With all the “behind the scenes” footage that is “leaking” out from Judd Apatow’s Knocked Up, I’m expecting one hell of a DVD release for the movie. The benefit of Apatow working with so many people that he’s worked with before is that he’s built quite a rapport with them, allowing them to mess around and have a really good time at each other’s expense, without any egos coming into play – or playing on those egos if they do.

The last glimpse we got from behind the scenes was Michael Cera of “Arrested Development” fame (and this summer’s Apatow produced Superbad) getting canned from the lead role in Knocked Up. In that video Cera couldn’t understand the difference between energy and yelling and thus, lost the lead role for this year’s best comedy.

If these videos are to be believed (and clearly they aren’t – they’re just meant to be funny), Cera wasn’t the only predecessor to Seth Rogen. The latest video shows the lead being played by James Franco, who appears as himself in Knocked Up and who also worked previously with Apatow in “Freaks and Geeks”. This glimpse shows that Franco still hasn’t let go of a past grudge from that cancelled TV show, despite being one of the few working actors to come out of it. Take a look at one of the funniest video shorts to hit the web lately, and see why Apatow was warned by Sam Raimi not to hire Franco:



And, in case you still haven’t seen the Michael Cera video, here it is for your viewing pleasure: