Rogen took to Twitter on Monday to dish on some behind-the-scenes facts about the beloved stoner comedy.
Pineapple Express came out 10 years ago today, and to celebrate, Seth Rogen took to Twitter to reveal some behind-the-scenes facts about the beloved stoner comedy.
Rogen and his writing partner, Evan Goldberg, penned the script for the 2008 movie, which centers around a pot-smoking process server named Dale Denton (Rogen) and his dealer, Saul Silver (James Franco), who go on the run from hit men and corrupt cops after witnessing a murder. The film was Rogen and Goldberg's follow-up to their successful 2007 high school party comedy, Superbad, and also served as a breakout role for Danny McBride, who played Saul's friend and fellow dealer, Red.
Read one below to learn more from behind the scenes of Pineapple Express!
1. The popular Pineapple Express marijuana strain was named after the movie, not vice versa.
"There was NO strain of weed called #PineappleExpress when we made the movie. We said, 'If one day, people are out there selling weed called Pineapple Express, it worked,'" Rogen explained of naming the film's coveted central strain. In reality, he revealed, the name comes from a Hawaiian weather system which sometimes affects the Pacific Northwest, where Rogen and Goldberg are from.
"Evan heard the name and said 'that would be a great name for a movie,'" Rogen recalled in his tweets. "Years later we found a perfect fit."
These days, Pineapple Express is one of the most popular strains sold in weed shops across the country (in states that have legalized recreational use, of course).
2. Rogen and Franco's main roles were originally flip-flopped.
While Franco's performance as Saul was a highlight of the hilarious film -- and even scored him a Golden Globe nomination -- Rogen revealed that it was almost him in Saul's greasy duds and Franco in the suit. "We wrote #PineappleExpress for me to play Saul and Franco to play Dale. James wanted to switch roles, and I didn’t care that much, so we did," he recalled.
3. Rogen not only wrote and starred in in the action-comedy, he also served as the film's official roller.
"Me and my co-writer Evan had to roll all the cross joints needed to film (about 100) ourselves because nobody else on the crew could roll them properly," he revealed of the work required to reach "the apex of the vortex of joint engineering."
4. There were a lot of on-set injuries.
Rogen revealed that, during the filming of the fight scene in Red's apartment, he broke his finger and McBride "got his head cracked open when Franco hit him with the bong." In fact, part of Franco's costuming as Saul was due to another mishap during filming.
"The reason Saul wears a headband in #PineappleExpress is the result of another injury," Rogen tweeted. "There’s a shot (that’s in the movie) when we are running through the woods, Franco hits his head on a tree. He actually hit his head on a screw that was holding a pad in place and got stitches."
He also admitted that he did "99% of my own stunts" in the movie, "which might explain all the injuries."
5. The film featured a cameo that has become insanely topical 10 years later.
"Red refers to his ex wife having gotten out of jail recently. There’s a pic of Red and his ex wife, who was played by Stormy Daniels," Rogen revealed, referencing the adult film star currently embroiled in a sex scandal with President Donald Trump. Daniels also had credited roles in Knocked Up and The 40-Year-Old Virgin, which Rogen also starred in, and apparently, she dished on what would eventually become juicy political gossip.
“I’ll be honest, she may have mentioned some of this stuff around 10 years ago,” Rogen told Ellen DeGeneres back in April. “At the time, when you ask a porn star who they’ve been sleeping with and the answer is Donald Trump, it was like the least surprising thing that she could have said. And so yeah, she had mentioned it actually. She did mention it.”
6. There's a reason Red seems unkillable.
That reason? McBride was just too good. "Red was originally supposed to die the first time he was shot when he was tied up in his apartment," Rogen noted, "but we thought Danny McBride was so funny that we just kept bringing him back to life."
However, the Eastbound & Down star may have regretted sticking around when it came time to shoot the scene where he was duct-taped to a chair. In his tweets, Rogen revealed that "Danny had to actually be taped in the chair all day and we couldn’t let him out because it took too long to put him back."
7. The film's theme song channeled the creators' retro faves.
"Huey Lewis and the News recorded an original theme song for #PineappleExpress," Rogen recalled of the iconic throwback sound. "We were inspired by our favorite 80s movies that had rock songs with their titles."
8. Sometimes, rewrites are better.
"In #PineappleExpress, originally, Red killed Matheson with a Ford Fiesta," Rogen tweeted, "but Ford didn’t want their car involved in a movie murder so we had to change it to a Daewoo Lanos, which is ultimately much funnier I think."
9. Some of the film's unique promotional strategies did not pay off.
A fan reminded Rogen that, prior to the film's release, there was a Pineapple Express billboard in Los Angeles that actually featured smoke billowing from the top. However, the concept was short-lived in wildfire-prone Southern California.
"We DID have a smoking billboard for #PineappleExpress that got shut down by the fire department because people keep thinking it was on fire," Rogen recalled.
The movie also gave a major promotional boost to M.I.A.'s hit single "Paper Planes," however, as Rogen pointed out, the track is only used in the trailer and never appeared in the film.
10. Kanye came to the premiere!
See more from Rogen, including his exciting role in the upcoming Lion King remake, in the video below!
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