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Kal Penn says Harold & Kumar 4 script is finished, awaiting Lionsgate green light

In an interview with Deadline, Kal Penn said he and John Cho have formally signed on for a fourth Harold & Kumar film, whose script is finished but not yet greenlit. He also discussed playing Anna Nicole Smith's doctor and a role in a Gregg Araki film.

2 outlets · 1L · 1C · 0R First reported Account updated
Image: Deadline
Image: The A.V. Club

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The story, neutrally told

Mixed · 2Kal Penn said in an interview with Deadline that he and John Cho have "formally signed on for a fourth film" in the Harold & Kumar series. Centre · 1Penn said writers Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, who wrote all three earlier films and directed the second, will direct the fourth, and that they have just finished the script, which he and Cho read a couple of weeks ago. Mixed · 2Penn called it "one of the funniest scripts that I've read in a very long time" and said it tracks with the other three movies.

Mixed · 2Penn cautioned that the film "hasn't yet been greenlit or anything"; The A.V. Club reports it still needs a green light from Lionsgate. Deadline noted that news of a fourth film in the works from Hurwitz, Schlossberg and Josh Heald emerged last year. Left · 1According to The A.V. Club's account of the interview, Penn said the script has "smartly done" satire about what is happening in the world alongside "an appropriate amount of the dumb jokes", and that he values that people enjoy the films across the political spectrum. Centre · 1Deadline's interview centred on Penn's year: he plays Dr. Sandeep Kapoor, Anna Nicole Smith's physician, in Thane Economou's Trust Me, I'm a Doctor, now in theaters, and had just wrapped a role in Gregg Araki's The Decline of Fucking Western Civilization.

Centre · 1Penn also had an arc in Season 4 of Industry. He said the real Kapoor let him shadow him for the role, and acknowledged that Larry Birkhead, father of Smith's daughter, has disapproved of the film and that it is "not gonna be a movie for everybody".

Every sentence links to the reporting it rests on. The pill in front of each says where its sources sit: Left, Centre or Right when one side supplies at least half of them, Mixed when they are evenly split. The number is how many outlets it cites.

Left1 outlet

Framing
A short, jokey item built around the sequel news, written in a playful stoner-comedy register.
Emphasis
The finished script, the directors' Cobra Kai background, Penn's political-spectrum remark and the pending Lionsgate green light.
Leaves out or plays down
Says little of the biopic or Araki roles beyond a passing mention.
Charged language
“still enough stupid in the chamber”“our lovable stoners”
For example
“Unfortunately, the movie still needs a green light from Lionsgate before our lovable stoners can get packing.” — The A.V. Club

Centre1 outlet

Framing
A full career interview led by Penn's return to leading roles, with Harold & Kumar 4 as one item among several projects.
Emphasis
The Anna Nicole Smith biopic, the Araki film, and Penn's own words on preparation; the sequel appears as a news item.
Leaves out or plays down
Does not stress Lionsgate's role beyond Penn's remark that nothing is greenlit.
For example
“Kal Penn is back in leading man mode.” — Deadline

Right0 outlets

No right outlet in our sources has covered this story yet.

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