The Medieval Masters of “Your Highness”

By Addie Strong
April 8, 2011

Your Highness

Fabious (James Franco), Belladonna (Zooey Deschanel) and Thadeous (Danny McBride) in "Your Highness". As two princes on a daring mission to save their future, they must rescue the heir apparent's fiancée before their kingdom is destroyed.

Writer and actor Danny McBride is lighting up the screen again in his new movie, “Your Highness,” hitting theatres today. This time, however, the “Pineapple Express” scribe has set his marijuana-infused film in a fantasy land a la “Spamalot” ... Only there’s a lot more toking up in this version (hence, “Your Highness”).

Along with penning the screenplay, Danny McBride stars as the royal family’s slacker son, Thadeus. Denied the future throne and fed up with being outshone by his brave and adventurous brother Fabious (Danny McBride’s “Pineapple Express" costar James Franco), Thadeus has Your Highness resorted to a life of smoking wizard’s weed. (The "Your Highness" film’s official website also notes that he enjoys “hard booze and easy maidens.”) But when his brother’s fiancé, Belladonna (played by Zoeey Deschanel), is kidnapped by an evil wizard, the king finally issues Thadeus an ultimatum: Join in the rescue, or be cut off for good.

Isabel (Natalie Portman), Thadeous (Danny McBride) and Fabious (James Franco) in "Your Highness"

Facing a life without his beloved wizard’s weed, Thadeus accepts the challenge and joins Fabious in his mission to rescue Belladonna. Of course, he’s not exactly the fearless warrior his brother had envisioned.

Luckily (for us and for the brothers), screen queen actress Natalie Portman quickly appears as tough-as-nails Isabel, a trained fighter who joins in the quest, but has her own ambitions.

Your Highness - Trailer (provided by YouTube)

For a movie that spoofs the fantasy films of yore with its dope-smoking and F-bomb dropping, it seems fitting that so much attention has been placed on its stars’ lifestyle choices.

Interestingly, it’s “Your Highness” creator, Danny McBride, who wants everyone to know he was sober while writing the screenplay. “I don’t partake in much wizard weed when I work on scripts,” he told Screen Junkies website. “It’s such a hard process and if you want to do it good, it seems like if you do partake in a lot of that, people don’t tend to really want to watch the things that you come up with when you’ve done that.”

Your Highness

Isabel, Thadeous, Fabious and Belladonna in "Your Highness"

Your Highness

Fabious and Thadeous

Meanwhile, James Franco is still dealing with the fallout from his much-criticized performance as the host of this year’s Academy Awards show. While rumors spread that he’d been enjoying some “wizard’s weed” on Oscar night, Franco deflected the question when Extra TV asked about the suspicions. “I didn’t use any more heroin than I normally use,” he joked.

Even this year’s Best Actress Oscar-winner Natalie Portman has been bombarded by gossip about her appearance in the movie. First, her rear end was digitally covered for the film’s wide-release trailer—the scene involves Natalie Portman sporting what was originally a thong bikini—while taking a dip in a lagoon. And now that the restricted "Your Highness" trailer has been released, chatter has spiked about whether or not Natalie Portman used a “butt double” for the scene, as well. (No official word on that.)

Your Highness

One thing’s for sure: "Your Highness" actress Natalie Portman looks so smokin’ in that bikini, it’s sure to be the hottest swimsuit for summer, and eBay has plenty of similar swimsuit styles, plus even more gear inspired by the medieval masters of “Your Highness.”

(images courtesy of Frank Connor/Universal Pictures)