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Hulu's best rom-coms combine classic tropes with fresh storytelling to create enjoyable movies. The chemistry between the main cast is crucial for a good romantic comedy. Hulu offers a mix of classic and newer rom-coms, giving viewers a variety of options to choose from.

Romantic comedies are often dismissed as a genre as a whole for being cheesy, but there are plenty of romantic comedies that can take classic tropes, combine them with stellar performances, and end up with great movies, which is exactly what the best rom-coms on Hulu are able to do. Hulu offers a variety of romantic movies, and while a lot of the offerings on the streamer lean more toward the dramatic end of the genre, there is still a rom-com for everyone.

A good romantic comedy needs great chemistry in its main cast. It also can't be afraid to acknowledge the tropes of the...

Exclusive: Verve has grown its partner roster.

The agency has promoted Parker Davis and Tyler Reynolds to partners.

Davis has been Co-Head of the Motion Picture Literary since 2022, while Reynolds is Head of Television Directing.

The move is the latest internal move at the agency, which hired Jenni Ferrari-Adler to its media rights team earlier this year.

Davis was employee number five at the company and was promoted to agent in 2012. His clients include Arkasha Stevenson (The First Omen), Emily Carmichael (Jurassic World: Dominion), James Morosini (I Love My Dad), Richard Wong (The Valet), Derek Connolly (The Legend of Zelda), Bragi Schut (Samaritan) and Sarah Streicher (The Wilds).

Reynolds joined Verve in 2021 through the acquisition of New Deal Mfg. Co. He has a big list of television directors including Fred Berner and Amy Durning, who produced Maestro, Arthur Forney and Anastasia Puglisi, who work with Wolf Entertainment, Allen Coulter (Tulsa...

Exclusive: Verve has made several key promotions this week across the motion picture and television literary teams with Partners Felicia Prinz and Chris Noriega being upped to Co-Heads overseeing the Television Literary Team, Parker Davis and Liz Parker will assume the Co-Head mantle of the Motion Picture Literary Team, and Tyler Reynolds has been promoted to head the Television Director Team. Reynolds will report to Prinz and Noriega. In these newly created positions, Prinz, Noriega, Davis, Parker, and Reynolds will be responsible for the day-to-day management of their respective teams while working alongside the Partnership to streamline decision making, communication and to provide strategic support.

“As Verve continues to scale, we realize that empowering our valuable colleagues is the best way to maintain our unique work culture while providing the best creative representation in the business,” said the Partnership. “Felicia, Chris, Parker, Liz, and Tyler are highly respected by their colleagues,...

The Valet Review — The Valet (2022) Film Review, a movie directed by Richard Wong, written by Bob Fisher, Rob Greenberg and Francis Verber and starring Eugenio Derbez, Samara Weaving, Max Greenfield, Betsy Brandt, Carmen Salinas, Amaury Nolasco, Carlos Santos, Marisol Nichols, Diany Rodriguez, Tiana Okoye, John Pirruccello, Ravi Patel, Joshua Vasquez, Alex Fernandez, [...]

Continue reading: Film Review: The Valet (2022): A Cute Comedy That Starts Strong but Fizzles Out at the End...

It’s unlikely that anyone was holding their breath for an English-language reimagining of Francis Veber’s 2006 French hit “La Doublure,” a lovable if trite farce in which a porter and a supermodel fake a romantic relationship in order to prevent a PR disaster. But with the help of some doting cultural specificity, a charming cast and sunshiny Los Angeles skies, “Come As You Are” director Richard Wong’s “The Valet” proves that a remake can still be a welcome thing these days, even in a world oversaturated with them.

Written by Bob Fisher and Rob Greenberg (the duo behind the “Overboard” remake), this sweet-natured and good-humored rom-com-with-a-twist should easily find reasonable streaming success upon its May 20 launch on Hulu. This version of the story brings its distinctly “Notting Hill” beats to Tinseltown, where the modest and socially awkward Antonio works as a valet, parking the fancy cars of a...

Arguably, Mexican film and television superstar Eugenio Derbez has already conquered the American market. His 2013 film “Instructions Not Included” is the highest grossing Spanish-language film in the U.S. and grossed 100 million worldwide. He earned a SAG Award as part of the “Coda” ensemble cast, which went on to win the Best Picture Oscar, and he co-starred in the hit action-adventure “Dora and the Lost City of Gold.”

However, the attempts to launch him as a romantic leading man — in 2017’s “How to Be a Latin Lover” and 2018’s “Overboard,” a remake of the 1987 comedy — haven’t exactly lit the world on fire, even if they have been profitable.

