candace Evanofski, two of the main characters in his 2000 feature-length debut, “George Washington.”
