Nicholas Stoller on His Brand-New Muppet Movie and Sexy 9/11 Conspiracy Theorists

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Stoller was much more forthcoming about the extra-stuffed home video release of Greek, which boasts countless deleted scenes and alternate takes from stars Russell Brand and Jonah Hill, and also contains an unrated extended cut. Still, Stoller admitted that he didn't mind cutting all those things out of the theatrical edition of the film.

"I'm really not precious about it -- I always want it to be shorter and shorter," he said. "I prefer the theatrical cut, but I will say that on the extended version, there's a montage that's hilarious that I really wanted to put in the movie but couldn't figure out. It's a coke-fueled jogging montage, and it's pretty hilarious and weird, but it was just one too many drug montages."

Once his Greek promotional duties conclude and he finally turns in the last draft of Muppet Movie, Stoller hopes to make Five-Year Engagement his next film. It's the story of a long-engaged couple (played by Segel and an actress yet to be cast) who can't quite pull the trigger on actual marriage, and Stoller said it's much more true to life than most Hollywood romcoms.

"I mean, romantic comedy is my favorite genre -- like, a good romantic comedy can be more satisfying than any movie -- but most romantic comedies aren't that great because they try to keep couples apart by creating a lot of artificial obstacles," he said.

"It's better to get rid of that and create real obstacles -- like in Sarah Marshall, when you break up with your ex-girlfriend and then your ex-girlfriend comes back to you, nine times out of ten you hook up with her. That's a real obstacle versus some sort of fake misunderstanding."

Stoller himself has no shortage of romantic obstacles to sort out, as he revealed when he recently tweeted, "Does the fact that Marion Cotillard is a 9/11 conspiracy theorist make her less hot or even hotter?" I had to ask whether he had finally come to a conclusion on the matter.

"I land on 'hotter,'" he laughed. I thought about it and debated it -- and I'm Jewish and obviously American, so I felt bad about it -- but I can't deny it, it just makes her hotter. And most people I ask that to agree!"

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Comments

  • Tim B. says:

    "Most romantic comedies aren’t that great because they try to keep couples apart by creating a lot of artificial obstacles. It’s better to get rid of that and create real obstacles"
    Like the sex-crazed British rock star, the puppet musical, etc.?