Seth Rogen’s fellow Canadian writing partner tells how their life story made it to the big screen and what their plans are for The Green Hornet.
Judd Apatow has been a respected writer in Hollywood for almost two decades. Until recent times, however, he had been associated with critically-acclaimed shows that never made it past season one (The Ben Stiller Show, Freaks and Geeks, Undeclared) rather than anything remotely resembling commercial success. Then, 40-Year-Old-Virgin hit a few years back and he hasn’t looked back. It seems as if Apatow wrote, directed or is in some manner involved with at least half the comedies coming out.
One such example is Superbad, a movie which doesn’t release for another week, yet already feels like a hit. It’s been test-screening for months now and it’s hard to find anyone who doesn’t love it. But Apatow didn’t actually write nor did he direct it. He’s merely the guiding hand on this one.
Superbad is the work two young pubescent’s first began many, many years ago. When Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg first wrote the movie as kids, they couldn’t have imagined what it would become.
But now Apatow has the power to help his friends get movies made and he’s done just that.
Evan Goldberg grew up with Seth Rogen, working on short films and stories like Superbad. The two went their separate ways for a while, with Seth moving to Hollywood and Goldberg attending college at Canada’s prestigious McGill University in Montreal. But years later, that chemistry was still there. The duo joined the staff of Da Ali G Show in 2003 before convincing Apatow that they could rework their childhood vision into Superbad.
Much of the story they first created remains, a tale largely based on their own childhood but merely condensed into a single day. The characters actually still bore the names Seth (played by Jonah Hill) and Evan (played by Michael Cera).
Now, with Superbad a soon-to-be-success, the team has already penned the upcoming Pineapple Express and are about to get to work on an unlikely next project, The Green Hornet. They are riding high
I sat down for a one-on-one with Goldberg recently to discuss Superbad, his career and the plans for The Green Hornet. Goldberg couldn’t have been more accomidating, as-yet-unaffected by success, dressed in shorts and a t-shirt and sipping an Iced Blended.
We broke the ice with some talk of “American” football in the Southeast (the only way to see a proper game) before getting down to business.
ReelzChannel: You guys were very entertaining at Comic-Con, even going out there with a movie that didn't contain superheroes.
Evan Goldberg: Well, we are them, though.
RC: Tell me about Superbad’s journey to screen, because you wrote this year's ago, right?
EG: Yeah, 11 or 12 years ago. Yesterday, we finally figured it out, how we actually started this, because before we couldn’t remember. Seth was a standup, just started. I had been writing stories since I was five. “[I knew] I was gonna be a writer. Period. I never had any interest in doing anything else. We became friends in Bar Mitzvah class and then we just started d***ing around with a camera one day. Seth’s dad had all the Star Wars toys. I didn’t even like Star Wars that much, but we loved Spaceballs. We were obsessed with Spaceballs. We attached strings to all the planes and we did a movie starring me in every role, starring me. Seth wasn’t in it, he was the behind-the-scenes director. 
RC: So back then, he didn’t want to be the actor?
EG: It wasn’t even like, ‘Who wants to do it?’ I was just like, ‘Okay, I’ll do this.’ Then we got bored. So we called up Fogle, who was the third member of our trio at the time… Very soon after we did that, we watched a s***ty movie [and] we were like, ‘We could do a better movie than this.’ So we went upstairs and we were like, ‘Okay, what do we know? Nothing. All I know is I want to get with a girl and we can’t get beer as much as we like,’ so that’s what we went with.
RC: And what percentage of that remains?
EG: Lots. The general plot and outline of the movie’s the exact same. All the settings are the exact same, pretty much. A bunch of jokes are the same, not too many though. The big difference was when we met Judd. He was like, ‘Okay, this is funny as s**t, this joke is okay, but you need some kind of emotional story to make it excel beyond something just funny to something memorable.’ And so he was like, ‘Let’s do some anxiety between the two.’
Maybe Judd got the idea kind of because I was at McGill University in Montreal, Seth was here and we were growing apart, when in reality I’d be like, ‘All right, see ya later’ and then wouldn’t see Seth for a year and I’d be like, ‘What’s up?’ We have no separation anxiety at all. If he was like, ‘Yo, I can’t see you for ten years, but then after that let’s go get a beer,’ I’d be like, ‘Okay.’
