The first time that Andy Samberg and screenwriter Andy Siara teamed up, the end result was last year's Palm Springs – one of the most entertaining new releases of 2020 and an excellent spin on the time loop sci-fi subgenre. That in mind, the news that they are once again teaming up to make another film is exciting all by itself – but what makes it vastly more exciting is that this time around the awesome talents of Ben Stiller, Noah Hawley, and Raphael Bob-Waksberg are also involved.
Details about the project are being kept very hush-hush at the moment, but The Hollywood Reporter says that the movie is already set up for distribution and production at Apple Studios. It's described as a "sci-fi comedy-drama," with the original idea coming from Raphael Bob-Waksberg, who is best known for creating Netflix's incredible original series Bojack Horseman. Andy Samberg will both be starring in the film and producing it, while Andy Siara is handling screenwriting duties. As for Ben Stiller and Noah Hawley (creator of the brilliant FX series Fargo and Legion), their involvement presently is as producers, with both of their respective shingles backing the project.
The untitled project doesn't currently have a director attached, though the search is on to find the filmmaker who will be the right fit, and the trade says that we'll get an update in "the coming months."
It's a great development to see for all involved, but particularly for Andy Samberg, who didn't have the most luck when it came to live-action feature projects prior to the release of Palm Springs. His two previous movies as a leading man, Hot Rod and Popstar: Never Stop Stopping, are hilarious, but sadly they both failed to make any kind of box office impact. Admittedly Palm Springs didn't sell a ton of tickets either, but that's only because it premiered as a Hulu exclusive. In contrast to his big screen features, the comedy was a massive hit for the streaming service, and broke records this summer.
Palm Springs was additionally a massive breakout for Andy Siara, as it was actually the first feature screenplay he got produced. He was previously a staff writer on the underrated AMC series Lodge 49. Based on those credits, it definitely seems like he has the right sensibilities to expand an idea from Raphael Bob-Waksberg, who brought Bojack Horseman to an end last year, and also co-created the trippy Amazon original series Undone.
Ben Stiller will next be back on your screens this Friday thanks to his small role in Doug Liman's new HBO Max film Locked Down, but he's kept much more active as a producer in recent years. The majority of the projects are for television, such as the 2018 miniseries Escape At Dannemora and the CW series In The Dark, but he also has some features in the works, including the upcoming comedy Queenpins starring Kristen Bell, Vince Vaughn, Joel McHale, and Kirby Howell-Baptiste.
Noah Hawley, meanwhile, has also been exceptionally busy. In addition to Fargo airing its fourth season on FX in 2020, he has also been working on a new Star Trek film, and it was announced this past fall that he is going to be writing a new series set in the Alien universe.
As noted above, that's a lot of awesome talent coming together to work on a single film, and just with this announcement it has instantly grabbed our attention. Hopefully we get more updates soon, and we'll keep you posted on the project's development!
