Paul (film)
Encyclopedia
Paul is a 2011 science fiction
comedy film
directed by Greg Mottola
, written by Simon Pegg
and Nick Frost
. It stars Pegg, Frost, and the voice of Seth Rogen
as the title character. The film contains numerous references to other science fiction films, especially those of Steven Spielberg
, as well as to general science fiction fandom
.
in their recreational vehicle
(RV) to visit all the sites of major extraterrestrial importance. At night along the highway they investigate a crashed car and they meet and discover an alien named Paul who is in desperate need of their help. Although shocked by the appearance of Paul, Graeme agrees to give Paul a ride, but Clive is not happy about the idea. Later, Lorenzo Zoil, arrives at the site of the crashed car and informs his mysterious female superior over the radio that he is closing in on Paul, and she recommends using local law enforcement as back-up. Zoil then recruits two inept FBI agents, Haggard and O'Reilly, to aid in his mission, without telling them the nature of their target.
Graeme, Clive and Paul pull into a motor park run by Ruth Buggs, a Christian
fundamentalist, and her controlling father, Moses. The trio bond around their campgrill and Paul reveals that since he was captured by the government, he had been advising them in all manner of scientific and sociological achievements. Yet Paul had outlived his usefulness as a receptacle of knowledge, and his captors were intending to surgically remove Paul's brain in an attempt to harness his abilities. With help from a friend inside Area 51
, Paul sent an S.O.S.
to his home planet, and he was escaping to meet up with them. The next morning, Paul intentionally reveals himself to Ruth, and the trio are forced to kidnap her and make a hasty escape. Paul then shatters Ruth's faith by sharing his knowledge of the universe via telepathic link; at first horrified, Ruth suddenly becomes eager to sin, which her father had raised her to fear doing. She initially does not trust Paul, but he heals her left eye, as she has lost her vision in it at the age of four.
Eventually, Paul reveals his intention to return to the girl whose dog he crashed his ship on in 1947 and who subsequently saved his life, who is now an old woman, Tara Walton. After spending her life being ridiculed for what she said she saw, Tara seems grateful to see that Paul simply exists. She turns her gas cooker on to make tea, but is interrupted by Haggard and O'Reilly on one side of the house, and Zoil on the other. As the motley crew escapes and drives off with Paul, O'Reilly shoots at them, and the gas ignites, destroying the house. A winded Zoil tries to follow, but Haggard takes off first, running Moses (who had also been tracking the RV) off the road, and catching up to the RV. However, thanks to an error of judgement, Haggard accidentally drives off a cliff, and is killed, leaving Zoil in hot pursuit. He reassures his superior that he will have Paul within an hour, but she declares herself tired of waiting, and informs Zoil that she has ordered a military response.
When Paul, Graeme, Clive, Ruth and Tara arrive at the rendezvous, they set off a signal and wait. Eventually, eerie orange lights show up over the surrounding trees, and everyone believes that it is Paul's race. However, it is an army helicopter, with 'the Big Guy', Zoil's shadowy superior, on board. As she and three troops move to shoot Paul, Zoil arrives, and it is revealed that he was Paul's inside contact who had helped him to escape. Zoil disarms the men, but is shot in the shoulder. Tara punches out 'the Big Guy', but Moses appears with a shotgun and shoots Graeme dead. Paul heals him and then collapses, exhausted. Paul seems to be dead and everyone is silent until he coughs and relieves everyone. 'The Big Guy' regains consciousness, but is immediately crushed by the arriving alien ship. Paul begins to depart and informs Tara that she is going with him to live a better life and bids farewell to his friends hoping to meet them again one day. Two years later, Graeme, Clive, Ruth and even O'Reilly are shown again at the 2011 Comic-Con convention, when Graeme and Clive are promoting Paul, their new novel.
In an interview for the DVD release of Paul, Pegg and Frost made the film to demonstrate their love for Steven Spielberg
's films Close Encounters of the Third Kind
and E.T. the Extra Terrestrial, as well as their favorite science fiction films. After they mentioned the project to Spielberg, he suggested he might make a cameo appearance
, and a scene was added to include him as a voice on a speakerphone in 1980 discussing ideas with Paul for his soon to become box office hit E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. According to Robert Kirkman
, he, along with Invincible
co-creator Cory Walker
and current Invincible artist Ryan Ottley
, had a cameo in the film as The Big Guy's henchmen.
.
To help with the script, Pegg and Frost went on their own road trip across America and used ideas from it to add to the script.
According to Mottola, the film was given the green-light shortly before the late-2000s recession; if had been delayed, "they probably wouldn’t have made the movie." The budget for the film was around $40 million, which included about $15 million for 550 effects shots from Double Negative
.
Principal photography
, including 50 days in the New Mexico desert, wrapped on September 9, 2009, with additional scenes filmed in July 2010 at the Albuquerque
Convention Center, which was designed
to look like the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con. After obtaining permission to use the Comic-Con brand, the settings had to be changed to avoid crowds, and extras were used to portray attendees since there had been some issues regarding filming inside San Diego's actual convention center. As a result, only exterior shots of the San Diego Convention Center
were filmed on the streets of downtown San Diego.
During filming, Joe Lo Truglio
was a stand-in
for the character Paul, the only character who was created by CGI. Seth Rogen
did some motion capture
in pre-production and voice work during post-production.
The cover art for the fictional comic book Encounter Briefs was drawn by alternative comics
artist Daniel Clowes
.
