Nate Bargatze Negotiating To Star In Holiday Family Comedy ‘Christmas In Paradise’ From Amazon MGM & United Artists’ Scott Stuber

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EXCLUSIVE: Red-hot comic Nate Bargatze is in negotiations to star in Christmas in Paradise, a holiday family comedy from Amazon MGM Studios and United ArtistsScott Stuber that’s in the early stages of development.

The film will have him playing a beloved small-town doctor (Bargatze) who finds himself with a unique bounty on his head just a week before Christmas, in a town where everything is not as it seems. It’s the second he’s signed on to in the last few months, on the heels of The Breadwinner, a TriStar comedy based on his and Dan Lagana’s original pitch, on which he’ll also serve as a producer.

Jeff Tomsic (Tag) is on board to direct from a script by Johnny Rosenthal (Bad Santa 2). UA’s Stuber and Nick Nesbitt will produce, and Tom McNulty (The Spectacular Now) and Nathan Reimann (Mr. Woodcock), who developed and packaged the project as well as brought it to UA, are in negotiations to produce, as well. Sources said the project may shoot in Bargatze’s hometown of Nashville, where he’s currently based.

Bargatze is in rarefied air these days, as one of just a handful of internationally recognized comedians who appeals to audiences of all backgrounds and ages. Known for his focus on clean, family-friendly material, he was the highest-grossing comic of the last year, with more than 1.2 million tickets sold, and beyond that, is coming off of the highest grossing one-year comedy tour of all time. He was also #12 in overall live tour tickets sales last year, according to Pollstar, putting him in the company of Coldplay, Madonna and U2.

While Bargatze has been working as a stand-up for decades, he’s had a rapid and steep ascent since 2019, when he debuted his first Netflix special, The Tennessee Kid, after which he’s undertaken two viral appearances as host of SNL. He earned a Grammy nomination for his Netflix special The Greatest Average American and with Hello, World, brought Amazon its most-streamed original comedy special of all time.

Currently selling out shows all over the world with his The Be Funny Tour, Bargatze is the rare comedian these days who has demonstrated a drive to break out on the big screen. And with the theatrically-driven Stuber and his UA behind him, he’s put in a position to do it.

Formerly Chairman of Film at Netflix, Stuber inked a deal to revive United Artists under the Amazon MGM umbrella just last summer. Since then, he’s set up The Girl in the Lake, an adult mystery thriller to be written by bestselling author Lauren Oliver, with Scarlett Johansson eyeing to star, pending script approval. His slate also includes the Julia Roberts starrer Kill Your Darlings, based on the forthcoming novel by Peter Swanson. Other upcoming projects for Stuber include Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein for Netflix, and Deliver Me from Nowhere, 20th’s Scott Cooper-directed drama that stars The Bear‘s Jeremy Allen White as Bruce Springsteen.

Tomsic most recently directed and executive produced It’s Florida, Man for HBO, produced with Danny McBride, which has been picked up for a second season. Before that, he directed episodes of Time Bandits for Apple TV+ and new specials for comedians Ralph Barbosa, Zarna Garg, and Brett Goldstein.

Bargatze and Tomsic are repped by UTA. Bargatze is also with Brillstein Entertainment Partners and Ginsburg Daniels Kallis; Tomsic with 3 Arts and Schreck Rose Dapello. Rosenthal is repped by Paradigm, Brillstein, and McKuin Frankel Whitehead. McNulty and Reimann are repped by Hillary Bibicoff at Feig Finkel.

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