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8 months ago
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EXCLUSIVE: Following a competitive bidding war, TriStar Pictures has beaten out a number of suiitors and pre-emptively acquired the rights to Alison Espach’s highly sought after forthcoming novel The Wedding People. Will Speck and Josh Gordon, who have a first look deal with Sony Pictures, are set to direct, with Academy Award nominee Nicole Holofcener writing the screenplay.
“It’s rare to read something that feels like real life, in all the best ways…funny, painful, cathartic, and lasting. A throwback to the movies we grew up on with a modern sensibility. This is a story we can’t wait to tell” said Speck and Gordon.
Speck, Gordon and Eric Fineman will produce through their company, Speck + Gordon Inc., alongside Jonathan King and Ash Sarohia for Concordia Studio. Shary Shirazi and Kelseigh Coombs are overseeing the project for TriStar Pictures.
“Nicole is the perfect partner to adapt this incredible novel. She writes characters that are beautifully complex, with humor and pathos and we’ve wanted to work with her since before there were iPhones,” said Speck and Gordon.
The novel follows Phoebe, who after a chance encounter, becomes an unexpected wedding guest after befriending the bride in an elevator, changing the course of both women’s lives forever. Henry Holt & Co. will publish the novel in July 2024.
“The Wedding People goes behind the scenes of a glossy destination wedding with two strong women seeking to take charge of their lives. With incredible humor and wit, the book expertly captures how a perfect stranger can sometimes be just the partner you need to get through a crisis,” said King and Sarohia.
Gordon and Speck most recently directed Sony Pictures’ live-action musical adaptation of the beloved children’s book Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile. They are also the creators and showrunners of the Hulu/Marvel series Hit Monkey, which was recently ordered for a second season and stars Jason Sudeikis. Their other credits include Blades of Glory, The Switch, and Office Christmas Party and most recently the Universal/Amblin sci-fi thriller Distant, starring Anthony Ramos and Naomi Scott.
Holofcener has written and directed seven films including Friends With Money, Enough Said, and most recently You Hurt My Feelings. She co-wrote the Academy Award nominated screenplay for Can You Ever Forgive Me?, as well as collaborating on The Last Duel by Ridley Scott. She has directed numerous television shows including Mrs. Fletcher, Enlightened, and Extrapolations.
Espach is the author of the novels Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance, an Indie Next Pick and Amazon Editors’ Pick for 2022, and The Adults, a New York Times Editor’s Choice and Barnes and Noble Discover pick. Her short story series In-Depth Market Research Interviews with Dead People is an Audible Original. She has written for McSweeney’s, Vogue, Outside Magazine, Joyland, Glamour, Salon, and other places.
On the narrative side, Concordia recently inked an exclusive first-look film deal with Oscar-winning filmmaker Tom McCarthy’s production company Slow Pony. In non-fiction, Concordia produced 2023’s acclaimed Sundance documentary film STILL: A Michael J. Fox Movie, Guggenheim’s feature film about the life of beloved actor and advocate Michael J. Fox. The film earned four Emmy awards including Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special and swept the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards with five wins. Other recent Concordia releases include Working: What We Do All Day, a compelling documentary series narrated by President Barack Obama on Netflix; HBO’s three-part documentary series Navajo Police: Class 57; and Apple TV’s The Enfield Poltergeist.
The deal was brokered by CAA and Lucy Carson at The Friedrich Agency for the author and Weintraub Tobin for Concordia Studio and Sloane, Offer, Weber, and Dern for Speck + Gordon. Holofcener is repped by UTA and Jackoway Austen Tyerman Wertheimer Mandelbaum Morris Bernstein Trattner Auerbach Hynick Jaime LeVine Sample & Klein.
