You, Me & Tuscany might seem like a simple romcom focusing on a love story in the Italian countryside, but a lot of opportunities for future black creators are riding on this feature that stars Halle Bailey and Regé-Jean Page. This marks the first romcom with Black leads in over decade that has been released in theaters, the last one being 2012’s Think Like a Man, and its performance at the box office will be essential to the future of diverse-led projects in the romantic comedy genre, especially on the big screen.
Producer WIll Packer, who is known for his work projects such as Think Like a Man, Ride Along, and Girls Trip, told the Hollywood Reporter that there are two main challenges for getting films like You, Me & Tuscany into theaters with one being Hollywood’s flighty “record when it comes to films that highlight diverse leads” and the other deals with the romantic comedy as a whole. Packer stated that the genre has been deemed to be “relegated to Netflix streaming offerings or TV films on Lifetime,” he explains further,
Make no mistake: I remember the golden era of rom-coms, and even Black rom-coms — Love & Basketball, The Best Man, Think Like a Man, Brown Sugar, Two Can Play That Game, you name it. Audiences were showing up in theaters and enjoying those movies. So people do have to understand that Hollywood is a reactive industry, and there is an opportunity to say that this type of film — with these type of leads, with the audience that enjoys these types of films — are profitable and worth making, and Hollywood will make more of them.
You, Me & Tuscany centers on a chef named Anna (Bailey) who discovers an empty Italian villa and secretly moves in, soon meeting and falling for the villa owner’s cousin, Michael (Page). The feature was directed by Kat Coiro, with the cast rounded out by Marco Calvani, Lorenzo de Moor, Nia Vardalos, and Isabella Ferrari. The film was released in theaters on April 10th to positive reviews, scoring a verified hot rating of 94% on Rotten Tomatoes’ Popcornmeter.
Go see You, Me & Tuscany now in theaters everywhere.
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