But if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again, and Derbez is back, with “Overboard” writers Bob Fisher and Rob Greenberg, starring in and producing Hulu’s “The Valet,” directed by Richard Wong. It’s a remake of the...

Eugenio Derbez has been working on getting “The Valet” made for quite some time.

“When we started writing this, Barack Obama was the president. Then Trump came in and we decided to change everything, because it was a different country,” the actor told me at the film’s premiere on Wednesday night at The Montalbán in Hollywood. “So it took us like, seven years to get the final draft. But I think we nailed it. This is a love letter to Latinos and working class immigrants, but it’s also a very, very funny movie.”

Derbez stars in the Hulu rom-com as a valet attendant who is hired to pretend he’s dating a movie star (Samara Weaving) so she could squash rumors that she’s having an affair with a Los Angeles real estate tycoon (Max Greenfield).

“Prior to this, it was more like a comedy just to be a comedy,...

The Valet Trailer — Richard Wong‘s The Valet (2022) movie trailer has been released by Hulu. The Valet trailer stars Eugenio Derbez, Max Greenfield, Carmen Salinas Lozano, Betsy Brandt, Amaury Nolasco, Marisol Nichols, Diany Rodriguez, Tiana Okoye, John Pirrucello, Ravi Patel, Noemí González, and Lunay. Crew Rob Greenberg and Bob Fisher wrote the screenplay for [...]

Continue reading: The Valet (2022) Movie Trailer: Eugenio Derbez & Samara Weaving star in Richard Wong’s Fish-out-of-water Comedy...

Hulu has debuted the brand new trailer for the upcoming comedy ‘The Valet’ featuring Samara Weaving.

World-famous movie star, Olivia (Samara Weaving) faces a PR disaster when a paparazzi snaps a photo of her with her married lover, Vincent (Max Greenfield). The hard-working valet Antonio (Eugenio Derbez) accidentally appears in the same photo and is enlisted to pose as Olivia’s new boyfriend as a cover-up. This ruse with Olivia thrusts Antonio into the spotlight and unexpected chaos. In this fish out of water romantic comedy, two worlds and cultures collide as both Olivia and Antonio start to see themselves more clearly than ever before.

Directed by Richard Wong, it stars Eugenio Derbez (“Coda”), Samara Weaving (“Nine Perfect Strangers”), Max Greenfield (“New Girl”), Betsy Brandt (“Breaking Bad”), Carmen Salinas Lozano, Amaury Nolasco, Marisol Nichols, Diany Rodriguez, Tiana Okoye, John Pirrucello, Ravi Patel, Noemí González, and Lunay.

Also in trailers – Mike Myers...

Hulu today announced that its original film The Valet, starring Eugenio Derbez (Coda) and Samara Weaving (Nine Perfect Strangers), will premiere globally across Disney’s streaming services on May 20th.

In The Valet, world famous movie star Olivia (Weaving) faces a PR disaster when a paparazzi snaps a photo of her with her married lover, Vincent (Max Greenfield). The hard-working valet Antonio (Derbez) accidentally appears in the same photo and is enlisted to pose as Olivia’s new boyfriend as a cover-up. This ruse with Olivia thrusts Antonio into the spotlight and unexpected chaos. In this fish out of water romantic comedy, two worlds and cultures collide as both Olivia and Antonio start to see themselves more clearly than ever before.

The Valet is an English-language remake of the hit 2006 French film of the same name, which also stars Betsy Brandt, Carmen Salinas Lozano, Amaury Nolasco, Marisol Nichols, Diany Rodriguez,...

No two ways about it: April’s a great month for the Criterion Channel, which (among other things; more in a second) adds two recent favorites. We’re thrilled at the SVOD premiere of Hamaguchi’s entrancing Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, our #3 of 2021, and Bruno Dumont’s lacerating France, featuring Léa Seydoux’s finest performance yet.

Ethan Hawke’s Adventures in Moviegoing runs the gamut from Eagle Pennell’s Last Night at the Alamo to 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, while a 14-film John Ford retro (mostly) skips westerns altogether. And no notes on the Delphine Seyrig retro—multiple by Akerman, Ulrike Ottinger, Duras, a smattering of Buñuel, and Seyrig’s own film Be Pretty and Shut Up! That of all things might be the crown jewl.

See the full list of April titles below and more on the Criterion Channel.

—

3 Bad Men, John Ford, 1926

Aar paar, Guru Dutt,...

Lionsgate’s English-language remake of Francis Veber’s French feature hit The Valet has been acquired by Disney’s direct-to-consumer platforms for a summer 2022 release as a Hulu Original in the U.S. and a Disney+ Star Original abroad.

