Netflix has acquired worldwide streaming rights to Other People, a comedy written and directed by Chris Kelly starring Jesse Plemmons (Black Mass) and Molly Shannon (Year of the Dog). The dramedy made its world premiere as the opening night film at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival last month where it earned good early reviews from critics and sparked awards chatter around Shannon’s performance.
Other People marks Kelly’s feature directorial debut and tells a semi-autobiographical story of a struggling gay comedy writer (Plemmons) who returns home to Sacramento to care for dying mother (Shannon). The ensemble cast includes Emmy winner Bradley Whitford (The West Wing), Oscar nominee June Squibb (Nebraska), Zach Woods (Silicon Valley), Retta (Parks and Recreation) and Maude Apatow (This is 40). Vertical Entertainment acquired theatrical rights to the film and appears primed to open the film sometime in the fall in the hopes of generating awards buzz around Shannon’s supporting performance.
Kelly previously has worked as a writer on Saturday Night Live (Shannon is a famous SNL alum) as well as the celebrated series Broad City. Other credits include The Onion News Network, in which Kelly won a Peabody Award.
This marks yet another pick-up for Netflix which had a very busy Sundance this year. The streaming service also picked up Tallalah starring Ellen Page, the Paul Rudd-headlined The Fundamentals of Caring, buzzy Iranian horror film Under the Shadow and the Indian comedy Brahman Naman.
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