Two grown nerds go on a road trip from England to the United States to attend San Diego Comic-Con. Along the way they witness a car crash and inside is an alien named Paul. Paul has escaped from Area 51 for which has held him captive for 50 years. He needs help finding a way to contact his people to come pick him up and return him to his planet.
Blaine: The idea for “Paul” came to Simon Pegg and Nick Frost while they were shooting “Shaun of the Dead” and they wanted that to be their next movie. They thought it should be about two guys who go to America, find an alien and top secret men are chasing after him. The reason why they had “Paul" take place in America was because they knew the weather would be nicer compared to the bad weather they had while making “Shaun". They told producer Nira Park about it and Simon showed her this drawing he did of an alien giving the finger, with the name Paul above it and at the bottom is said “In America everyone’s an alien". Nira thought it was a brilliant idea for a film and took it seriously. Her taking the project serious helped Simon Pegg and Nick Frost go deeper into the idea of what else should happen. Simon and Nick took a ten day holiday and took an RV road trip to America with some friends of their's and wanted to find stuff that could help them think of more ideas for this project they were doing. They went to LA, Vegas, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming and Denver.
A friend of their’s, Greg Nicotero, gave Simon and Nick a bust of an alien that they called Paul. They would have a lot of fun with that thing and took tons of photos of it. They thought this project they were working on could really work. They emailed Nira Park all the photos they had taken of their trip. One of the places they went to was Devils Tower in Wyoming and there was no one else around the place so they had it all to themselves and walked around the whole thing. Devils Tower was the thing that inspired them the most and so after that they returned to England and worked on the first draft of the script. They learned so much about the landscape and about how empty it seems at times.
Simon liked the movie “Superbad” and Greg Mottle had a good comic sensibility which is what they were looking for and that’s why they knew he was the perfect choice to direct “Paul”. Greg really enjoyed reading the script Simon and Nick wrote and was very flattered that they chose him to direct it. Greg thought the movies that Simon and Nick have done (Shaun of the Dead & Hot Fuzz) show that they are done by people who really love to make movies. That was something Greg wanted to explore out of himself. Greg loved to draw pictures from the “Star Wars” movies and the Steven Spielberg movies as a kid and doing “Paul” was a great opportunity for him to direct something like those movies he really loved watching growing up. Greg would throw in his own ideas which Simon and Nick thought were great. He also let the actors do whatever they wanted because they are hilarious people. When they started shooting “Paul”, they realized it had been six years since the the idea first came to them.
Simon and Nick wanted Paul the alien to be like this grumpy old man like Rip Torn and they had Rip Torn in mind to play the character when they first came up with the idea. When Seth Rogen’s name came up it sounded cool to Simon. Seth Rogen had met Nick Forst and Simon Pegg once at Comic-Con and he already had worked with Greg a few times. Greg directed the first thing Seth wrote in his career which was an episode of “Undeclared”, plus there's “ Superbad”. Seth was chosen for the part because he has that ageless voice and he brings a lot character into it. Seth said he based his performance on Neil Young, someone who is aggressively laid back.
There were different ways of bringing Paul to life. There were times they would shoot a scene with a kid in a green screen suit, there were full sized puppets the actors would talk to during a take, Joe Lo Truglio, who plays one to the detectives in the film would act as Paul from time to time while they were shooting and then later the visual effects department would replace the actors and the puppets with the CGI version of Paul. Before shooting began, Simon and Nick did a lot of rehearsing with Seth while he was wearing a CGI suit. They would add Seth’s own movements to the character.
Kristen Wiig’s character, Ruth changed a bit as well. The early drafts didn’t have her becoming a freed version of herself meaning she can do the things she never thought she could do before because she believed it was wrong. Kristen wanted to keep the character real and funny while she’s having this spiritual breakdown. She also learns a lot of things she never knew before. Ruth was an interesting character to play for Kristen.
Sigourney Weaver is the queen of the Sci-Fi genre and it was an honor for Simon and Nick to have her be apart of this project. She said she had tried to get in fistfights whenever she appears in former wear because it just gets her in the mood. Sigourney’s character is the head of Area 51 and the first time you see her is towards the end where she shows up in a gun-gray outfit. Sigourney found it to be fitting that her character would show up in this nice dress and kick some ass. Simon Pegg thought it was a terrifying idea of his character hitting a legendary sci-fi actress in the face. Sigourney was up for punching Simon back. Sigourney Weaver was flattered to be in “Paul” because she loved Simon Pegg and Nick Frost’s work.
My rating on “Paul” is five out of five stars
Song: All Over the World
Artist: Electric Light Orchestra
Parodies of different movies
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) Directed by Steven Spielberg
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) Directed by Steven Spielberg
Star Wars: A New Hope (1977) Directed by George Lucas
Blaine: The music from the bar scene in “Star Wars: A New Hope”
Aliens (1986) Directed by James Cameron
Blythe Danner hits Sigourney Weaver with her line “Get away from her you bitch”