Directed by Richard Wong and starring Eugenio Derbez and Samara Weaving, The Valet follows Olivia (Weaving), a movie star who enlists Antonio (Derbez) – a parking valet – to pose as her lover to cover for a relationship with a married man (Max Greenfield). As a valet, the hard-working Antonio usually flies under the radar but his ruse with Olivia thrusts him into the spotlight and brings him to see himself more clearly than ever before.

Betsy Brandt, Marisol Nichols, Noemi Gonzalez, Carmen Salinas, Ravi Patel, Tiana Okoye, Diany Rodriguez, Armando Hernández, Carlos Santos, Amaury Nolasco, John Pirucello and Alex Fernandez also star. Additionally, in a previously unannounced supporting role, Reggaeton superstar Lunay...

“The Valet” is switching distributors.

The upcoming comedy starring Eugenio Derbez of “Instructions Not Included” fame was originally set up for release by Lionsgate. It’s been sold to the Walt Disney Company, which will release it domestically on Hulu in summer 2022. “The Valet” will be released internationally on Disney Plus as a Star Original.

The film is an English-language remake of a French film of the same name. It is directed by Richard Wong (“Come as You Are”) and co-stars Samara Weaving (“Ready or Not”).

The cast also includes Max Greenfield, Betsy Brandt, Marisol Nichols, Noemi Gonzalez, Carmen Salinas, Ravi Patel, Tiana Okoye, Diany Rodriguez, Armando Hernández, Carlos Santos, Amaury Nolasco, John Pirucello and Alex Fernandez. Reggaeton superstar Lunay will make his film acting debut.

Weaving plays Olivia, a movie star who enlists Antonio (Derbez), a parking valet, to pose as her lover to cover for a relationship with...

Exclusive: Noemi Gonzalez, Tiana Okoye, Diany Rodriguez, Armando Hernandez, and Carlos Santos have been added to the cast of Lionsgate’s The Valet, the English-language remake of Francis Veber’s French film.

The new additions are joining stars Eugenio Derbez and Samara Weaving in the film, which is being directed by Richard Wong.

The film, written by Rob Greenberg and Bob Fisher, follows Olivia (Weaving), a movie star who enlists Antonio (Derbez) – a parking valet – to pose as her lover to cover for a relationship with a married man. As a valet, the hard-working Antonio usually flies under the radar but his ruse with Olivia thrusts him into the spotlight and brings...

This number will increase as Cannes, Venice and other summer festival titles are added to the mix alongside studio releases.

French cinemas reopen this Wednesday (May 19) after lying dark for six months due to the Covid-19 pandemic, with the country’s 100-plus distributors rushing to set theatrical dates for an estimated backlog of 400 stalled films.

As a result, French cinemagoers will have access to the richest and most diverse offering of films in the world over the coming months, spanning festival titles, local mainstream comedies and dramas, world cinema and studio blockbuster fare, as the summer advances.

As of May...

Exclusive: Max Greenfield, Marisol Nichols, Betsy Brandt, and legendary Mexican screen and television icon Carmen Salinas are the latest to board the Lionsgate English-language remake of the French hit The Valet, joining stars Eugenio Derbez and Samara Weaving.

Richard Wong is directing the film, which is in production. The original version was written and directed by Francis Veber.

Weaving stars as Olivia, a movie star who enlists Antonio (Derbez) – a parking valet – to pose as her lover to cover for a relationship with a married man. As a valet, the hard-working Antonio usually flies under the radar, but his ruse with Olivia thrusts him into the spotlight and brings him to see himself more clearly than ever before.

Greenfield, from TV’s The Neighborhood and New Girl, will play Vincent Royce, the charming, boyishly handsome business mogul. Nichols, who is known for the CW’s Riverdale and appears in Lionsgate’s upcoming film Spiral,...

Exclusive: Ravi Patel, Amaury Nolasco and John Pirruccello have boarded Lionsgate’s English-language remake of the hit French film The Valet directed by Richard Wong.

In the film, Samara Weaving will play Olivia, a movie star who enlists parking valet Antonio, played by Eugenio Derbez, to pose as her lover to cover for a relationship with a married man. As a Latinx valet, the hardworking Antonio usually moves through the world anonymously, but through the ruse, he comes to be seen as the worthy person he always has been.

The Valet is written by Rob Greenberg and Bob Fisher, the team that penned Derbez’s hit film Overboard, which took in $91 million worldwide. Derbez and his producing partner Ben Odell produce through their 3Pas Studios banner.

Patel plays Kapoor, a private investigator. Patel most recently starred in Warner Bros’ Wonder Woman 1984 as Babajide. He stars next in Paul A. Kaufman...

