Wow. I never saw this coming, but maybe I should have. Kevin Smith has just assembled the perfect cast for his in-development comedy Zack and Miri Make a Porno. Variety says that playing the lead roles of Zack and Miri will be former 40 Year-Old Virgin cast mates Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks. This is now officially my most anticipated movie… ever.
Rogen, Banks, and Smith are a match made in heaven. Both Rogen and Banks have a gift for raunchy-but-sweet humor as evidenced by their amazing performances in well, everything either of them has ever been in. They’re also both willing to do just about anything for a laugh, even if that means copious amounts of humiliating nudity. As a bonus, they’re both fast-rising stars who, no offense to Kevin Smith who I love, could probably have landed a much higher-profile movie than this one I mean, after Knocked Up Rogen can basically write his own ticket. He could be cashing big paychecks on the modern day equivalent of Armageddon if he wanted to. With guest appearances on Scrubs and increasingly big roles in other movies, Banks is career is starting to soar as well. Great though his movies are, Kevin Smith’s films are never blockbusters and it’s highly unlikely that either Rogen or Banks is getting a big paycheck for this. If they’re doing it, they’re doing it not because they need it, but because they must think it’s going to be pretty good. Welcome to the club guys.
So what’s it about? Rogen and Banks play two lifelong, platonic friends who decide to make a porno as a way of getting out of debt. They enlist the help of their friends, but start to realize their relationship may be less platonic than they thought. It’s a love story, with porn. Come on, doesn’t that story just scream Rogen and Banks? This is going to be brilliant. I’ll just say it right now: Best movie of 2008. I don’t even need to see it. Genius casting Kevin. Beyond genius.