Numerous scenes throughout the film deal with the controversy of Darwin and Evolution vs. Religion and Creationism, with the character of Paul the alien being the proverbial 'fly-in-the-ointment' of conservative Judeo/Christian/Islamic doctrine. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, who are atheists, have alluded in BBC Radio interviews they had wished to delve deeper into the controversy but cut several scenes short in favor of flow and timing on film.
and "Run With the Wolves" by The Prodigy
. It was shown before certain screenings of Vampires Suck
, Let Me In
, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1, Burke and Hare
, The Green Hornet
and The Social Network
in the United Kingdom.
The American trailer featured "It Came Out of the Sky" by Creedence Clearwater Revival
, "Human Rocket" by Devo
, and "All Over the World
" by the Electric Light Orchestra
.
The film had its world premiere in London on February 7, 2011.
gives the film a score of 72% based on 184 reviews, with an average rating of 6.3 out of 10; it fared less well among 36 of that website's "top critics", scoring a 58% (21 fresh reviews and 15 rotten).
Empire
rated the film "excellent" (four stars out of five) stating, "Broader and more accessible than either Shaun Of The Dead
or Hot Fuzz
, Paul is pure Pegg and Frost – clever, cheeky and very, very funny. You'll never look at E.T. in the same way again." SFX also gives the film four stars out of five, saying "the film veers dangerously close to alienating (no pun intended) all but its geek core audience, [though] the more obvious concessions to a mainstream crowd [are] never enough to derail the film's laugh-a-minute ride"; SFX also calls it a "triumph of visual effects, convincing characterisation and bad taste humour."
Peter Bradshaw
gave the film (two stars out of five) and called it a "goofy, amiable piece of silliness" exhibiting "self-indulgence" and possessing a "distinct shortage of real gags". On the same scale Nigel Andrews gave the film (only one star), calling it a "faltering extraterrestrial knockabout". The Independent
grades the film two stars out of five, saying "Pegg is likeable as usual, Frost more doltish than usual, and Kristen Wiig an appealing convert from Bible thumper
to ladette", and notes that "from time to time, clever ideas rear their heads – like the idea that 'Paul' has been the brains behind all science fiction and UFO initiatives for the last 30 years, including Close Encounters
and The X-Files
– but they soon return to the film's default setting of laddish japes and a conviction that the word 'cocksucker' will always get a laugh." Common Sense Media
gave the film three stars and an iffy rating for ages 16–17. Saying "Cheerfully dumb sci-fi comedy has sex, drug humor." IGN
also gave the film three stars, stating "Simon Pegg and Nick Frost send up everything from Star Wars to E.T. in this sci-fi comedy."
Upon its U.S. release, Roger Ebert
gave Paul a mixed review of (two and a half stars out of four), saying it's a "movie that teeters on the edge of being really pretty good and loses its way. I'm not sure quite what goes wrong, but you can see that it might have gone right." According to Manohla Dargis
, "As genial, foolish and demographically engineered as it sounds (hailing all fan boys and girls), Paul is at once a buddy flick and a classic American road movie of self- (and other) discovery, interspersed with buckets of expletives and some startling (especially for a big-studio release) pokes at Christian fundamentalism....The movie has its attractions, notably Mr. Pegg and Mr. Frost (and of course Mr. Bateman), whose ductile, (noncomputer) animated and open faces were made for comedy....Paul proves the weak link. One problem is that Mr. Rogen, however comically inclined, has become overexposed, and there’s just something too familiar and predictable about this voice coming out of that body. Yet while Paul seems great conceptually, he’s not particularly interesting or surprising, despite a funny recap of what he’s been doing on his time on Earth. With his vibe and vocabulary, shorts and weed, juvenilia and sentimentality, Paul turns out to be not much different from a lot of guys who have wreaked comedy havoc on American screens lately, even if this one only wants to beam up, not knock up
."
, Rango
, Battle: Los Angeles
, and The Lincoln Lawyer
. The film closed after 63 days in theaters, grossing $37,412,945 domestically, just below its $40 million budget. With the international $57 million gross, the film is considered a success.
and Blu-ray
in the United Kingdom
on 13 June 2011 and was for released in North America
on 9 August 2011. There are three versions of the film.
The DVD release features an audio commentary
with director Greg Mottola
, stars Simon Pegg
, Nick Frost
, Bill Hader
, and producer Nira Park
; 2 featurettes; "Simon's Silly Faces"; photo galleries; storyboard
s and posters; and a blooper
reel. The US Blu-ray release features all the DVD supplements with nine more featurettes and a digital copy
.
, with the following tracks:
has stated that although he would like to film a sequel to Paul, the time and expense it would take means it is unlikely to happen.
Science fiction film
Science fiction film is a film genre that uses science fiction: speculative, science-based depictions of phenomena that are not necessarily accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial life forms, alien worlds, extrasensory perception, and time travel, often along with futuristic...
comedy film
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
directed by Greg Mottola
Greg Mottola
Gregory J. "Greg" Mottola is an American filmmaker, screenwriter and television director. Mottola wrote and directed the 1996 independent film The Daytrippers, then concentrated for several years on directing in television for series such as Undeclared and Arrested Development...
, written by Simon Pegg
Simon Pegg
Simon Pegg is an English actor, comedian, writer, film producer, and director. He is best known for having co-written and stared in various Edgar Wright features, mainly Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and the comedy series Spaced.He also portrayed Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in the 2009 Star Trek film...
and Nick Frost
Nick Frost
Nicholas John "Nick" Frost is an English actor, comedian and screenwriter. He is best known for his work with Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg in the role of Mike Watt in the television comedy Spaced, as well as the film characters Ed in Shaun of the Dead, PC/Sgt...