Samara Weaving, who made heads explode with her breakout turn in horror hit Ready or Not, is taking a comedic turn, closing a deal to star opposite Eugenio Derbez in Lionsgate’s English-language remake of the French film The Valet.

Richard Wong, who helmed the well-regarded road trip comedy Come as You Are, will direct.

Weaving will play a movie star who enlists a parking valet named Antonio (Derbez) to pose as her lover to cover for a relationship with a married man. As a Latinx valet, the hard-working Antonio usually moves through the world anonymously, but through the ruse, he comes ...

Samara Weaving, who made heads explode with her breakout turn in horror hit Ready or Not, is taking a comedic turn, closing a deal to star opposite Eugenio Derbez in Lionsgate’s English-language remake of the French film, The Valet.

Richard Wong, who helmed the well-regarded road trip comedy Come as You Are, will direct.

Weaving will play a movie star who enlists a parking valet named Antonio (Derbez) to pose as her lover to cover for a relationship with a married man. As a Latinx valet, the hard-working Antonio usually moves through the world anonymously, but through the ruse, he ...

Chiseled as a haiku, director Wayne Wang’s “Coming Home Again” . Formally impeccable and observant, the “Joy Luck Club” filmmaker’s latest wastes none of its 85 minutes in unpeeling the relationship between Chang-rae (Justin Chon) and his ailing mom (Jackie Chung). At the heart of this Ozu-esque drama is Chung, who supplies a heartbreaking performance as a woman trying to make up for lost time, while also trying to explain to her son why time slipped from under her in the first place, leaving behind some potent maxims and Korean recipes in the process.

“Coming Home Again” is co-written by Wang and the real Chang-rae Lee from his moving 1995 New Yorker essay. The movie transplants that piece’s late-1980s period to present-day San Francisco, the now-gentrified hub to the Bay Area tech bubble that has all but engulfed the city’s multicultural foundation. Chang-rae has abandoned his life as...

Director Wayne Wang made his name with films like “The Joy Luck Club,” “Eat a Bowl of Tea” and “Smoke,” intimate works in which he showed his adeptness at detailing the small rituals of life (particularly those having to do with food) and at creating a strong sense of place. “Coming Home Again,” which opens in theaters and virtual cinemas on Friday, does both of those things, and it’s one of the quietest and most restrained movies ever made by a director who’s never been one for overstatement.

An elegant chamber piece that deals with big issues – life, death, family, guilt, grief – in a beautifully austere way, “Coming Home Again” rarely raises its voice, but it cuts deeply.

At first, it is a film of vignettes: a man (played by Justin Chon) prepares food and talks about his mother’s cooking advice; he runs up a hill in San Francisco,...

Takings remain small as cinemas steadily reopen following Covid-19 closures.

RankFilm (Distributor)Three-day gross (Jul 10-12)Total gross to date Week 1 Onward (Disney) £48,142 £5.43m 6 2 Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (Disney) £32,556 £83,067 2 3 Trolls World Tour (Universal) £23,586 £115,437 2 4 Black Water: Abyss (Altitude) £16,093 £60,000 2 5 Dirty Dancing (30th anniversary) £14,498 £293,319 166

Gbp to Usd conversion rate: 1.26.

Disney has continued to lead the post-lockdown box office in the UK and Ireland with Pixar animation Onward and a re-release of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back taking the top two slots.

In the absence of any new major releases, Onward returned to the top of the box office with £48,142 across...

Only three new titles will be playing on the opening weekend.

The UK film release schedule is coming together for July and August as the industry approaches the first weekend that cinemas are allowed to reopen.

However, a lack of venues and the difficulty of coordinating international releases means only two films have confirmed new releases for the first weekend of July, with another beginning previews.

As of July 1, 18 new films will be released into UK cinemas in July. The majority of these are small releases, with none coming from the major studios.

The new titles confirmed for the reopening...

We return once again to the review round-up, ladies and gentlemen! As always, this comes when the week just had too many films to review, so we’re bringing the remaining ones together in one handy post. Today, we have a pair of movies hoping to grab your interest this weekend. They are, as tends to be the case, quite different from one another. We have the road trip comedy Comes As You Are, as well as the satirical comedy The Misogynists. One of the two is actually among the best titles of the year so far. The other? Well, not so much. Read on to find out more… Come As You Are There are a number of ways that Come As You Are could have gone very wrong. A road trip comedy, sprinkled in with dramatic elements, featuring a trio of disabled individuals hoping to lose their virginity? The...

With the 2020 summer Olympics around the corner, the timing of the release of the IFC Films romantic comedy Olympic Dreams couldn’t be any more perfect — but this isn’t an ordinary rom-com or a film about the Olympics.

