Paul teams Shaun of the Dead/Hot Fuzz stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, who also wrote the script, with director Greg Mottola, who I think is one of the best directors working today.  You might be tempted to disagree, but remember, I will fight you.

The plot concerns best friends Graeme and Clive (get it? they’re British), two comic-book nerds traveling through the US who encounter an alien named Paul (voiced by Seth Rogen) near Area 51.  If this were anyone but Pegg/Frost/Mottola, I’d probably say this looks really dumb, but since it’s them, I’m going to assume it’s a clever take off on the old we-found-an-alien-but-we-have-to-hide-him-from-the-government genre that was bizarrely ubiquitous in the late 80s (Alf, Out of This World, E.T., Mac & Me, Harry and the Hendersons {sorta}…). Mottola would seem to be the perfect choice, as he has a special gift for recreating that glowy nostalgic feel of an 80s comedy.  But more importantly, this better include an elaborate dance party set at McDonald’s:

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No! Bad hipster! You are not lobster dog and no one cares about your sh*tty band! Shoo, shoo!

I’ve been pretty open about my love of Greg Mottola (Superbad, Adventureland), but it sounds like if I ride my fixed-gear up to his next film wearing the wrong color keffiyah, I might get beaten to death with albums on vinyl (that haven’t even been released yet).

Mottola has been hired by Paramount to write the screenplay for its adaptation of “Important Artifacts.” A little over a year ago, the studio won an auction for the rights to Leanne Shapton’s book — full title: “Important Artifacts and Personal Property From the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion and Jewelry” — which Farrar Straus & Giroux had just published.

An art director at the New York Times, Shapton crafted a fictional estate auction catalog full of personal items and photographs from the four-year romance between a male photographer and a younger food columnist. Brad Pitt and Natalie Portman quickly became attached to star in what Mottola will spin into a romantic comedy.  [THR]

Ah, so you see it’s like an upper-class hipster yard sale as rendered in the archaic prose of an archeological dig, with a nod to Ernest Hemingway’s famous six-word story, “For Sale, baby’s shoes, never worn.”  If you listen closely, you can almost hear the sound of Dave Eggers’ semen landing on the latest issue of McSweeney’s.  Oh this is too fun.  Let’s look at a review, shall we?

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I wasn’t shy about loving Adventureland, not that anyone paid attention to me judging by its $16 million gross in eight weeks.  Nonetheless, it was a moderate success given its sub-$10 million budget, and Director Greg Mottola’s follow up sounds… uh… even awesomer.

Seth Rogen, Jason Bateman, Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader and Jane Lynch have joined the cast of “Paul.” The road trip laffer [die in a fire. -ed.] also stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.

Pegg and Frost, who wrote the script, will play two science-fiction fanatics on a road trip whose conspiracy dreams come true when they trek to Area 51 and encounter the title character, an escaped alien.  Rogen will provide the voice of the alien. [Variety]

Anyone else thinking what I’m thinking?  That they should shoot this as an homage to Mac & Me?   Hey, bros, I just flew 1500 light-years from Xylon 4, and boy am I thirsty!  Now who wants to party?  *air guitar* ….So just me then?  Carry on.

Adventureland, written and directed by Superbad director Greg Mottola, opens tomorrow.

Adventureland is an 80s period flick that feels like a classic 80s movie, the kind of coming-of-age films I grew up on before puberty turned me ugly and bitter at the age of 17 and a half.  It doesn’t do broad comedy as funny as Knocked Up or Superbad, but it never tries to.  Instead, it harkens back to a period of filmmaking when you didn’t have to make the audience laugh every five minutes, because you had something to keep them entertained besides laughs – charm, a compelling story, real characters, and in this particular case, a certain glowy nostalgia.   And it’s just nice to see a movie that’s more than jokey set pieces stuffed into pre-written scenes or comedians riffing on stock characters.

Dazed and Confused director Richard Linklater said not too long ago, “It’s tough. Unless it’s a tentpole, sequel, remake, or over-the-top comedy, the studios aren’t interested.  The slightest level of irony or intelligence and, boom, you’re out of the league, you’re done.”

Luckily Mottola was in a unique and charmed position: coming off Superbad, a movie he directed for hire that ended up grossing $170 million worldwide on a $20 million budget.  He’d had his semi-autobiographical script for Adventureland ready to go all along, but Superbad gave him the clout to shop it around until he found someone who’d let him do it the way he wanted.  The result is a sort of indie-major, a movie made for less than $10 million with neither arthouse pretensions nor  blockbuster gloss.

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_{We are the Co-en Bro-thers… don’t get a-long with o-thers…}

The ever-prolific Coen Brothers are set to adapt True Grit, the 1968 Charles Portis novel that already spawned a film adaptation for which John Wayne won an Oscar in 1969.

Not a traditional remake, the Paramount film will be more faithful to the Charles Portis book than the 1969 pic. Portis’ novel is about a 14-year-old girl who, along with an aging U.S. marshal and another lawman, tracks her father’s killer in hostile Indian territory. But while the original film was a showcase for Wayne, the Coens’ version will tell the tale from the girl’s p.o.v.

Portis’ book has been described as “Like Cormac McCarthy, but funny.”  It was also announced recently that Greg Mottola and Bill Hader are adapting another Portis novel, Dog of the South.  Reached for comment, Portis said, “No, it’s great that you’re only just now discovering me, that’s awesome.  No really.  Heck, I’m only 75.  Yup, nothing but silk Depends and extra-virgin prune juice for yours truly.   Assholes.”