. It stars Pegg, Frost, and the voice of Seth Rogen
Seth Rogen
Seth Rogen is a Canadian stand-up comedian, actor, producer, screenwriter, and voice artist. Rogen began his career doing stand-up comedy during his teen years, winning the Vancouver Amateur Comedy Contest in 1998. While still living in his native Vancouver, he landed a small part in Freaks and...
as the title character. The film contains numerous references to other science fiction films, especially those of Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
, as well as to general science fiction fandom
Science fiction fandom
Science fiction fandom or SF fandom is a community or "fandom" of people actively interested in science fiction and fantasy and in contact with one another based upon that interest...
.
Plot
Graeme Willy and Clive Gollings are two English comic book nerds and best friends who have travelled to America to attend the annual San Diego Comic-Con International and to take a road tripRoad trip
A road trip is any journey taken on roads, regardless of stops en route. Typically, road trips are long distances traveled by automobile.-Pre-automobile road trips:...
in their recreational vehicle
Recreational vehicle
Recreational vehicle or RV is, in North America, the usual term for a Motor vehicle or trailer equipped with living space and amenities found in a home.-Features:...
(RV) to visit all the sites of major extraterrestrial importance. At night along the highway they investigate a crashed car and they meet and discover an alien named Paul who is in desperate need of their help. Although shocked by the appearance of Paul, Graeme agrees to give Paul a ride, but Clive is not happy about the idea. Later, Lorenzo Zoil, arrives at the site of the crashed car and informs his mysterious female superior over the radio that he is closing in on Paul, and she recommends using local law enforcement as back-up. Zoil then recruits two inept FBI agents, Haggard and O'Reilly, to aid in his mission, without telling them the nature of their target.
Graeme, Clive and Paul pull into a motor park run by Ruth Buggs, a Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
fundamentalist, and her controlling father, Moses. The trio bond around their campgrill and Paul reveals that since he was captured by the government, he had been advising them in all manner of scientific and sociological achievements. Yet Paul had outlived his usefulness as a receptacle of knowledge, and his captors were intending to surgically remove Paul's brain in an attempt to harness his abilities. With help from a friend inside Area 51
Area 51
Area 51 is a military base, and a remote detachment of Edwards Air Force Base. It is located in the southern portion of Nevada in the western United States, 83 miles north-northwest of downtown Las Vegas. Situated at its center, on the southern shore of Groom Lake, is a large military airfield...
, Paul sent an S.O.S.
SOS
SOS is the commonly used description for the international Morse code distress signal...
to his home planet, and he was escaping to meet up with them. The next morning, Paul intentionally reveals himself to Ruth, and the trio are forced to kidnap her and make a hasty escape. Paul then shatters Ruth's faith by sharing his knowledge of the universe via telepathic link; at first horrified, Ruth suddenly becomes eager to sin, which her father had raised her to fear doing. She initially does not trust Paul, but he heals her left eye, as she has lost her vision in it at the age of four.
Eventually, Paul reveals his intention to return to the girl whose dog he crashed his ship on in 1947 and who subsequently saved his life, who is now an old woman, Tara Walton. After spending her life being ridiculed for what she said she saw, Tara seems grateful to see that Paul simply exists. She turns her gas cooker on to make tea, but is interrupted by Haggard and O'Reilly on one side of the house, and Zoil on the other. As the motley crew escapes and drives off with Paul, O'Reilly shoots at them, and the gas ignites, destroying the house. A winded Zoil tries to follow, but Haggard takes off first, running Moses (who had also been tracking the RV) off the road, and catching up to the RV. However, thanks to an error of judgement, Haggard accidentally drives off a cliff, and is killed, leaving Zoil in hot pursuit. He reassures his superior that he will have Paul within an hour, but she declares herself tired of waiting, and informs Zoil that she has ordered a military response.
When Paul, Graeme, Clive, Ruth and Tara arrive at the rendezvous, they set off a signal and wait. Eventually, eerie orange lights show up over the surrounding trees, and everyone believes that it is Paul's race. However, it is an army helicopter, with 'the Big Guy', Zoil's shadowy superior, on board. As she and three troops move to shoot Paul, Zoil arrives, and it is revealed that he was Paul's inside contact who had helped him to escape. Zoil disarms the men, but is shot in the shoulder. Tara punches out 'the Big Guy', but Moses appears with a shotgun and shoots Graeme dead. Paul heals him and then collapses, exhausted. Paul seems to be dead and everyone is silent until he coughs and relieves everyone. 'The Big Guy' regains consciousness, but is immediately crushed by the arriving alien ship. Paul begins to depart and informs Tara that she is going with him to live a better life and bids farewell to his friends hoping to meet them again one day. Two years later, Graeme, Clive, Ruth and even O'Reilly are shown again at the 2011 Comic-Con convention, when Graeme and Clive are promoting Paul, their new novel.
Cast
- Simon PeggSimon PeggSimon Pegg is an English actor, comedian, writer, film producer, and director. He is best known for having co-written and stared in various Edgar Wright features, mainly Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and the comedy series Spaced.He also portrayed Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in the 2009 Star Trek film...
as Graeme Willy - Nick FrostNick FrostNicholas John "Nick" Frost is an English actor, comedian and screenwriter. He is best known for his work with Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg in the role of Mike Watt in the television comedy Spaced, as well as the film characters Ed in Shaun of the Dead, PC/Sgt...
as Clive Gollings - Seth RogenSeth RogenSeth Rogen is a Canadian stand-up comedian, actor, producer, screenwriter, and voice artist. Rogen began his career doing stand-up comedy during his teen years, winning the Vancouver Amateur Comedy Contest in 1998. While still living in his native Vancouver, he landed a small part in Freaks and...