Directed by Jeremy Teicher, who co-wrote it with his wife and real-life Olympian Alexi Pappas and Nick Kroll (Big Mouth), the film was actually shot on location during the Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang 2018 in Athletes Village. This marks the first time a feature was shot at a the Olympics. To add to that, the film was shot using improvisation of the script in just two weeks.

“Olympic Dreams is IFC Films to its core,” Arianna Bocco, Evp, Film Acquisitions & Production, tells Deadline. “It’s original, independent filmmaking.”

Kroll and Pappas star in the love story between two unlikely — and lonely — people who...

Too often, we define marginalized groups as targets of oppression or as social justice fighters, but rarely as just regular people who wake up every day, pee, go to work and have sex like the rest of the world. Director Richard Wong attempts to offer this more humanized narrative that centers on disabled characters in his surprisingly tender new comedy, “Come As You Are.”

But in doing so, he provokes a similarly important thought: Why are all the leads played by able-bodied actors?

Inspired by Asta Philpot’s real-life journey, “Come As You Are” is an intriguing rom-com slash coming-of-age tale along the lines of “American Pie,” except told through the perspective of three disabled young men with dreams of escaping their fiercely guarded lives and getting laid. The abrasive Scotty, who uses a wheelchair, lives with his mother and caregiver, Liz (Janeane Garofalo), who is tethered to him so...

Richard Wong, whose Ravi Patel-Gabourey Sidibe road trip comedy Come As You Are was picked up by Samuel Goldwyn last fall, is attached to direct an adaptation of Melissa de La Cruz’s 29 Dates at Disney+.

I hear it’s very early days for this project with rewrites currently underway. The book was adapted by Lauren Moon who Wong will work closely with to supervise the next draft. There are no immediate plans for the movie to go into production or audition actors. Gotham Group’s Ellen Goldsmith-Vein and Lee Stollman will produce. Wong is repped by Verve, Ragna Nervik Management and Hansen Jacobson.

29 Dates follows 16-year old Jisu Kim who struggles against the academic pressure exerted by her ambitious parents, who also set her up on a number of seon (matchmaker) dates to meet appropriate young men from Seoul to San Francisco. The book has been compared to Jenny Han...

The first trailer for Come As You Are has arrived. This is the latest from director Richard Wong, which made its debut earlier this year at SXSW in Austin, Texas to much acclaim from those who saw it. Those who weren't in attendance at the festival will soon have the chance to check it out for themselves, as it's making its way to theaters in the U.S. in early 2020. And, based on this trailer, this promises to put a pretty unique, real-life spin on the classic road trip comedy.

As we can see from the trailer, the idea here is that three young guys with different disabilities have decided to take a journey together. They're on a quest to lose their V-cards. Hijinks ensue. What's amazing is that the movie seems to, more or less, be playing with the standard format associated with these movies. Yet, this is based on a completely crazy,...

"To our boners!" Samuel Goldwyn Films has unveiled an official trailer for an indie sex comedy titled Come As You Are, which first premiered at the SXSW Film Festival earlier this year. It also went on to play at the Traverse City, Calgary, Tallgrass, Philadelphia, and Napa Valley Film Festivals throughout the past year. This film is yet another of the English-language remakes of European films (this one is based on Hasta La Vista). Three young men with disabilities hit the road with a jaded nurse as a driver to a brothel in Montreal catering to people with special needs. Starring Grant Rosenmeyer, Hayden Szeto, & Ravi Patel, plus Gabourey Sidibe, Delaney Feener, Asta Philpot, Janeane Garofalo, and C.S. Lee. This looks like an amusing, uplifting "buddy pic" about some folks who don't normally get the spotlight in indie comedies. Here's the official trailer (+ poster) for Richard Wong's Come As You Are,...

Wayne Wang is one of the pioneers of Asian-American cinema, often providing a unique voice on the topics of identity, immigration and integration. In his long and fruitful career, listing 22 feature-length films over the course of 44 years, he has made some of the biggest and most beloved indie hits like “The Joy Luck Club” (1993) and “Smoke” (1995), had his chance of earning Hollywood fame with “Maid in Manhattan” (2002), but he always came back to Asian-American themes. The other thing characteristic for Wang is the tendency to work with the material sourced in literature. Both stated facts hold for his latest film, “Coming Home Again”, which was shown at Toronto and Busan before having its European premiere in the official selection at Black Nights Film Festival in Tallinn.

However, “Coming Home Again” will take a special place in Wang’s filmography. The reason for that is the type of the material he works with: a deeply personal,...

Other winners include the UK’s ‘Looted’ and the Philippines’ ‘Kalel, 15’.

Japanese drama Kontora has won the grand prix at the 23rd Black Nights Film Festival, held in the Estonian capital of Tallinn.

