The latest leaked Sony emails show a fiery dispute over the budget of Pineapple Express 2 - a sequel to the 2008 action-comedy starring Seth Rogen and James Franco. The first film was a surprise hit and grossed $101 million worldwide on a budget of just $25 million.

Seth RogenSeth Rogen has been kicking ideas around for Pineapple Express 2

The stoner comedy was produced by Judd Apatow and written by Rogen and his pal Evan Goldberg (who recently worked on the controversial comedy The Interview). The comedy became an even bigger hit on home video, selling 2.5 million DVDs for $43 million in revenue in 2009 alone. 

On April 2013, Sony released a fake trailer for Pineapple Express 2 as an April Fools Day prank, featuring Rogen, Franco, Danny McBride and Jonah Hill. However, in the latest leaked emails, it appeared Sony had serious plans for a sequel before baulking over the budget.

More: check out the Pineapple Express 2 trailer

"I am so glad we are so close to getting pineapple express 2 figured out," Apatow wrote to chairman Amy Pascal, "I am very excited to make this thing real. We are very inspired creatively on this one. We have hilarious ideas. It is gonna be awesome. We learned so much on how to make these comedy sequels when we did anchorman 2. And we rocked that marketing campaign. Foreign is doing awesome too. I am sure PE2 will do even better! Marijuana is so popular now! It's on every corner."

More: James Franco and Seth Rogen spoof Kanye West's Bound 2 video

The same day, Pascal emailed Rogen to tell him that Apatow had spoken to her about a sequel, with Rogen replying, "We spent a lot of time kicking around ideas during the interview with Franco. Got some stuff we are pretty psyched about. It would be a blast."

However, Apatow wanted $50 million, while Sony demanded $45 million, citing that The Interview was made for only $40 million. 

An email from Michael De Luca, co-president of production at Columbia Pictures, to Jay Galston, president of motion picture business development at Sony, said: "we don't need to run it at 50 just because Judd is saying 50, keep it at 45."