as Paul (voice) - Kristen WiigKristen WiigKristen Carroll Wiig is an American film and television actress who currently appears as a cast member on Saturday Night Live. Wiig was a member of improvisational comedy troupe The Groundlings, and has appeared in several films and television series, including Bridesmaids, MacGruber, Flight of...
as Ruth Buggs - Jason BatemanJason BatemanJason Kent Bateman is an American television and film actor. After appearing in several 1980s and 1990s sitcoms including It's Your Move, and The Hogan Family, Bateman came to prominence in the early 2000s for playing Michael Bluth on Arrested Development, for which he won a TV Land, a Golden...
as Special Agent Lorenzo Zoil. Bateman described his character as a "exaggerated nasty guy". Bateman also stated he based Zoil off of Yaphet KottoYaphet KottoYaphet Frederick Kotto is an African-American actor, known for numerous film roles , and his starring role in the NBC television series Homicide: Life on the Street .-Early life:Kotto was born in New York City, the son of Gladys Marie, a...
in Midnight RunMidnight RunMidnight Run is a 1988 American action comedy film starring Robert De Niro as a bounty hunter and Charles Grodin as his prisoner....
and Tommy Lee JonesTommy Lee JonesTommy Lee Jones is an American actor and film director. He has received three Academy Award nominations, winning one as Best Supporting Actor for the 1993 thriller film The Fugitive....
in The FugitiveThe Fugitive (1993 film)The Fugitive is a 1993 American thriller film based on the television series of the same name. The film was directed by Andrew Davis and stars Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones. The film was one of the few movies associated with a television series to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best...
. - Bill HaderBill HaderWilliam "Bill" Hader is an American actor, comedian, producer and writer. He is best known for his work as a creative consultant on the hit show South Park and as a cast member on Saturday Night Live and for his supporting roles in comedy films such as Superbad, Hot Rod, Tropic Thunder,...
as Agent Haggard - Joe Lo TruglioJoe Lo TruglioJoseph "Joe" Lo Truglio is an American actor, writer and comedian best known for his work as a cast member on the cult MTV sketch comedy series The State...
as Agent O'Reilly - Jane LynchJane LynchJane Marie Lynch is an American comedian, actress and singer. She gained fame in Christopher Guest's improv mockumentary pictures such as Best in Show and is currently best known for playing the role of Sue Sylvester in the television series Glee...
as Pat Stevenson - Sigourney WeaverSigourney WeaverSigourney Weaver is an American actress. She is best known for her critically acclaimed role of Ellen Ripley in the four Alien films: Alien, Aliens, Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection, for which she has received worldwide recognition .Other notable roles include Dana...
as "The Big Guy". Weaver described the role as "a dream come true". In an interview with Graham NortonGraham NortonGraham William Walker, known by his stage name Graham Norton , is an Irish actor, comedian, television presenter and columnist...
, Weaver stated: 'It's a love letter to sci-fi fans. I jumped at the chance to be in it. To find a comedy that also pays homage to sci-fi is a dream come true'. - Blythe DannerBlythe DannerBlythe Katherine Danner is an American actress. She is the mother of actress Gwyneth Paltrow and director Jake Paltrow.-Early life:...
as Tara Walton - John Carroll LynchJohn Carroll LynchJohn Carroll Lynch is an American actor, known for his role as Drew Carey's cross-dressing brother on The Drew Carey Show, and for his role as Norm, the unassuming husband of Margie Gunderson in Fargo....
as Moses Buggs, Ruth's father - David KoechnerDavid KoechnerDavid Michael Koechner is an American comedian, musician, and character actor. Koechner began studying improvisational comedy in Chicago at the ImprovOlympic, under the teachings of Del Close, before joining the Second City Northwest...
as Gus, a hilbilly Graeme and Clive first encounter in a NevadaNevadaNevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
gas station. - Jesse PlemonsJesse PlemonsJesse Plemons is an American film and television actor best known for playing Landry Clarke on NBC's Friday Night Lights.-Career:...
as Jake, Gus's friend. - Jeffrey TamborJeffrey TamborJeffrey Michael Tambor is an American actor, perhaps best known for his roles as George Bluth Sr. and Oscar Bluth on Arrested Development and Hank Kingsley on The Larry Sanders Show.-Early life:...
as Adam Shadowchild, a famous science fiction writer
In an interview for the DVD release of Paul, Pegg and Frost made the film to demonstrate their love for Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
's films Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a 1977 science fiction film written and directed by Steven Spielberg. The film stars Richard Dreyfuss, François Truffaut, Melinda Dillon, Teri Garr, Bob Balaban, and Cary Guffey...
and E.T. the Extra Terrestrial, as well as their favorite science fiction films. After they mentioned the project to Spielberg, he suggested he might make a cameo appearance
Cameo appearance
A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...
, and a scene was added to include him as a voice on a speakerphone in 1980 discussing ideas with Paul for his soon to become box office hit E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. According to Robert Kirkman
Robert Kirkman
Robert Kirkman is an American comic book writer best known for his work on The Walking Dead and Invincible for Image Comics, and Ultimate X-Men and Marvel Zombies for Marvel Comics. He has also collaborated with Image Comics co-founder Todd McFarlane on the series Haunt...
, he, along with Invincible
Invincible (comics)
Invincible is a superhero in the . Created by writer Robert Kirkman and artist Cory Walker, the character first appeared in Tech Jacket #1 , before graduating to his own self-titled regular series in 2003, as a title in Image's then-new superhero line.Invincible is the teenaged son of Omni-Man, an...
co-creator Cory Walker
Cory Walker
Cory Walker is an American comic book artist and penciler. He is best known for work on Image Comics' Invincible a series and character he co-created with writer Robert Kirkman...
and current Invincible artist Ryan Ottley
Ryan Ottley
Ryan Ottley, aka Uncle WYA, is an American comic book artist. He is best known for work on Image Comics' Invincible.-Career:Ottley is the artist and co-creator of the webcomic strip Ted Noodleman: Bicycle Delivery Boy, and it was through this webstrip that Robert Kirkman first encountered Ottley's...
