Paul, image from Universal
The latest movie from the team that brought us Spaced
So what we have is essentially a ‘road-trip’ movie, but given that Pegg and Frost also wrote the script and it’s directed by Superbad’s Greg Mottola (Edgar Wright was too busy on Scott Pilgrim at the time it was being filmed), I’m sure it will be filled with hundreds of geeky references and more than a few fart jokes, as they try avoid the men in black and, hopefully, get Paul to his mothership. Add in some Hollywood stars in the form of Seth Rogen (voicing Paul), Jason Bateman and the Queen of Alien Sci-Fi, Sigourney Weaver and they could have another cult classic on their hands — and I am available for any London press screenings guys!
The author, Alienated!
To coincide with the movie, Universal have released the obligatory movie tie-in app with a link to the trailer and the Alienate photo app. Paul himself is your classic “grey” alien and the Alienate app makes you look a bit like him. It’s super simple to use: just pick a photo from your library or snap a new one using the handy face framing overlay, the ‘Auto Face Detection’ crops the image and then you adjust the eye and mouth positions and hey presto, you are an alien!
The app has lots of built in sharing options for your alienated self, including Facebook and Twitter posting, email and saving to the camera roll, plus an option to send your pic the official Posterous account, where you can view page after page of little green men and women – there were over 70 pages of them already at the time of posting and somehow mine is the first one! ;o)
Simon Pegg has had a alienated version of himself on his Twitter avatar for a while now, and I reckon there could be a whole invasion coming soon too, under the control of this guy.
It’s iOS only for now, but an Android version is on its way soon. The movie itself is rated R (15 in the UK) so it’s only for the older kids, but everyone can have fun with the app.
Last Exit To Nowhere's Paul Tee
Our friends over at Last Exit To Nowhere have also scored a bit of a coup. You may remember that they produce excellent T-Shirts inspired by movies. Well, apparently Simon Pegg is a big fan and he contacted them and invited their designers to come up with one for Paul. The resulting limited edition T-Shirt goes on sale when the movie opens (only for UK and European customers, unfortunately), and they’re currently running a competition to win one early. All you have to do is let them know what pearls of wisdom would you wish to convey about humanity to an alien life form, if you encountered one!
Find out more about Paul on the movies sites, whatispaul.com and paulthemovie.co.uk