Issa Rae, creator and star of the acclaimed HBO comedy series Insecure, appears set to join Bill Hader (Trainwreck) in the forthcoming comedy Empress of Serenity. The film will mark the directorial debut of Jesse Andrews, screenwriter and author the the 2015 Sundance Film Festival smash Me and Earl and the Dying Girl. Production on Empress of Serenity is scheduled to start in late summer.
The premise of Empress of Serenity follows Hader’s Sheldon, who is coming up with a grandiose plan to woo back his estranged wife. He is uprooted from this when invited on a month-long cruise by his widowed father. On the ocean liner, he meets Michelle (Rae), a recluse whom he develops a connection with. The film is tagged as loosely inspired by David Foster Wallace’s novel A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again; Wallace was recently the subject of the Jason Segal-headlined bio The End of the Tour.
Stephen Chbosky, director of The Perks of Being a Wallflower and one of the writers of the current mega-hit Beauty and the Beast, will produce the title with Good Universe and Mr. Mudd producing.
Rae, who received a Golden Globe nomination for the first season of Insecure, will soon debut the second season of the HBO comedy.
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