, had a cameo in the film as The Big Guy's henchmen.
Production
The premise for Paul came from Pegg and Frost in 2003, while they were filming Shaun of the DeadShaun of the Dead
Shaun of the Dead is a 2004 British zombie comedy directed by Edgar Wright, starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, and written by Pegg and Wright. Pegg plays Shaun, a man attempting to get some kind of focus in his life as he deals with his girlfriend, his mother and stepfather...
.
To help with the script, Pegg and Frost went on their own road trip across America and used ideas from it to add to the script.
According to Mottola, the film was given the green-light shortly before the late-2000s recession; if had been delayed, "they probably wouldn’t have made the movie." The budget for the film was around $40 million, which included about $15 million for 550 effects shots from Double Negative
Double Negative (VFX)
Double Negative is a British full-service visual effects/computer animation company located in Soho, London. The company was set up in 1998 with a team of 30 staff and has since grown to over 900 staff, making it one of Europe's largest provider of visual effects for film.In 2009, Double Negative...
.
Principal photography
Principal photography
thumb|300px|Film production on location in [[Newark, New Jersey]].Principal photography is the phase of film production in which the movie is filmed, with actors on set and cameras rolling, as distinct from pre-production and post-production....
, including 50 days in the New Mexico desert, wrapped on September 9, 2009, with additional scenes filmed in July 2010 at the Albuquerque
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Albuquerque is the largest city in the state of New Mexico, United States. It is the county seat of Bernalillo County and is situated in the central part of the state, straddling the Rio Grande. The city population was 545,852 as of the 2010 Census and ranks as the 32nd-largest city in the U.S. As...
Convention Center, which was designed
Scenic design
Scenic design is the creation of theatrical, as well as film or television scenery. Scenic designers have traditionally come from a variety of artistic backgrounds, but nowadays, generally speaking, they are trained professionals, often with M.F.A...
to look like the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con. After obtaining permission to use the Comic-Con brand, the settings had to be changed to avoid crowds, and extras were used to portray attendees since there had been some issues regarding filming inside San Diego's actual convention center. As a result, only exterior shots of the San Diego Convention Center
San Diego Convention Center
The San Diego Convention Center is the primary convention center in San Diego, California. It is located in the Marina district of downtown San Diego near the Gaslamp Quarter, at 111 West Harbor Drive...
were filmed on the streets of downtown San Diego.
During filming, Joe Lo Truglio
Joe Lo Truglio
Joseph "Joe" Lo Truglio is an American actor, writer and comedian best known for his work as a cast member on the cult MTV sketch comedy series The State...
was a stand-in
Stand-in
A stand-in for film and television is a person who substitutes for the actor before filming, for technical purposes such as lighting.Stand-ins are helpful in the initial processes of production. Lighting setup can be a slow and tedious process; during this time the actor will often be somewhere else...
for the character Paul, the only character who was created by CGI. Seth Rogen
Seth Rogen
Seth Rogen is a Canadian stand-up comedian, actor, producer, screenwriter, and voice artist. Rogen began his career doing stand-up comedy during his teen years, winning the Vancouver Amateur Comedy Contest in 1998. While still living in his native Vancouver, he landed a small part in Freaks and...
did some motion capture
Motion capture
Motion capture, motion tracking, or mocap are terms used to describe the process of recording movement and translating that movement on to a digital model. It is used in military, entertainment, sports, and medical applications, and for validation of computer vision and robotics...
in pre-production and voice work during post-production.
The cover art for the fictional comic book Encounter Briefs was drawn by alternative comics
Alternative comics
Alternative comics defines a range of American comics that have appeared since the 1980s, following the underground comix movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Alternative comics present an alternative to "mainstream" superhero comics which in the past have dominated the US comic book industry...
artist Daniel Clowes
Daniel Clowes
Daniel Gillespie Clowes is an American author, screenwriter and cartoonist of alternative comic books....
.
Numerous scenes throughout the film deal with the controversy of Darwin and Evolution vs. Religion and Creationism, with the character of Paul the alien being the proverbial 'fly-in-the-ointment' of conservative Judeo/Christian/Islamic doctrine. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, who are atheists, have alluded in BBC Radio interviews they had wished to delve deeper into the controversy but cut several scenes short in favor of flow and timing on film.
Release
A teaser trailer was released on October 18, 2010. The teaser trailer featured the song "Just the Two of Us" by Grover Washington, Jr.Grover Washington, Jr.
Grover Washington, Jr. was an American jazz-funk / soul-jazz saxophonist. Along with George Benson, John Klemmer, David Sanborn, Bob James, Chuck Mangione, Herb Alpert, and Spyro Gyra, he is considered by many to be one of the founders of the smooth jazz genre.He wrote some of his material and...
and "Run With the Wolves" by The Prodigy
The Prodigy
The Prodigy are an English electronic dance music group formed by Liam Howlett in 1990 in Braintree, Essex. Along with Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers, and other acts, The Prodigy have been credited as pioneers of the big beat genre, which achieved mainstream popularity in the 1990s and 2000s...
. It was shown before certain screenings of Vampires Suck
Vampires Suck
Vampires Suck is a 2010 vampire spoof film based on the Twilight film series and directed by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer. It stars Jenn Proske, Matt Lanter, Christopher N...
