EXCLUSIVE: In a recent development, 42.6 Years, the romantic comedy with genre elements starring Andy Samberg, initially announced in 2023, has shifted its distribution from Amazon MGM Studios to Focus Features.
While Samberg was originally slated to co-star with Jean Smart, the Emmy and Golden Globe recipient known for HBO Max’s Hacks, he now has a new romantic lead in five-time Oscar nominee Annette Bening (Nyad). Also joining the project is Michael Schwartz, known for co-directing (with Tyler Nilson) the acclaimed independent features The Peanut Butter Falcon and Los Frikis, who steps in to direct, replacing Craig Gillespie.
The financial specifics of the acquisition deal were not disclosed. Universal Pictures International will manage the film’s worldwide distribution.
Penned by Seth Reiss (The Menu, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey), based on a story by Reiss and Samberg, 42.6 Years centers on Ben (Samberg). After an experimental procedure leaves him cryogenically frozen for 42.6 years, he endeavors to reconnect with his former girlfriend, Ruthie (Bening). The twist is that while he hasn’t aged a day, she has experienced an entire lifetime in his absence.
Ali Bell (Hitchcock, No Strings Attached) and Samberg are set to produce the film under the Party Over Here banner.
Bening earned her fifth Academy Award nomination a couple of years ago for her leading role opposite Jodie Foster in Netflix’s Nyad, portraying the elite long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad. More recently seen in the Peacock miniseries Apple Never Fall and Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride!, Bening next will appear in the Yellowstone spinoff Dutton Ranch, premiering May 15 on Paramount+. Two months later, she’ll be seen starring alongside Anya Taylor-Joy in the Apple TV crime thriller Lucky, an adaptation of Marissa Stapley’s novel. She is represented by CAA and Gochman Law Group.
Schwartz gained prominence with The Peanut Butter Falcon, the lauded 2019 coming-of-age tale about a young man with Down syndrome who dreams of becoming a wrestler, featuring Zack Gottsagen, Dakota Johnson, and Shia LaBeouf. The film won the Narrative Spotlight Audience Award at its SXSW premiere and subsequently earned Schwartz and Nilson a DGA Award nomination for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in First-Time Feature Film. The duo’s subsequent project, Los Frikis, a drama inspired by true events about a group of punk rockers in ’90s Cuba who forge a utopian refuge from society after intentionally infecting themselves with HIV, received similar acclaim. Schwartz is represented by WME, Range Media Partners, and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole, as is Nilson.
Focus Features currently has The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist in theaters, a Sundance documentary helmed by Daniel Roher and Charlie Tyrell, and produced by the directing team behind A24’s Everything Everywhere All at Once. Next for the distributor is the Lorne Michael documentary Lorne on April 17. This year, the specialty label will also release Curry Barker’s horror film Obsession (May 15), the coming-of-age romance Girls Like Girls (June 19), the British rom-com Finding Emily (August 28) starring Angourie Rice and Spike Fearn, a new Sense and Sensibility (October 16) starring Daisy Edgar-Jones, and Robert Eggers’ Werwulf (December 25), among other international market projects.
Samberg is represented by UTA and Johnson, Shapiro, Slewett & Kole; Reiss by UTA, Framework Collective, and Hansen.