Scroll down for full list of winners

The black-and-white feature, produced by Kowatanda Films, received its world premiere at the festival and marks the second live-action feature of India-born animator Anshul Chauhan. The story centres on a teenager who searches for a mysterious trove, guided by her grandfather’s WWII-era diary.

Chauhan, who was in Tallinn to accept the honour at an awards ceremony tonight, will receive...

Other winners include the UK’s ‘Looted’ and the Philippines’ ‘Kalel, 15’.

Japanese drama Kontora has won the grand prix at the 23rd Black Nights Film Festival, held in the Estonian capital of Tallinn.

Scroll down for full list of winners

The black-and-white feature, produced by Kowatanda Films, received its world premiere at the festival and marks the second live-action feature of India-born animator Anshul Chauhan. The story centres on a teenager who searches for a mysterious trove, guided by her grandfather’s WWII-era diary.

Chauhan, who was in Tallinn to accept the honour at an awards ceremony tonight, will receive...

Asian cinema emerges victorious at the Award Ceremony of the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival with the Grand Prix going to Japanese “Kontora” and the Best Director award to Filippino filmmaker Jun Robles Jana for “Kalel, 15”.

In the festival’s premiere competition programme, the Official Selection – Competition Japanese film Kontora, directed, produced and written by Anshul Chauhan emerged victorious, nabbing the festival’s Grand Prix and the Best Music award that was handed to Yuma Koda. The film centres on the problematic relationship of a single father and his teenage daughter in economic distress, as a stranger, a mute man who only walks backwards enters their lives forcing them to confront their emotional reality.

But let’s see them all:

Kontora

Official Selection Competition

Grand Prix for the Best Film (grant of 10 000 euros from the City of Tallinn, shared by the Director and Producer):

Kontora (Japan)

Director and producer:...

Exclusive: We hear that Samuel Goldwyn Films has acquired U.S. rights to Richard Wong’s road trip comedy Come As You Are which made its world premiere at SXSW Film Festival.

Pic centers around three young men with disabilities who flee their overbearing parents on a road trip to a brothel in Montreal catering to people with special needs. Sam (Precious lead actress Oscar nominee and Empire‘s Gabourey Sidibe), a traveling nurse, drives the three guys across the border as they go on this trip to lose their virginity and embrace their independence. Janeane Garofalo and C.S. Lee also star. Pic will be released early next year.

“Richard Wong perfectly balances the sweet, funny, and dramatic moments anchored by the outstanding performances from Grant, Hayden, Ravi, and Gabourey. We’re thrilled to bring such a hilarious movie...

An intimate chamber piece that tightly interlaces remembrances of food and family, Wayne Wang’s quietly sensitive “Coming Home Again” adapts Chang-rae Lee’s award-winning 1995 New Yorker essay, a personal piece on Lee’s caring for his terminally ill mother and cooking her Korean dishes. A filmmaker with a diverse slate that includes the likes of “The Joy Luck Club” and female-centric populist films like “Maid in Manhattan” and “Last Holiday,” Wang operates loosely in the vein of his 1995 film “Smoke” here: incisively observant and attentive to items, mining in objects emotional traces of those who touched them.

But as with his other work, he is also precise in culturally detailing a contemporary San Francisco-based Asian American immigrant family facing a major life crisis. Wang is no stranger to exploring the immigrant experience in America — in films such as “Chan Is Missing,” “The Princess of Nebraska” and “A Thousand Years of Good Prayers,...

Asta Philpot is a quadriplegic man like few others. He is the subject of a new comedy-drama film Come As You Are, which is a remake of the 2011 Belgian movie Hasta La Vista. The film follows three friends, including Philpot, who have disabilities and who decide to go on a road trip together in Europe. There, the three young […]

The post Video Exclusive: Asta Philpot & Richard Wong On ‘Come As You Are,’ Portraying People With Disabilities In Film appeared first on uInterview.

Verve has signed filmmaker Richard Wong, The Hollywood Reporter has exclusively learned.

His most recent feature, Come as You Are, premiered in March at SXSW and is a remake of the 2011 Belgian film Hasta la Vista. In both pics, three young men with disabilities take a road trip to a brothel that concentrates on clients with special needs. The trio in the new movie are played by Grant Rosenmeyer (The Royal Tenenbaums), Hayden Szeto (The Edge of Seventeen) and Ravi Patel (Master of None), who are able-bodied, while Gabourey Sidibe also stars as the jaded nurse who drives them.

Wong's directorial ...

Verve has signed filmmaker Richard Wong, The Hollywood Reporter has exclusively learned.