, Let Me In
Let Me In (film)
Let Me In is a 2010 American romantic horror film directed by Matt Reeves and starring Kodi Smit-McPhee and Chloë Grace Moretz. It is based on the 2008 Swedish film Let the Right One In , directed by Tomas Alfredson, and the novel of the same name by John Ajvide Lindqvist...
, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1, Burke and Hare
Burke and Hare (film)
Burke and Hare is a British black comedy film, loosely based on the Burke and Hare murders. Directed by John Landis, the film stars Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis as William Burke and William Hare respectively. It was Landis's first feature film release in twelve years, the last being 1998's Susan's...
, The Green Hornet
The Green Hornet (2011 film)
The Green Hornet is a 2011 American superhero action-comedy film based on the character of the same name that had originated in a 1930s radio program and has appeared in movie serials, a television series, comic books, and other media...
and The Social Network
The Social Network
The Social Network is a 2010 American drama film directed by David Fincher and written by Aaron Sorkin. Adapted from Ben Mezrich's 2009 book The Accidental Billionaires, the film portrays the founding of social networking website Facebook and the resulting lawsuits...
in the United Kingdom.
The American trailer featured "It Came Out of the Sky" by Creedence Clearwater Revival
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Creedence Clearwater Revival was an American rock band that gained popularity in the late 1960s and early 1970s with a number of successful singles drawn from various albums....
, "Human Rocket" by Devo
Devo
Devo is an American band formed in 1973 consisting of members from Kent and Akron, Ohio. The classic line-up of the band includes two sets of brothers, the Mothersbaughs and the Casales . The band had a #14 Billboard chart hit in 1980 with the single "Whip It", and has maintained a cult...
, and "All Over the World
All Over the World (song)
"All Over the World" is a song by the Electric Light Orchestra . It is featured in the 1980 feature film Xanadu in a sequence with the film's stars Olivia Newton-John, Gene Kelly, and Michael Beck...
" by the Electric Light Orchestra
Electric Light Orchestra
Electric Light Orchestra were a British rock group from Birmingham who released eleven studio albums between 1971 and 1986 and another album in 2001. ELO were formed to accommodate Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne's desire to create modern rock and pop songs with classical overtones...
.
The film had its world premiere in London on February 7, 2011.
Reception
As of September 2011, the film has received generally positive reviews; Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
gives the film a score of 72% based on 184 reviews, with an average rating of 6.3 out of 10; it fared less well among 36 of that website's "top critics", scoring a 58% (21 fresh reviews and 15 rotten).
Empire
Empire (magazine)
Empire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. From the first issue in July 1989, the magazine was edited by Barry McIlheney and published by Emap. Bauer purchased Emap Consumer Media in early 2008...
rated the film "excellent" (four stars out of five) stating, "Broader and more accessible than either Shaun Of The Dead
Shaun of the Dead
Shaun of the Dead is a 2004 British zombie comedy directed by Edgar Wright, starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, and written by Pegg and Wright. Pegg plays Shaun, a man attempting to get some kind of focus in his life as he deals with his girlfriend, his mother and stepfather...
or Hot Fuzz
Hot Fuzz
Hot Fuzz is a 2007 British action dark comedy film written by Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright, and starring Pegg and Nick Frost. The three had previously worked together on the 2004 film Shaun of the Dead as well as the television series Spaced...
, Paul is pure Pegg and Frost – clever, cheeky and very, very funny. You'll never look at E.T. in the same way again." SFX also gives the film four stars out of five, saying "the film veers dangerously close to alienating (no pun intended) all but its geek core audience, [though] the more obvious concessions to a mainstream crowd [are] never enough to derail the film's laugh-a-minute ride"; SFX also calls it a "triumph of visual effects, convincing characterisation and bad taste humour."
Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw is a British writer and film critic. He was educated at Cambridge University, where he was President of Footlights.Bradshaw is a film critic for The Guardian...
gave the film (two stars out of five) and called it a "goofy, amiable piece of silliness" exhibiting "self-indulgence" and possessing a "distinct shortage of real gags". On the same scale Nigel Andrews gave the film (only one star), calling it a "faltering extraterrestrial knockabout". The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
grades the film two stars out of five, saying "Pegg is likeable as usual, Frost more doltish than usual, and Kristen Wiig an appealing convert from Bible thumper
Bible thumper
Bible thumper is a pejorative term used to describe someone perceived as aggressively pushing their Christian beliefs upon those who do not share them. Its target domain is broad and can often extend to anyone engaged in a public show of religion, fundamentalist or not...
to ladette", and notes that "from time to time, clever ideas rear their heads – like the idea that 'Paul' has been the brains behind all science fiction and UFO initiatives for the last 30 years, including Close Encounters
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a 1977 science fiction film written and directed by Steven Spielberg. The film stars Richard Dreyfuss, François Truffaut, Melinda Dillon, Teri Garr, Bob Balaban, and Cary Guffey...
and The X-Files
The X-Files
The X-Files is an American science fiction television series and a part of The X-Files franchise, created by screenwriter Chris Carter. The program originally aired from to . The show was a hit for the Fox network, and its characters and slogans became popular culture touchstones in the 1990s...
– but they soon return to the film's default setting of laddish japes and a conviction that the word 'cocksucker' will always get a laugh." Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media , commonly known as CSM, is a San Francisco-based non-profit organization which serves as a guide for parents that has reviews for most media types, including books, movies, video games, music, and websites, and rates them in terms of violence, sex, and profanity. The website...
gave the film three stars and an iffy rating for ages 16–17. Saying "Cheerfully dumb sci-fi comedy has sex, drug humor." IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
also gave the film three stars, stating "Simon Pegg and Nick Frost send up everything from Star Wars to E.T. in this sci-fi comedy."
