First of all, as expected, Kalpen Modi -- better known as Kal Penn -- has officially left his job as associate director in the White House Office of Public Engagement "because of prior obligations": Kumar escapes from Washington, D.C.
Prior obligations meaning being committed to play our favorite Indian American stoner in the third Harold and Kumar movie. A few months back, Vulture acquired and reviewed the script for A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas. Here's the plot summary [minor spoilers ahead]:
Weighing in at 119 pages, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg's screenplay (dated January 22, 2010) finds Harold and Kumar in their 30s and no longer on speaking terms (at script's beginning, it's been a long time since they've seen each other). Harold is a married, drug-free, Wall Street executive who lives in a home that looks "more like a house in a Nancy Myers movie than the man-cave he shared with Kumar"; Kumar is single, still lives in the man-cave, and has recently had his medical license suspended for smoking marijuana. The pair are reunited when a package intended for Harold arrives at their old apartment and Kumar delivers it to his house. While there, in a pot-related mishap, Kumar burns down a Christmas tree grown special by Harold's father-in-law, requiring the two to strike out in search of a replacement.Production for the movie is well underway, with the first photos from the set (at Somerset Mall in Troy, Michigan) starting to emerge, including the blurry bootleg one below of stars Kal Penn -- rocking a really sweet beard -- and John Cho:
A few other things we know about the movie (aside from the fact that there will be plenty of weed and penis jokes)... There's a good chance it will be in 3D, which will come in handy during the movie's rumored claymation sequence "in which Harold and Kumar, high on psychoactive eggnog, are chased through midtown Manhattan by a giant evil snowman."
Also, Patton Oswalt has joined the cast. Vulture speculates that he'll play Todd Dennison, "a high-strung friend of Harold's whose infant daughter gets accidentally high on second-hand pot smoke." [UPDATE: Screenwriter Jon Hurwitz says Oswalt is NOT playing the role of Todd.]
And of course, it has been confirmed that Neil Patrick Harris will indeed be back -- as Neil Patrick Harris -- for this installment. I mean, come on. At this point, it's just not Harold and Kumar without NPH. Filming is scheduled to continue through August.