{"id":394155,"date":"2026-01-28T01:41:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T01:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/394155\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T01:41:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T01:41:07","slug":"warner-bros-joins-into-mix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/394155\/","title":{"rendered":"Warner Bros Joins Into Mix"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tEXCLUSIVE: It\u2019s taking a little longer to sell Olivia Wilde\u2019s hot sexual comedy The Invite<\/a>, we hear, and that\u2019s because Warner Bros<\/a>\u2018 new contemporary film label headed by former Neon marketing guru Christian Parkes put in a last-minute bid against A24<\/a> and Focus Features<\/a>. Now it\u2019s a three-horse race.<\/p>\n

\n\tWarner Bros didn\u2019t return request for comment, but we hear this one is a real nailbiter. It would return Wilde back to her Don\u2019t Worry Darling Warner Bros home should the Burbank, CA lot prevail (that pic by the way was a New Line release, a package which they won at auction against 18 bidders).<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Wilde-directed romantic comedy follows two couples, one set played by Wilde and Seth Rogen whose marriage is in a rut. They entertain their upstairs guests, a couple played by Edward Norton and Penelope Cruz; a twosome who are intriguing and enjoy experimenting sexually. All of this takes place in the former\u2019s San Francisco apartment. The pic drew great laughs at its Sundance premiere at the Eccles Theatre on Saturday night which is why many jumped on it. It\u2019s arguable we haven\u2019t seen a festival crowd-pleaser like this since 2022\u2019s Everything Everywhere All at Once at SXSW (which was an A24 release, not an acquisition title) or Triangle of Sadness at Cannes (which Neon acquired domestic on).<\/p>\n

\n\tPrevious bidders on the project included Netflix, Neon, and Searchlight. Word was that Wilde wanted a theatrical release, her feature directorial debut Booksmart going through Amazon back in 2019, while Don\u2019t Worry Darling had a near $20M opening at the fall 2022 box office, juiced by leading man Harry Styles.<\/p>\n

\n\tWilde told Deadline Awards Editor Antonia Blyth at Sundance that the premiere \u201cwas the best night of my life, it was so fun. To sit and laugh with that audience was just so wonderful, so full of joy, I was just levitating in my seat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWilde shot the The Invite in chronological order approaching the Rashida Jones and Will McCormack adapted movie like a play. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe fire for The Invite began with Oscar-nominated Hacksaw Ridge producer David Permut who secured rights to Cesc Gay\u2019s Spanish comedy The People Upstairs. Permut shepherded the project through the strikes as castmembers became attached and fell out, ultimately building toward the package that is with Wilde directing. Permut met Jones and McCormack at Sundance 2012 when they had their scripted feature Celeste & Jesse Forever (which also starred Jones) at the fest.<\/p>\n

\n\tEarlier today we told you that Neon took global on the Australian Sundance Midnight section movie Leviticus from Adrian Chiarella which reps Mia Wasikowska\u2019s return to the big screen after a three-year break.<\/p>\n

\n\tWe also told you first about Warner Bros\u2019 new contemporary label, which has yet to be named. The label which was formed by Parkes and his Neon colleagues\u00a0Jason Wald<\/a>\u00a0and Spener Collantes, focuses on smartly budgeted global theatrical releases with innovative marketing campaigns. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: It\u2019s taking a little longer to sell Olivia Wilde\u2019s hot sexual comedy The Invite, we hear, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394156,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[36317,96,58015,2839,147147,56,54,55,18199],"class_list":["post-394155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-a24","tag-entertainment","tag-focus-features","tag-movies","tag-the-invite","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-warner-bros"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}