Seth Rogen might best be known for his work in the comedy genre, but he’s undoubtedly a man who wears many hats. As well as giving an acclaimed dramatic performance as Steve Wozniak in Danny Boyle’s Jobs and impressing opposite Joseph Gordon-Levitt in 50/50, he dabbled in directing animation with Sausage Party and developed AMC’s comic book series Preacher as well.
Nicolas Cage might not like him, but a lot of people definitely do, although there’s a desire from fans to see him venture outside of his creative comfort zone a little more often. Rogen has tried his hand at being an action hero before in The Green Hornet, which didn’t go exactly to plan, while Pineapple Express contained a couple of action sequences but was still his standard stoner comedy.
However, that could all be about to change after the 39 year-old revealed that he and regular collaborator Evan Goldberg are working on action comedy titled Escape, which looks to draw inspiration from two of cinema’s greatest ever physical performers in Jackie Chan and Buster Keaton.
“Right now I’m writing two movies with Evan. One’s called Escape, which hasn’t been announced and no one knows about, that we’ve been working on for years, which hopefully we’ll make next year. A big action movie. In Pineapple Express, the scenes people remember are the fights, the foot through the windshield and, like, with Neighbors, you think of the airbags. Moments, that is, of outsize physical comedy. We were like, ‘Why are those just the supporting things? Why are those, amidst a sea of talky jokes, these things that pop up once in a while? Why don’t we make a bunch of these jokes and not rely on verbal humor?’.”
The idea of the duo behind Superbad, This is the End and The Interview tackling a broad action movie is an exciting prospect, especially if Chan and Keaton are set to be major influences. Both operated at very different times in the history of the industry, but each left an indelible mark thanks to their daredevil risk-taking and desire to pull out all of the stops to make sure the set pieces were unlike anything audiences had ever witnessed before, although it remains to be seen if Seth Rogen would be brave enough to tackle the lead role in Escape.