Do we all remember Seth Rogen’s new-ish project, “I’m With Cancer,” a comedic autobiographical script by Will Reiser (an associate producer on episodes of “Da Ali G Show”) that he and his writing partner Evan Goldberg will produce with Ben Karlin (“The Daily Show With Jon Stewart”) that was announced last November?
Don’t worry, it’s not like they’ve just picked some random ailment to laugh in the face at. The story is Reiser’s account of struggling to beat cancer, centering on a 25-year-old who finds out he has the disease. According to our last report, Rogen was only set to have a supporting role in the picture and that continues to be the case. Additionally, according to Rogen himself it will be his next project after “The Green Hornet” with Michel Gondry that shoots later this year.
Concerns that it will have similar themes to the recently released mortality comedy, “Funny People”? “It’s funny, actually,” Rogen told MTV. “’I’m with Cancer’ existed as a script before ‘Funny People,’ but they were written around the same time.”
Rogen described the project as having some “Funny People” tonal similarities. “’I’m with Cancer’ is a very personal story, about what happened to our friend for the most part. So we didn’t really need much added insight into that. I was there with [Reiser] as he experienced a lot of it.”
Rogen says they hope to start shooting ‘Cancer’ next year, but reiterated that Apatow’s dramedy and their story will be different… and yet… sort of the same.. but different! “They are, oddly, very different. Even though, even in my head, they’re kind of about similar things. So I would say they’re pretty different movies.”
Mmmkay, slim guy. Mandate is also producing the picture and they’re also the folks behind “Jay & Seth vs. The Apocalypse,” which stars Rogen and Judd Apatow mainstay, Jay Baruchel. Both of these projects are not affiliated with Apatow productions and it seems like ‘Jay & Seth’ will have to wait quite a while to become a reality, if it ever indeed happens at all. Baruchel in the interim could occupy himself with the hockey comedy, “The Goon.” Paging Kevin Smith? Someone should connect these two.
