The early months of the year are typically fairly barren, cinematically. For the most part, this looks to hold true in 2011, but there are a few big releases that will hopefully prove worthwhile: Kevin Macdonald‘s “The Eagle,” Michel Gondry‘s “The Green Hornet” and Cary Fukunaga‘s “Jane Eyre” among them.
But perhaps the one we’re most looking forward to is “Paul,” the sci-fi action comedy directed by Playlist favorite Greg Mottola (“Adventureland,” “Superbad“), and written by and starring the “Hot Fuzz” pairing of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, who lead a top-notch comedy cast also including Seth Rogen, Jason Bateman, Kristen Wiig, Jane Lynch, Sigourney Weaver, Jeffrey Tambor, Joe Lo Truglio and Bill Hader in a story that follows two Brit sci-fi geeks (Pegg and Frost) whose pilgrimage to Comic Con is interrupted when they accidentally meet an alien (a mo-capped Rogen) who takes them on an insane road trip that will change their lives.
A promising, if surprisingly action-heavy, trailer debuted last month, and now Empire have the official version of the poster that leaked last week. It’s not Saul Bass, but it does its job (although expect a different version for the domestic one-sheet). The poster also reveals that the UK release date has moved forward a few days, to Valentine’s Day (a Monday, which is somewhat unusual). Let’s hope our better half enjoys it more than she did “Battle for Terra” last year… The film then hits US cinemas a month later, on March 18th.