With Judd, the idea was developed and he had the idea about college the next year. And then, I’ll never forget, Judd was like, ‘we should have a scene at the end of the movie.’
We ended the movie that night. He was like, ‘We should have a scene at the mall where they meet the girls’ and I was like, ‘That’s the worst idea I’ve ever heard in my life.’ And I fought him so hard. I thought it was the s***tiest idea ever. And I was wrong. You can see where I was coming from. That could have been the corniest scene. But, Greg Mottola made it perfectly ambiguous.
And I got my dream, to have the penis drawings…
RC: I was actually going to ask you about those. Were those based on reality?
EG: It was Seth’s idea, I think maybe based on [the fact that] I’ve drawn my whole life. I learned from my brother and I would copy his drawings [because I was] jealous. I would draw in school all the time and I would cover my drawings and eventually some girls came up to me and [asked to see the pictures] and I was like, ‘No!’ They were like, ‘We know what you’re drawing.’ I was drawing dudes, like, punching each other’s heads off and they thought I was drawing me f***ing them, like dirty pictures of the girls, which as soon as they told me, I tried to do. I’m not good at that, I can’t do it.
RC: Those penis drawings were great, the sheer amount of them...
EG: There’s 250. I’m hoping we’re going to make some books, t-shirts and stuff like that.
RC: What do you think happened in recent years that has changed things for you guys? Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared came out a number of years back and got great reviews, but didn’t last. Suddenly, 40-Year-Old-Virgin hits and everything has changed.
EG: I wasn’t there, that’s the answer. (Laughs) I don’t think it’s about us, I think it’s just the ebb and flow of how things go. When my parents were kids, there were a bunch of dirty movies, they cleaned up for a bit, then when my older cousins were kids, the early 80’s, it got filthy again and then just as our generation was coming in everyone became a p**sy and stopped making cool movies for some f***ing terrible movies. And that’s why you don’t hear people saying, ‘Look at all these great movies that came out in the 90’s.’ We’re all about s**t like Animal House because nothing great came out, it all became a pacified version.
RC: So you’ll never make a PG-13 movie?
EG: Oh no, we’re making one right now. Green Hornet’s PG-13 because we don’t just like comedies, we want to do action movies too. When I was a kid, in Canada anyone could waltz into a theater. Even if it was rater-R, no one gives a s**t, but I don’t want people to miss out on the cool action movies. We like it this way, we don’t have to swear.
RC: Tell me about Green Hornet.
EG: We’re super-excited. This may be kind of d**ky to say, but because Knocked Up and Superbad have done so well, there’s only the good reviews and I relish the bad reviews because I think they’re very funny. And the people about the Green Hornet, like, none of these people watch it, none of them know s**t about it. ‘They’re gonna f**k it up, they’re gonna make it stupid.’ They think we’re going to make it like Anchorman. We’re fiddling with the idea of getting Seth into incredibly good shape. I don’t know, either that or keeping him kind of chubby. Chubby could be too funny. I don’t know, we’re going to start in about three hours.
RC: So it will still have a lot of comedy to it?
EG: No, no, no. It’s an action movie. It will be as much a comedy as Indiana Jones. Our template is 48 Hours, Indiana Jones, Lethal Weapon. Even though we made Superbad, [which I] love, but then kind of movie I go to the theater to see… I will be at Bourne Ultimatum within 12 hours. I cannot wait!
RC: Are you working on any other projects?
EG: We did this short video on the internet called ‘Jay and Seth Versus the Apocalypse.’ [check it out here] So we’re considering making an apocalyptic comedy with Jay [Baruchel] (Undeclared) and Seth. That’s one thing we’d definitely like to fiddle with. I’ve got some friends who are our cohorts and they have a summer camp movie they’d like to make…
The Green Hornet’s the big one. I’m not looking at anyone’s scripts. I refuse to look at anything of anyone’s anymore. Not really because of The Green Hornet, just because I’m f***ing sick of it. We’re exclusive. We have to only work on The Green Hornet, so starting this afternoon, we’re going to town, locking our doors, turning off the phones. It’s Green Hornet time. It’s PG-13 so we’ll have to work way harder.