Get Him To The Greek, the film being spun-off from last year’s comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall featuring Russell Brand’s obnoxious rock and roller Aldous Snow, has been filming in Manhattan for the last several days. Yesterday, the production was in midtown’s Rockefeller Plaza to film a segment where Snow performs on NBC’s Today Show. (Click on any picture for a larger view.)
Despite the sweltering high70s/low 80s heat beating down on the city, Brand-as-Snow is decked out for the scene in a pair of leather pants, a black t-shirt and a green velor jacket. A scarf completes the ensemble. The plaza is filled with just enough extras to fill the shots. Many of them are attractive young women, understandable giving Snow’s stallion-like reputation. Three girls near the front wear t-shirts on which is emblazoned “I F***** Aldous Snow.”
Joining Brand for the film is Jonah Hill as Aaron, a young record intern (and different character from the one Hill played in Forgetting Sarah Marshall) tasked with getting the hard partying Snow to an important show at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles, but of course, things do not go as planned. Based on what we observed at the filming yesterday, I would hazard a guess that the scene being shot comes close to the end of the film. Although shot out of order, here is an approximate reconstruction of how the scenes may fit together.
For some reason, Snow seems to have entered an experimental stage with his music, as a group of musicians with traditional African instruments. in a segment before the Today Show performance is to start, Hill’s character, with a stain on the right label of his suit jacket, approaches one of the musicians, asking if he knows the words to Snow’s song “African Dream.”
Later, Snow is beginning his performance on the Today Show, the aforementioned song “African Dream.” The tempo is slow and the music a mixture of psychedelica and African Rhythms. Aldous begins to sing-
I walked the mystic deserts to take pictures of the poor…
But for some reason, the song doesn’t seem to sit well with him and he signals his band to stop. He turns to the crowd and asks “Who wants to hear this song?” The crowd response indicates that they aren’t too enthused with this tune.
And with what seems to be a change of heart over something, Snow then tells the crowd ” I’d rather play a song from when I really liked what I did…”
With that, the band starts into a faster-tempoed rock number entitled “The Clap,” with lyrics that go something like this-
We got the clap!
You got the clap!
We took the rock,
And you took the crack!
Oh yeah—-!We got the crack!
And you got the smack!
We got the yellows,
And you got the black!
Oh—-!
During the song, Snow bounces around on stage, at one point approaching a Today Show production assistant to have her sing “I got the clap!” on mic before she throws her cue cards in the air and dances around. Aaron also stands off to the side, dancing to the music and look far more relieved than he did in the previous scene with the musician from the band.
Below are several other pictures taken at yesterday’s filming-
Thanks to Derek McCauley for his help in assembling this story.