Upon its U.S. release, Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
gave Paul a mixed review of (two and a half stars out of four), saying it's a "movie that teeters on the edge of being really pretty good and loses its way. I'm not sure quite what goes wrong, but you can see that it might have gone right." According to Manohla Dargis
Manohla Dargis
Manohla Dargis is a chief film critic for The New York Times, along with A.O. Scott. She was formerly a chief film critic for the Los Angeles Times, the film editor at the LA Weekly, and a film critic at The Village Voice. She has written for a variety of publications, including Film Comment and...
, "As genial, foolish and demographically engineered as it sounds (hailing all fan boys and girls), Paul is at once a buddy flick and a classic American road movie of self- (and other) discovery, interspersed with buckets of expletives and some startling (especially for a big-studio release) pokes at Christian fundamentalism....The movie has its attractions, notably Mr. Pegg and Mr. Frost (and of course Mr. Bateman), whose ductile, (noncomputer) animated and open faces were made for comedy....Paul proves the weak link. One problem is that Mr. Rogen, however comically inclined, has become overexposed, and there’s just something too familiar and predictable about this voice coming out of that body. Yet while Paul seems great conceptually, he’s not particularly interesting or surprising, despite a funny recap of what he’s been doing on his time on Earth. With his vibe and vocabulary, shorts and weed, juvenilia and sentimentality, Paul turns out to be not much different from a lot of guys who have wreaked comedy havoc on American screens lately, even if this one only wants to beam up, not knock up
Knocked Up
Knocked Up is a 2007 American romantic comedy drama film co-produced, written, and directed by Judd Apatow. Starring Seth Rogen, Katherine Heigl, Paul Rudd, and Leslie Mann, the film follows the repercussions of a drunken one-night stand between Rogen's slacker character and Heigl's just-promoted...
."
Box office
In North America, Paul opened in March 2011 at #5, with $13,043,310 behind LimitlessLimitless
Limitless is one of the world's largest private superyachts. She was built in 1997 by German shipmaker Lürssen, designed under the direction of Jon Bannenberg. The overall length is 96,25 m , the width 12,50 m...
, Rango
Rango (2011 film)
Rango is a 2011 American computer-animated Western Comedy film directed by Gore Verbinski and produced by Graham King. In the film, a chameleon named Rango accidentally ends up in the town of Dirt, an outpost that is in desperate need of a new sheriff...
, Battle: Los Angeles
Battle: Los Angeles
Battle: Los Angeles is a 2011 American military science fiction war film directed by Jonathan Liebesman, and starring Aaron Eckhart, Michelle Rodriguez, Ramon Rodriguez, Bridget Moynahan, Ne-Yo and Michael Peña...
, and The Lincoln Lawyer
The Lincoln Lawyer (film)
The Lincoln Lawyer is a 2011 American thriller film adapted from the novel of the same name by Michael Connelly, starring Matthew McConaughey, Ryan Phillippe, William H. Macy and Marisa Tomei...
. The film closed after 63 days in theaters, grossing $37,412,945 domestically, just below its $40 million budget. With the international $57 million gross, the film is considered a success.
Home media
The film was released on DVDDVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
and Blu-ray
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
on 13 June 2011 and was for released in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
on 9 August 2011. There are three versions of the film.
The DVD release features an audio commentary
Audio commentary
On disc-based video formats, an audio commentary is an additional audio track consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with video...
with director Greg Mottola
Greg Mottola
Gregory J. "Greg" Mottola is an American filmmaker, screenwriter and television director. Mottola wrote and directed the 1996 independent film The Daytrippers, then concentrated for several years on directing in television for series such as Undeclared and Arrested Development...
, stars Simon Pegg
Simon Pegg
Simon Pegg is an English actor, comedian, writer, film producer, and director. He is best known for having co-written and stared in various Edgar Wright features, mainly Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and the comedy series Spaced.He also portrayed Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in the 2009 Star Trek film...
, Nick Frost
Nick Frost
Nicholas John "Nick" Frost is an English actor, comedian and screenwriter. He is best known for his work with Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg in the role of Mike Watt in the television comedy Spaced, as well as the film characters Ed in Shaun of the Dead, PC/Sgt...
, Bill Hader
Bill Hader
William "Bill" Hader is an American actor, comedian, producer and writer. He is best known for his work as a creative consultant on the hit show South Park and as a cast member on Saturday Night Live and for his supporting roles in comedy films such as Superbad, Hot Rod, Tropic Thunder,...
, and producer Nira Park
Nira Park
Nira Park is a British television and film producer.Park worked at The Comic Strip from 1989 to 1995. In June 1995, she founded Big Talk Productions, which employs twenty-five people. Under this production company, she has produced comedies such as Black Books and Spaced...
; 2 featurettes; "Simon's Silly Faces"; photo galleries; storyboard
Storyboard
Storyboards are graphic organizers in the form of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence....
s and posters; and a blooper
Blooper
A blooper, also known as an outtake or boner is a short sequence of a film or video production, usually a deleted scene, containing a mistake made by a member of the cast or crew. It also refers to an error made during a live radio or TV broadcast or news report, usually in terms of misspoken words...
reel. The US Blu-ray release features all the DVD supplements with nine more featurettes and a digital copy
Digital copy
Digital Copy provides consumers who purchase a film on DVD or Blu-ray Disc with an additional, digital copy of the movie for devices capable of operating with a file in contrast to a DVD.-Features:...
.
Soundtrack
Paul: Music From The Original Motion Picture was released on February 21, 2011 by Universal MusicUniversal Music Group
Universal Music Group is an American music group, the largest of the "big four" record companies by its commanding market share and its multitude of global operations...
