Universal Pictures have officially slotted two of their 2011 big summer comedies with international release dates.
First up, as we previously reported and as Simon Pegg hinted on Twitter, the upcoming Greg Mottola helmed alien road trip comedy “Paul” had been bumped to sometime in 2011. At the time we had heard from a couple of sources that a spring date was in the works, and Universal confirms it as they have set the film to bow on April 14, 2011. The film will undergo extensive visual FX works this year, but attendees at this year’s ComicCon in San Diego, where the film actually begins, are likely to get a sneak peek at the film. The cast which includes Pegg alongside Nick Frost, Seth Rogen, Kirsten Wiig, Jason Bateman, Bill Hader, Sigourney Weaver, Blythe Danner, Jane Lynch, Jeffrey Tambor, Joe Lo Truglio and David Koechner is insanely great and we imagine any panel presentation will be gut busting.
The other film to get a release date is only known as “Untitled Judd Apatow Comedy” scheduled for May 12, 2011. Unless Apatow has a follow-up to “Funny People” in the works (which we doubt considering his stable of players are busy with a multitude of other projects and we sincerely doubt a lid could be kept on such a project) it’s mostly likely the previously announced Kristen Wiig comedy “Bridesmaids” (which we guess is a working title now) that he will be producing while “Freaks & Geeks” cohort Paul Feig directs. The film is about two women battling to plan their friend’s wedding party which in the hands of anyone else we’d take a pass on. But the team of Apatow/Feig/Wiig should bring something new to the table.
So why do we care about international dates? Well, Universal keeps their international and domestic dates fairly close — “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World” and “Fast Five” currently open internationally one day before they do in the U.S. — so its a good indicator of when we’ll see them stateside.
