Cinema Science

From the MTV Movie Blog.

He was the year's most relatable romantic star as a T-shirt-wearing schlub who got the hot girl in "Knocked Up." He's a comic writer being given the reins of a superhero action movie. For goodness' sake, he might even show some skin in next year's "Zack and Miri Make a Porno."

But if Seth Rogen or his career have surprised you so far, you ain't seen nothing yet — or so the 25-year-old actor told MTV News.

"I think 'Pineapple Express' is going to really shock people," he said of the stoner comedy/ action movie he co-wrote and stars in. "There are car chases and shootouts and many fight scenes. Me and James Franco wield AK-47s and shoot people! Every time I watch it, I can't believe they let us make it. I'm just excited to see how people react to it."

Surprised that a movie starring Rogen could have so much action? So was Huey Lewis.

"I met Huey Lewis because he wrote a song for the movie," Rogen revealed, confirming reports that the "Power of Love" singer lent his talents to the film. "I saw him after he saw the movie, and he was just going on and on about all the action in it and how he didn't expect it to be a full-blown action movie."

The surprises keep coming with this flick, which was seemingly crafted with the maxim "If you want something done right, get it done by the one guy you'd least expect." Want a credible hero for a movie with the "action of 'Lethal Weapon' "? Get a comic. Want a funny, stoner sidekick? Get an action star. Want it to be all under the guidance of a director with a knack for making action credible — who can turn even the most ridiculous stunts into well-choreographed beauty? Get the guy who made a 90-minute meditation on growing up poor in rural America.

And get them all quick, Rogen said, or you'll never know what you're missing.

"It's a really strange movie, and [director] David Gordon Green made it oddly beautiful," Rogen insisted. "He really took something that could have been a stupid stoner action/comedy and made it a David Gordon Green movie, a beautiful and emotionally poignant movie. We didn't do that. He did that."

The biggest surprise of all, though, might not come from Rogen or Green, but from the actor hitherto best known as the completely humorless Harry Osborn.

"I think Franco will be the most surprising thing about the movie," Rogen said of the "Spider-Man" star. "He is absolutely hysterical, and I dare say one of the funniest stoners ever in a movie. And it's all compounded by the fact that it's coming from a guy who you did not think had one funny bone in his body."