, with the following tracks:
- Paul Opening Title - David ArnoldDavid ArnoldDavid Arnold is an English film composer best known for scoring five James Bond films, the 1994 film Stargate, the 1996 film Independence Day, and the television series Little Britain.-Film and television career:...
- Another Girl, Another PlanetAnother Girl, Another PlanetIn December 2004 Blink-182 recorded a cover of this song for the opening track of Travis Barker's MTV reality show Meet the Barkers. It was later released in 2005 on their Greatest Hits album...
– The Only OnesThe Only OnesThe Only Ones are an English rock band. They were initially active in the late 1970s and were associated with punk rock, yet straddled the musical territory in between punk, power pop and hard rock, with noticeable influences from psychedelia... - Road Trip Number 1 - David Arnold
- Just the Two of Us – Bill WithersBill WithersWilliam Harrison "Bill" Withers, Jr. is an American singer-songwriter and musician who performed and recorded from 1970 until 1985. Some of his best-known songs are "Lean on Me", "Ain't No Sunshine", "Use Me", "Just the Two of Us", "Lovely Day", and "Grandma's Hands"...
and Grover Washington, Jr.Grover Washington, Jr.Grover Washington, Jr. was an American jazz-funk / soul-jazz saxophonist. Along with George Benson, John Klemmer, David Sanborn, Bob James, Chuck Mangione, Herb Alpert, and Spyro Gyra, he is considered by many to be one of the founders of the smooth jazz genre.He wrote some of his material and... - Passport - David Arnold
- Road Trip Number 2 - David Arnold
- Flying Saucers Rock-n-Roll - Bill Lee RileyBilly Lee RileyBilly Lee Riley was an American rockabilly musician, singer, record producer and songwriter. His most memorable recordings included "Rock With Me Baby," and "Red Hot".-Biography:...
- Window Shopping - David Arnold
- Hello It's MeHello It's Me"Hello It's Me" is a Billboard #5 hit song composed by Todd Rundgren that has been recorded numerous times, and would become Rundgren's best-known song.- Background :...
- Todd RundgrenTodd RundgrenTodd Harry Rundgren is an American multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and record producer. Hailed in the early stage of his career as a new pop-wunderkind, supported by the certified gold solo double LP Something/Anything? in 1972, Todd Rundgren's career has produced a diverse range of recordings... - End of the Road Trip - David Arnold
- Dancing in the MoonlightDancing in the Moonlight"Dancing In The Moonlight" is the title song on the 1973 King Harvest album. The track was released as a single in 1972 and it reached #13 on the Billboard Hot 100. They released other singles but these were never able to match the success of "Dancing in the Moonlight"...
- King HarvestKing HarvestKing Harvest was a 1970s American rock band, best known for their 1973 hit single, "Dancing in the Moonlight".-Background:Formed by a group of four American expatriates in Paris in 1970, King Harvest was best known for its one US hit single, "Dancing In The Moonlight," which was released in 1972... - Campfire Confession - David Arnold
- Got to Give It UpGot to Give It Up"Got to Give It Up" is a funk/disco song by American recording artist Marvin Gaye. Written by the singer and produced by Art Stewart, it was recorded in three studio dates in 1976 with a final mixing in early 1977...
- Marvin GayeMarvin GayeMarvin Pentz Gay, Jr. , better known by his stage name Marvin Gaye, was an American singer-songwriter and musician with a three-octave vocal range.... - A Little Talk with Paul - David Arnold
- I Chase the DevilI Chase the Devil"I Chase the Devil" is a reggae song, recorded in 1976 by Max Romeo, with the backing of Lee "Scratch" Perry's house band, The Upsetters. Composed by Perry and Romeo, it was released on the album War Ina Babylon....
– Max RomeoMax RomeoMax Romeo is a reggae and roots reggae recording artist who has achieved chart success in his home country, and in the UK. Romeo was responsible for launching an entirely new sub-genre of reggae, whose overtly suggestive lyrics caused an outcry but took a massive hold of the music scene regardless... - Chase - David Arnold
- Cantina Band – Syd Masters & The Swing Riders
- You Gotta Try - David Arnold
- 1st Contact - David Arnold
- Planet ClairePlanet Claire"Planet Claire" is the second single released by The B-52's from their self-titled debut album The B-52's. The single was their second single to chart anywhere, at #43 in Australia and #24 on the U.S. Hot Dance Club Play chart, along with album tracks "Rock Lobster" and "Dance This Mess Around"...
- The B-52'sThe B-52'sThe B-52's are an American rock band, formed in Athens, Georgia in 1976. The original line-up consisted of Fred Schneider , Kate Pierson , Cindy Wilson , Ricky Wilson , and Keith Strickland . Following Ricky Wilson's death in 1985 Strickland switched to guitar... - Goodbye (It's a Little Awkward) - David Arnold
- All Over the WorldAll Over the World (song)"All Over the World" is a song by the Electric Light Orchestra . It is featured in the 1980 feature film Xanadu in a sequence with the film's stars Olivia Newton-John, Gene Kelly, and Michael Beck...
- Electric Light OrchestraElectric Light OrchestraElectric Light Orchestra were a British rock group from Birmingham who released eleven studio albums between 1971 and 1986 and another album in 2001. ELO were formed to accommodate Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne's desire to create modern rock and pop songs with classical overtones...
Potential sequel
Simon PeggSimon Pegg
Simon Pegg is an English actor, comedian, writer, film producer, and director. He is best known for having co-written and stared in various Edgar Wright features, mainly Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and the comedy series Spaced.He also portrayed Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in the 2009 Star Trek film...
has stated that although he would like to film a sequel to Paul, the time and expense it would take means it is unlikely to happen.