Danny McBride, who has made a career out of comedies like Tropic Thunder and Pineapple Express,, is moving into a more dramatic role in the upcoming Up In the Air. McBride told Collider that he was attracted to the role because of the opportunity to work with George Clooney and director Jason Reitman.
I just felt like the project was definitely special. It jumped off the page and the chance to get to meet Clooney and work with him was definitely a draw and to just be a part of something Jason believed
in, it seemed like a no-brainer. So, yeah, I signed on for it and just thought I'd give it a whirl.
Up next for McBride is Your Highness, which will reunite him with his Pineapple Express and All the Real Girls director, David Gordon Green. The movie, which McBride co-wrote, will harken back to some of the fantasy 1movies of the 1980s.
Your Highness is ... he's a guy, like with Pineapple Express, you know Pineapple Express becomes an 80's action film without making fun of 80's action films. It just kind of becomes one by the end and that's really what we wanted for Your Highness. We didn't really want to make fun of 80's fantasy films. We just wanted to make an 80's fantasy film, you know? And so that being said like the costumes, the sets, all that stuff was taken seriously and it was done on a big scale. No jokes are had from cod pieces or anything like that. You wanted to world to be real and the comedy just comes from the people that happen to be in this world and really shouldn't be.
How it is not like Pineapple Express is that Your Highness is not the middle ages stoner comedy the title may suggest.
No, it's not really accurate. I know where that comes from. It
centers around two brothers, [James] Franco and myself and he's the first born and I'm the 2nd born so he's going to be King and I'm a little jealous about that and therefore I just kind of shirk responsibility and don't really try to live up to being a good Prince. And with that I mean he drinks and smokes and does all these sorts of things but that's no means like the driving force of the movie. It's not Pineapple Express 2 or anything like that.
Up In The Air opens December 4 in limited release and opens wide on December 25. Your Highness is scheduled to open October 1, 2010, and co-stars Natalie Portman, Zooey Deschanel, and Damian Lewis.