Tony winner, recent Emmy winner, and current Emmy nominee Billy Porter, who has been working on his directorial debut feature What If?, has his next directing gig lined up. According to Variety, Gabrielle Union’s I’ll Have Another Productions has struck a deal with Amazon Studios to sell their queer teen comedy with the working title To Be Real, and Porter will direct. Deadline later confirmed the news.
The comedy is described as an LGBTQ version of Superbad and Booksmart.
The script was written by successful TV director Ryan Shiraki (On My Block). According to the logline, To Be Real follows three queer friends who flee their hometown for Pride Weekend in New York City. They find that life across the rainbow is an outrageous, raunchy, frequently contentious, but ultimately FIERCE non-stop party.
I’ll Have Another Productions has been fairly busy with developing projects such as Tamara Winfrey-Harris’ award-winning novel The Sisters Are Alright: Changing the Broken Narrative of Black Women In America and George M. Johnson’s All Boys Aren’t Blue which falls under the company’s first-look deal with Sony Pictures Television.
Last month, Porter began production of his directorial debut feature of the teen-focused drama What If? in Pittsburgh. He will soon be seen in Amazon’s Cinderella, which will hit the streaming service on Sept 3.