His most recent feature, Come as You Are, premiered in March at SXSW and is a remake of the 2011 Belgian film Hasta la Vista. In both pics, three young men with disabilities take a road trip to a brothel that concentrates on clients with special needs. The trio in the new movie are played by Grant Rosenmeyer (The Royal Tenenbaums), Hayden Szeto (The Edge of Seventeen) and Ravi Patel (Master of None), who are able-bodied, while Gabourey Sidibe also stars as the jaded nurse who drives them.

Wong's directorial ...

Road trip comedy adapted from Belgian comedy Hasta La Vista.

Blue Fox Entertainment announced has acquired international rights to the SXSW road trip comedy Come As You Are and will launch sales in Cannes.

Richard Wong directed the remake of Geoffrey Enthoven’s 2011 Belgian comedy Hasta La Vista, and UTA Independent Film Group handles Us rights.

The story inspired by the life of Asta Philpot follows three young men with disabilities who flee their overbearing parents on a road trip to a Montreal brothel that caters to people with special needs.

Grant Rosenmeyer, Hayden Szeto, Ravi Patel, Gabourey Sidibe, Janeane Garofalo,...

A charming remake of the Belgian comedy Hasta La Vista, inspired by actual events, Richard Wong’s Come As You Are is the story of three men with various disabilities who set out on an international road trip highlighting the very real need to be touched. Of course, for 24-year-old Scotty (Grant Rosenmeyer) a quadriplegic amateur rapper, he wants a little more than to be touched by his loving mother Liz (Janeane Garofalo). Crudely, there is one part of his body that still works.

Matt (Hayden Szeto) is a new client, a boxer whose body has just started to fail him. He’s recently confined to a wheelchair and having trouble adjusting to the new demands. Scotty, by comparison, has been wheelchair-bound with limited mobility since birth. The third member of the trio, Mo (Ravi Patel), is a blind 35-year-old who works at a clinic where he meets Scotty and Matt.

The rare remake that’s actually a slight improvement on its predecessor, Richard Wong’s “Come as You Are” translates Geoffrey Enthoven’s 2011 Belgian “Hasta la Vista” to middle America. Other changes are less substantial, but this seriocomedy has a less formulaic feel than the original while remaining a crowd-pleasing buddy pic-caper with a soft-pedaled minority empowerment theme. Reception in real-world disabled communities may be somewhat muted by the casting of able-bodied actors in the lead roles. Nonetheless, it’s hard to entirely resist this loosely fact-inspired tale of three physically challenged men road-tripping to Montreal in order to lose their virginity at a “special needs” bordello.

Sticking close in outline to the earlier screenplay by Mariano VanHoof and Pierre de Clercq, Erik Linthorst’s script centers on a trio of protagonists all stuck living with their parents in adulthood. Paraplegic Scotty, whose congenital defect makes him particularly dependent on...

Founder in talks for first-look deal with Endeavor Content.

The Black List founder Franklin Leonard is mulling the expansion of his influential system of gathering and assessing unproduced scripts to include other markets and non-English language projects.

“I’ve been trying to figure out for a while how to expand The Black List into the Spanish language market,” Leonard told an industry talk at the Doha Film Institute’s Qumra project and talent development event in Qatar.

The challenge, said Leonard, is while the Spanish-language market is vast and encompasses some 500million Spanish speakers worldwide, the various Spanish-speaking film and...

A remake of a 2011 Belgian film called Hasta La Vista, Richard Wong's Come As You Are is a charming, poignant, affectionate take on the road trip movie with an eye toward building compassion for those who are so often overlooked in day to day life. A trio of men with disabilities abscond from their daily lives to take a journey across the country to a house of ill repute that caters to people like them. Based on the true life tale of Asta Philpot who made the pilgrimage from the UK to Spain to lose his virginity, Come As You Are is the embodiment of the classic Roger Ebert quote that "movies are like a machine that generate empathy", helping the audience to put...

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IndieWire reached out to the directors and cinematographers behind the scripted narrative features premiering this week at SXSW to find out which cameras, lenses, and formats they used, and why they chose them to create the looks and meet the production demands of their films. Here are their responses.

“The Art of Self-Defense”

Camera: Panasonic Varicam 35 and Lt

Director Riley Stearns: I wanted to stay away from an overly clean image for this film. My cinematographer Michael Ragen and I were impressed with the Varicam’s subtle noise which felt quite filmic — the images coming out of the camera had an aesthetically pleasing grit to them. Additionally, we knew going into the shoot that there would be a lot of scenes shot at night, so the low light capabilities of the Varicam immediately set it apart from other cameras. We knew we wanted to do an Hdr grade of...

