Seth Rogen Will Alienate in 'Paul'

He was a monster; now he'll play an alien. Seth Rogen, who voiced the part of a translucent blue Jello-thing in Monsters vs. Aliens, will take on the challenge of voicing the titular character in Greg Mottola's Paul, starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. According to Variety, Paul is an escaped alien that science fiction fanatics Pegg and Frost discover in the legendary Area 51.

The article specifies that Rogen will only provide the voice, so I imagine the alien will be a CGI creature, but wouldn't it be fun if Roger played the part in person, and then the special effects people alienated his face and body, converting him into a bizarre, weird alien? (Just a thought.) Also joining the cast are some familiar -- perhaps too familiar -- comic personalities: Jason Bateman, Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, and Jane Lynch.

Paul is a road trip movie, so it's likely that Bateman and friends will be playing cameos. I am excited that Pegg and Frost will be teaming up for the first time since Hot Fuzz, in a movie based on a script they wrote together. And Superbad proved that Mottola could spin comedy gold out of a very good script. I'm just hoping that the end result fully reflects the deft, fresh, satiric vision of Pegg and Frost, and that Paul will be a fitting counterpart to the brilliance that was Spaced, their British TV series. Maybe Rogen will be the cherry on top.