Get Him to the Greek

Get Him to the Greek is a 2010 American comedy film written, produced, and directed by Nicholas Stoller and starring Jonah Hill and Russell Brand. The film was released on June 4, 2010. Get Him to the Greek is a spin-off sequel of Stoller's 2008 film Forgetting Sarah Marshall, reuniting director Stoller with stars Hill and Brand. Brand reprises his role as character Aldous Snow from Forgetting Sarah Marshall, while Hill plays an entirely new character. The film also stars Elizabeth Moss, Rose Byrne, and Sean "Diddy" Combs.

Plot
Rock star Aldous Snow (Russell Brand) releases an album and an accompanying single "African Child". The song and music video flops, is banned and called "the worst thing to happen to Africa since the apartheid" by NME. His girlfriend, Jackie Q (Rose Byrne), takes custody of their son, Naples, and leaves him; as a result, Aldous hits rock bottom by drinking and doing drugs excessively.

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, Aaron Green (Jonah Hill) works as a low-level talent scout at Pinnacle Records. He lives with his girlfriend, Daphne (Elizabeth Moss), a medical intern. Pinnacle Records is losing money, and the head of the company, Sergio Roma (Sean "Diddy" Combs), asks for ideas. Green proposes for Aldous Snow to play at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles on the tenth anniversary of his legendary performance there. Sergio sends Aaron to London to escort Aldous to the performance. Before he leaves, Daphne informs Aaron that she has received a job offer in Seattle and that they are moving there, which leads to an argument resulting in an implied break-up.

After retrieving Aldous from his apartment, Aaron tries futilely to control Aldous's rambunctious behavior, which causes them to miss several flights. They bar-hop across the city for several hours, leaving a trail of women and alcohol in their wake. Aaron gets to meet Tom Felton at the club. Daphne calls Aaron to apologize for the fight, but Aaron already believes that they had broken up. Throughout his partying, Aaron's cellphone accidentally calls Daphne so she keeps up-to-date on his goings-on.

Aaron and Aldous continue to New York for Aldous's appearance on Today. To keep Aldous sober for his performance, Aaron imbibes all of Aldous's whiskey and marijuana to comic effect. Minutes before the performance, Aldous realizes he is unable to remember the lyrics to his most recent but unpopular song, "African Child", and replaces it with an older hit called "The Clap", to cheers and excitement from the audience.

About to embark on a flight to Los Angeles, Aldous forces Aaron to smuggle heroin in his anus. During their travels and time in London and New York, Aaron has learned that Aldous has become miserable and lonely, as he misses his son and has not seen any signs of genuine love from his own father in years. Aaron suggests he visits Jackie Q and his father; the two stop in Las Vegas the night before to show to see Aldous's father (Colm Meaney). Sergio also arrives, wanting to help oversee the final proceedings. Sergio hooks up Aaron with a sexually rambunctious girl named Destiny (Carla Gallo), who takes him to a hotel room and rapes him. After Aaron tells Aldous that he has been raped, the other men laugh it off and encourage him to smoke a "Geoffrey", a joint described as "a Neapolitan of drugs". Aaron panics and starts to have a bad trip, believing he is having a heart attack. Aldous's father makes the trip worse by confirming that Aaron is having a heart attack while Aldous attempts to calm Aaron down by telling him "to stroke the furry wall". Aldous fights with his father; Sergio (who is also high on Geoffrey) jumps in the fight, and the hotel room is set on fire. Aldous attempts to help Aaron by giving him an adrenaline shot to the heart and they run out of the hotel, chased by Sergio, who is hit by a car but unharmed.

Aldous and Aaron are driven to Los Angeles, where Aldous visits Jackie Q. She has been sleeping with Metallica's drummer, Lars Ulrich (playing himself) and confesses that Naples is not actually his biological son. This depresses him even further. Meanwhile, Aaron goes to his home to apologize to Daphne. They are interrupted when Aldous arrives at their house and proposes that he, Aaron, and Daphne engage in a threesome because Aaron has been with other women while partying with Aldous. During the threesome, Aaron angrily decides to kiss Aldous, breaking it up. Daphne feels horrible about the threesome, and storms out of the room. Aaron angrily tells Aldous to go, criticizing Aldous's overall mental state.

Instead of preparing for his show, Aldous goes to the rooftop of the Standard Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, and calls Aaron, threatening to jump. Aaron attempts to coax Aldous down from the roof. Aldous attempts to jump down to the Standard pool instead of killing himself, accidentally shattering an arm. Aldous tells Aaron that he is lonely and feels unconnected to people, but Aaron tells Aldous that thousands of fans love him and are waiting just to see his face. Aldous decides to perform at the Greek Theatre despite his injury, although Aaron tries to convince him to go to the hospital. Upon his arrival, Sergio offers Aaron drugs to give to Aldous so he will not cancel the concert. Aaron angrily refuses and quits his job on the spot. He walks stage-side with Aldous, trying to convince him to go to the hospital instead. However, Aaron sees how happy Aldous is while performing and heads home to reconcile with Daphne.

Months later in Seattle (where Aaron and Daphne have moved), Aldous, sober once again, has returned to fame with a single "Furry Walls" produced by Aaron based on events from their night in Las Vegas, performing on the VH1 Storytellers program.

