The intra-collaborative love of the Judd Apatow-crew continues. Russell Brand is obviously working on a spin-off to “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” where he once again plays the obnoxious rock star Aldous Snow that made Jason Segel’s character a living hell by stealing his ex-girlfriend (played by Kristen Bell), only this time, the British rocker has fallen off the wagon and all hell breaks loose.
The film, you might recall, is called, “Get HimTo The Greek,” (called a dirty, ‘Almost Famous’ like comedy) and also stars Jonah Hill in a different role as a young music executive who has to get the debauched and out-of-control Brand to a gig at the L.A. Greek theater, which is evidently a lot harder than it sounds. As chronicled in his 2007 memoir, “My Booky Wooky,” Brand was once a depraved drug-addict and much of the film’s character is based on his life.
“In this film, ‘Get Him to the Greek,’ Aldous Snow travels from London to perform a gig in Los Angeles, but he’s gone back on crack and heroine, so it makes him difficult to look after,” he told MTV. “Like a lot of drug addicts, he’s a pain in the ass.”
In the same interview he revealed that Jason Segel — who also wrote some songs for ‘Sarah Marshall‘ (the silly, “Dracula’s Lament“) — is writing some material for ‘Greek.’ “Jason Segel’s writing some songs for it,” he said. “Jason’s written some songs for [Brand’s character] Aldous Snow to sing.”
Brand — who also wrote two songs in ‘Sarah Marshall,’ for his fake band, Infant Sorrow — hinted that some big names could show up in ‘Greek,’ but he remained coy. “Yeah, there are… [some] really famous ones – but I’m not allowed to say yet because I always blurt things out too quickly.”
He probably just means Christina Aguilera, Pink and Katy Perry, who he all shot quick cameos with — rumored to be sex scenes — at the MTV Movie Video Awards last year. Probably one of the reasons he agreed to host the show was that not only would it up his awareness factor in the U.S., it would give him a great excuse to shoot other rock and pop stars for “Get Him To The Greek.” British rockers and ex-debauched assholes, Oasis are also rumored to have a cameo in the film, as does Maroon 5 as well.
Last we heard, ‘Greek’ was supposed to shoot this spring, and that might be on track as in a recent interview, Brand said they were doing table reads, which generally happen a few weeks before production starts. Segel is probably dusting off his music chops, he just performed, “Dracula’s Lament,” from “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” in L.A. with Paul Rudd, his co-star on the upcoming, “I Love You, Man.”
