Trailer Triple Threat: "Green Lantern," "Your Highness," and "Red Riding Hood"

As is common practice, Tuesday brought us the latest batch of major trailers, and this week offered up three very interesting projects, two of which I was aware of, and the third of which has come completely out of nowhere.

First is the trailer for Martin Campbell's The Green Lantern (2011). After the slightly junky looking Entertainment Tonight clip, this is definitely more satisfying. Granted, the visual effects still have a ways to go, but that's expected (plenty of effects were incomplete when the first Watchmen trailer debuted). I can see Reynolds as the character well enough. Unfortunately, Blake Lively is distracting, and I just can't buy her as a hot-shot pilot. Granted, I don't have an immediate suggestion regarding who should have been cast as the romantic foil, but I can't help but be worried that Lively will be to this film what Denise Richards was to The World is Not Enough. I can't help but get a slight Fantastic 4 vibe from certain scenes as well, and that's not a good thing. Still, it does look better than the other green film, The Green Hornet, and I have a solid amount of faith in Campbell, who directed Daniel Craig's excellent first outing as 007, Casino Royale.

Next comes David Gordon Green's Your Highness, starring James Franco, Natalie Portman, Danny McBride, and Zooey Deschanel. You don't see many live-action-period-action-comedies, and even though I wasn't a big fan of Pineapple Express, I can't deny that this rather long trailer did make me laugh. I'm not on the Danny McBride bandwagon, but even he managed to make me laugh, and it looks like he and Franco have good comedic chemistry.

Finally we come to Catherine Hardwicke's Red Riding Hood. As much as I like the idea, the cast, and some of the visuals, this looks extremely iffy to me. There's one too many shades of Twilight in the story, especially with that whole "I'm no good for you" "I don't care!" bit with Seyfried and whoever the blandly attractive guy was. Still, Seyfried does really rock the red hood and cape, though I have to wonder if the sheer length of that thing is going to give her any trouble when she has to run from the wolf...

First official stills from "MacGruber", "Your Highness", and "Scott Pilgrim" (all 2010)

Very interesting, but the idea of Danny McBride in a period piece seems, well, strange. Early word on MacGruber has been surprisingly...not terrible (besides, it's an excuse to see Kristen Wiig on the big screen). I don't know much about Scott Pilgrim, other than it's from the man behind Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, one of the most woefully ignored comedies of 2007, and that it stars Michael Cera and future Oscar nominee Anna Kendrick (not pictured).

First photo from "Your Highness" with Natalie Portman

Source: Slashfilm.com

For those of you who don’t know, David Gordon Green is following up his stoner action movie Pineapple Express with a stoner medieval comedy called Your Highness, also starring James Franco and Danny McBride. Ben Best wrote the script, which features “an arrogant, lazy prince (McBride) who must complete a quest to save his father’s kingdom.” Franco plays Bride’s relatively more heroic brother, Zooey Deschanel is his bride, and Portman is a warrior princess who is love interest for McBride.