Hands up who thought that David Gordon Green would follow up the low-key indies All The Real Girls, George Washington and Undertow with a mad drug comedy produced by Judd Apatow. No, us neither.

But that’s exactly what Green has planned with The Pineapple Express for Columbia, which finds a pair of weed-loving pals (played by Seth Rogen and James Franco) in the clutches of an international drug gang. Written by Rogen and Evan Goldberg, it’s a real departure for Green. “This project is an opportunity to plant an absurd buddy comedy in a rough-and-tumble action movie,” he blabbed to Variety. “I’ve always been a sucker for the genre and hungry to fire up a comedy where characters don’t get lost in their own concept.”

Green plans to start work on Express early next year, once he’s finished editing his adaptation of Stewart O’Nan’s novel Snow Angels with Kate Beckinsale.