Exclusive: Three disabled men, one no-nonsense nurse and a trip to a brothel that caters to people with special needs. That pretty much sums up the SXSW film Come As You Are directed by Richard Wong and written by Erik Linthorst.

Based on the 2011 Belgian film Hasta La Vista, the dramedy stars Grant Rosenmeyer, Hayden Szeto, and Ravi Patel as the aforementioned trio who escape their overbearing parents so that they can go to a Montreal brothel to lose their virginity and embrace their independence. Sidibe stars as a nurse who drives the three to said brothel and as seen from the brazenly funny clip above, she doesn’t take anyone’s lip — and don’t call her sweetheart.

The film also stars Janeane Garofalo and C.S. Lee. Executive producers are Franklin Leonard, Ted Reilly and Kelly Waller with Rosenmeyer, Barrett Stuart, and Jacqueline “Jj” Ingram serving as producers.

Come...

The capital city of Texas prides itself with their motto “Keep Austin Weird” and it spills over into their well-known events — especially South by Southwest (SXSW). Since its debut in 1987, the festival has become a holy trinity of music, interactive and film — and it has grown into a premiere festival and conference which attracts people from all over the globe. In particular, the film festival has remained consistent with its brand, featuring numerous films that range from unorthodox art house pics to bold comedies to risk-taking drama to the unapologetically bizarre genre features. At the same, all the films seem to connect in a “weird” way that makes a statement and resonates with audiences. If Sundance and Tiff had a rebellious sibling who liked to shake things up an make things fun when it came to film festivals, SXSW would be exactly that. From March 8-17, SXSW will continue the...

Not all heroes wear capes, and in Sean Hanish’s “Saint Judy,” not all heroes can afford those capes.

Judy Wood (Michelle Monaghan) is a determined and devoted immigration lawyer for her clients. Unfortunately, she’s better at arguing cases than she is at paying bills or spending time with her son, Alex. While she’s a soft-hearted advocate, Judy’s tough when it comes to the courtroom. Monaghan embodies Judy’s attributes into her performance, whether it’s her character’s zealous sense of duty, her persistence in keeping her relationship with her son, or her frazzled exhaustion at the end of the day when there are still so many people still left to help.

In some ways, Judy’s personality sounds so familiar because she shares many qualities with other well-meaning and determined lawyers in movies. Think Atticus Finch from “To Kill a Mockingbird,” a man who believed...

The traditional biopic is slowly becoming a relic of the cinematic past. By and large, films made about real life public figures tend to try and find a new angle in depicting someone’s life. That way, it can never feel recycled or stale. However, some movies are still taking the tried and true path. Occasionally, it still works, but most of the time, it ends up feeling a bit empty. Such is the case with Saint Judy, a well intentioned and undeniably timely biopic that never fully realizes its potential. The story being told is important, for sure. Unfortunately, its depiction leaves something to be desired. The film is a look at attorney Judy Wood (Michelle Monaghan), who would single-handedly changed the asylum laws in the United States, all in an effort to help save women’s lives. A public defender, Judy accepts a job out west in California...

Domestic violence and black comedy don’t seem a natural match, but to an impressive degree “Bitter Melon” pulls off their shotgun marriage. This third and best directorial feature to date for H.P. Mendoza, best known for writing, composing and starring in 2006’s “Colma: The Musical” (which Richard Wong directed), revolves around an eventful long Christmas weekend for members of a Filipino-American family with a history of abusive fathers. The complex tonal, textural and thematic mix here doesn’t always work, but it’s always interesting and often invigorating.

Christmas in San Francisco may not require winter wear, but there’s a certain amount of frost in the air as the Santos clan convenes for a rare (and nearly full) family reunion. Gay youngest son Declan (Jon Norman Schneider) has flown in from Manhattan, with eldest Moe (Brian Rivera) from Philadelphia, both returning for for the first time in years.

You may have heard of a T-Rex, but what about a Z-Rex? Ahead of its release this summer, Wild Eye Releasing unveiled the trailer and poster for The Jurassic Dead, which headlines today's Horror Highlights. We also have details on the start of filming for the new horror movie irl and Hulu release details for the sci-fi thriller Twenty Twenty-Four.

Jurassic Dead Trailer and Poster: Press Release: "Premiering at Efm in Berlin, where it’ll be stumped internationally, the first trailer and poster for The Jurassic Dead.

Released Summer 2018 (alongside that other ‘Jurassic’ movie) The Jurassic Dead is part Jurassic Park part The Walking Dead, with a T-Rex turning everyone it attacks into a zombie!

A unit of mercenaries must team up with a group of tech-geek students after American is struck with an Emp attack. Deep in the desert, they find the source of the terror, a mad scientist...