A year ago, word got out that writer/director Judd Apatow's followup to Knocked Up would be something like a "serious movie about a dying comedian." Normally this would cause somber alarms to go off, but all of the speculation was silenced when this beautiful preview opened before Role Models. I'm hoping this is the funniest movie of the summer (next to Bruno, at least). The film stars Adam Sandler as George Simmons, who (apparently) is an Adam Sandler-like movie star with both flops and hits under his Hollywood belt. He becomes friends with an up and coming comedy writer played by a skinny Seth Rogen. Simmons reevaluates his life when he has a near-death experience. Elizabeth Banks plays a frequent co-star of Sandler, who is married to Eric Bana.
Jason Schwartzman, Jonah Hill, and even Wu Tang Clan's The RZA are also in the film.
Running at 3:31, this trailer is its own type of emotional roller coaster, offering laugh out loud jokes with a few moments that touch us in a place Apatow hasn't really before (not bad for a water cooler cup sampling of a film). If anything, it makes an odd choice of giving away a twist that most movies like to pivot on AFTER the people are in the seats. But this great trailer, which uses the song "We Will Become Silhouettes" by The Postal Service with a very sweet touch, adds hope to Apatow's promise that this movie will be "as serious as it is funny."