If the name Jody Hill sounds familiar…it’s because he previously directed “The Foot Fist Way,” which starred Danny McBride. While Jody made “Foot Fist” for almost no money and on credit cards…he has a bit more cash this time out with Warner Bros. backing his new film. Also, he has an actor that a lot of you might have heard of as the lead…a Mr. Seth Rogen.

In the film, Seth plays Ronnie Barnhardt, who is the head of mall security at the Forest Ridge Mall (it’s a fake mall). Unfortunately, Ronnie thinks he’s far more important than he actually is, and when things start going wrong, let’s just say Ronnie doesn’t take it very well…especially when a local cop has to come in to help clean up the mess. And playing the local cop…Ray Liotta.  

Since the movie doesn’t hit theaters until April of 2009, I’m obviously under embargo. But…I don’t think they’ll mind if I tell you a few tidbits from our day on the set.

While most set visits have you sitting in the background and tucked away from the action, for “Observe and Report,” they put us front and center and on camera.

Yup, all the folks on the set visit were extras in the movie! What that meant was…we had to be on set at 7:30am so we could fill out some paperwork and get costume fitted to be in the movie. Again, it was definitely not the norm for a set visit!

Once we finally made it on set, we got to be in on the action. One of the assistant directors had us walking back and forth during a very funny and very R rated scene, and there is a good possibility that all of us will end up in the movie. Obviously they could cut all of us out, but since it’s a very funny bit that we got to be in, I’d imagine at least some of us will end up in the final product.

For a set visit….it was quite unusual and a lot of fun.

And since the movie takes place in a mall, what the film did was find a place they could take over and dress – meaning, make the stores their own. So when you watch the movie, know that 99% of the stores are fake. Like Toast A Bun (pictured on right). But…if you’re a fan of "Foot Fist Way"…you may see an Easter egg or two. 

Again, since the film is so far away from coming out, I actually don’t want to say too much about it. Just know we did a ton of interviews on the set and closer to release I’ll be posting all of them. Actually, I posted a few things from the set visit…so if you missed Seth Rogen or Producer Donald De Line, just click on their names. You can read part of the interviews.

And one last thing. I’ve been very fortunate to have been on a few set visits now. Out of all the actors I’ve interviewed while on a movie set, Seth Rogen might be the coolest.

When we first interviewed him we got about 20 minutes. For those wondering…that’s a good amount of time. But when we got on set, he came over to us and started talking again for another 10 minutes. Then he got called back to set but said he said he’d give us more time later. We all figured there was no way that would happen. But he came back and gave us another 30 minutes. Trust me, that’s unheard of.

So I just want to take a moment to say thank you to Seth for being so cool. And if the movie is as good as the two scenes we watched being filmed, I think audiences will really dig “Observe and Report” and be surprised by Jody Hill's first Hollywood feature.