Meg Ryan’s long-awaited return to the rom-com, What happens laterhas been awarded an interim deal by SAG-AFTRA ahead of its November 3 theatrical release.
Bleecker Street is releasing the film nationally, in which David Duchovny and Ryan play a former couple who find themselves snowed in at a regional airport at night. The film’s synopsis reads: “Postponed indefinitely, Willa (Ryan), a magical thinker, and Bill (Duchovny), a catastrophic thinker, find themselves as attracted to and irritated by each other as they were decades earlier. But as they unravel the riddle of their shared past and compare their lives to the dreams they once shared, they begin to wonder whether their reunion is a mere coincidence, or something more enchanting.”
The film is seen as a nod to Ryan’s longtime collaborator Nora Ephron, who directed the star in Sleepless in Seattle And You’ve got mailamong other titles.
Ryan directed What happens lateran indie production not associated with any AMPTP company, from a screenplay she co-wrote with Steven Dietz and Kirk Lynn, based on Steven Dietz’s play ‘Shooting Star’.
Ryan and Duchovny met with SAG chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland about the interim agreement, discussed the best course of action and encouraged them to promote the film. After signing the agreement, Ryan and Duchovny will participate in TV, radio, print and online press for the film.
SAG and Crabtree-Ireland are optimistic about how interim agreements are seen as helpful to the union’s ongoing bargaining strategy. “If we sign an interim agreement with a producer, it is a full-fledged collective labor agreement. It’s not an exception to anything. This is the producer agreeing to every term we had on the table with the AMPTP on July 12,” Crabtree-Ireland said. THR. “So once a producer makes that deal, we want their project to be successful and for them to be able to promote it. We want actors to go out and do all the things they would normally do in connection with a project like this.
What happens later is the latest independent film to land an interim publicity deal, joining A24 films such as Priscilla And Iron clawNeons Ferrari and the Taylor Swift Eras concert film.
Prowess Pictures, Ten Acre Films, Jupiter Peak Productions and Rockhill Studios are behind What happens later, produced by Jonathan Duffy, Kelly Williams, Laura Smith Ireland and Kristin Mann. Ken and Liz Whitney, Steven Shapiro, Andrew Karpen, Kent Sanderson, Kerri Elder, Blake Elder, Michael Goyette, Ryan and Duchovny serve as executive producers.