Cast

 * Jonah Hill as Aaron Green, a record company intern.
 * Russell Brand as Aldous Snow, an out-of-control rock star with a faltering career.
 * Elisabeth Moss as Daphne Binks, Aaron's girlfriend.
 * Rose Byrne as Jackie Q, a scandal-plagued pop star and Aldous' love interest.
 * Sean "Diddy" Combs as Sergio Roma, a record company executive who assigns Aaron to court Aldous.
 * Colm Meaney as Jonathan Snow, Aldous' father who mooches off his son for his own personal gain.
 * Kali Hawk as Kali Coleman, one of Aaron's co-workers.
 * Nick Kroll as Kevin McLean, one of Aaron's co-workers.
 * Karl Theobald as Aldous' assistant.
 * Carla Gallo as Destiny, a groupie.
 * Alyssa Cooper as Girlband member.
 * T.J Miller as Brian, a drug-dealing hotel clerk.
 * Kristen Schaal as Today Show production assistant.
 * Kristen Bell (cameo) as Sarah Marshell.

Playing themselves

 * Tom Felton
 * Johnny Depp
 * Christina Aguilera
 * P!nk
 * Kurt Loder
 * Meredith Vieira
 * Mario Lopez
 * Pharrell
 * Paul Krugman
 * Lars Ulrich
 * Rick Schroder
 * Zoe Salmon
 * Katy Perry

Development
A week after the release of Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Universal Studios announced a new film Get Him to the Greek, reuniting Jonah Hill and Russell Brand with writer/director Nicholas Stroller and producer Judd Apatow. Vanety initially announced the project would focus on "fresh-out-of-college insurance adjuster (Hill) who is hired to accompany an out-of-control rock star (Brand) from London to a gig at L.A.'s Greek Theatre."undefinedIn July 2008, Brand mentioned that he would be reprising his Aldous Snow role from Forgetting Sarah Marshall, in a new film from Apatow in which the character was back on drugs.undefinedIn an interview with CHUD.com, Apatow would later reveal that Get Him to the Greek was indeed a spin-off of Forgetting Sarah Marshall with Brand again playing a no-longer-sober Aldous Snow while in a different interview Nicholas Stoller said that Jonah Hill will play a different character named Aaron Green, a young music executive. Jason Segel who wrote and starred in Forgetting Sarah Marshall said his involvements with Get Him to the Greek were some help in producing it and writing some songs.

Filming
While Russell Brand was backstage at the Paramount studio lot preparing to present the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards, he approached Christina Aguilera, Pink, and Katy Perry about filming cameos for Get Him to the Greek.

On April 17, 2009, Brand filmed scenes of him performing as rock star Aldous Snow at his sellout comedy show "Russell Brand: Scandalous", at the O2 Arena in London, in front of an audience of 20,000 fans. He performed the songs "Inside Of You" and "I Am Jesus".

Rehearsals began on April 27, 2009 with filming beginning on May 12. The film was shot in New York, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and London, making it the first Apatow film to film outside America.

On July 25–26, 2009 they filmed at The Today Show in New York City with Meredith Vieira interviewing Brand as Aldous Snow, filming also conducted at Letchworth State Park in Western New York. On August 7, 2009 they were spotted filming in Trafalgar Square, London. During the filming Brand was attacked by a passer-by who pushed him into the fountain. The scene involved West Ham United football fans and the duo being chased by a hooligan on a bicycle. On the same day, in the early evening at The Anchor Pub on Bankside, next to the River Thames in scene involving downing pints. From August 12–16 filming took place at Hatfield House, Hertfordshire. On August 18 filming took place in Cavendish Square, London. On September 14–15 filming took place in New York's Meatpacking District. On January 15, 2010 a scene was shot in Los Angeles which shows Brand as his character Aldous Snow confronting a photographer, throwing him to the ground, urinating on him and throughout the process filming it all on the camera he had stolen from him.

Critical Reception
The film has received generally positive reviews. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 73% based on 176 reviews, with an average score of 6.3/10. The critical consensus is: "Thanks to a suitably raunchy script and a pair of winning performances from Jonah Hill and Russell Brand, Get Him to the Greek is one of the year's funniest comedies." Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 65, based on 39 reviews.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three out of four stars by saying that "under the cover of slapstick, cheap laughs, raunchy humor, gross-out physical comedy and sheer exploitation, Get Him to the Greek also is fundamentally a sound movie."

Box office
In its opening weekend, the film debuted at #2 behind Shrek Forever After with a gross of $17,570,955. The movie fell to fourth the following week with a weekend gross of $10,100,000. In the UK, Get Him to the Greek opened at #1 grossing £1,569,556 in its first week before dropping to #2 the following week with takings of £1,048,898. It has collected $60,974,475 in the United States and Canada as well as $27,400,000 in foreign countries bringing its worldwide total to $88,374,475.

Home media
A 2-disc and 1-disc unrated and theatrical version of the film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on September 28, 2010.

Music
Carl Barat, Dan Bern, Mike Viola, Jason Segel, Lyle Workman, Rodney Rothman, and Jarvis Cocker have written music for the film, which includes a duet between Snow and Jackie Q. Music by The Flaming Lips and The Hives was used in previews for the movie.

Several songs are featured in the film that were not included on the soundtrack, including a section of "And Ghosted Pouts (Take the Veil Cerpin Taxt)" by The Mars Volta, "London Calling" by The Clash, "Anarchy in the U.K." by The Sex Pistols, "20th Century Boy" by T.Rex, "Rocks Off" by The Rolling Stones, "Another girl, Another Planet" by The Only Ones, "Strict Machine" by Goldfrapp, "Ghosts N Stuff" by Deadmau5 featuring Rob Swire, "Personality Crisis" by The New York Dolls, "Girls on the Dance Floor" by Far East Movement, "Come on Eileen" by Dexys Midnight Runners, "Cretin Hop" by The Ramones, "Stop Drop and Roll" by Green Day side project Foxboro Hot Tubs, "Touch My Body" by Mariah Carey, "Love Today" by Mika (singer), "Fuck Me I'm Famous" by DJ Dougal and Gammer, "What Planet You On" by Bodyrox featuring Luciana, and "Inside of You" by Infant Sorrow (which was originally featured in Forgetting Sarah Marshall).