Every so often, Hollywood gets behind a rising star and just tries to make him happen. We've got a Sam Worthington and a Taylor Lautner as proof, but we don't have anyone like a Russell Brand, the British dervish of comic energy that also comes with a valuable Judd Apatow imprimatur. Still, for as many projects as Brand has lined up, there's a definite wait-and-see sense surrounding this summer's Get Him to the Greek, where he costars with Jonah Hill. What does the new trailer reveal about whether Brand's star will be cemented?
Greek's not just a reunion of Forgetting Sarah Marshall talent (that film's director, Nicholas Stoller, has the same duty here) and characters (Brand plays the spoiled rocker Aldous Snow, who he introduced in the earlier movie) but an attempt as well to have the same kind of mid-sized comedy hit that Marshall represented. The differences? The trailer sells a boys' movie through and through with no female leads to leaven the mix, and the film's been positioned directly in the summer maelstrom instead of having a safe spring slot to itself. The latter may be a vote of confidence, and the trailer indicates potential, but it remains to be seen if Brand and Hill have the star power to stand out amidst mega-tentpoles.
VERDICT: Sold -- but will others bite?