EXCLUSIVE: Rental Family director Hikari is set to direct Apple Original Films’ holiday movie Foster the Snowman from Emmy winner Peter Huyck (The Studio) and Jono Matt.
In Foster the Snowman, a couple without kids take an accelerated journey through every parenting milestone when they’re forced to adopt an adorable snowman whose whole magical life will play out in just 72 hours. The movie is produced by Kevin Walsh’s The Walsh Company via his overall deal with Apple Studios, alongside Melvin Mar and Jake Kasdan.
Huyck, Matt and Liz Lippman will serve as EPs. Foster the Snowman marks the second collaboration for Apple and Huyck following the Emmy, Golden Globe and Critics Choice Award-winning comedy series The Studio, on which Huyck serves as writer and EP.
Originally from Osaka, Japan, Hikari’s second directed feature, Rental Family from Searchlight Pictures and starring Brendan Fraser, made its world premiere at TIFF last September and opened in theaters on Nov. 21, 2025. The film received the Hawaii News Now Audience Choice Award at HIFF45, was named a Top 10 Film by the National Board of Review and won the Middleburg Film Festival Audience Award. Hikari received the 2025 TIFF Emerging Talent Award and the Director Award at the Critics Choice Association’s 4th Annual Celebration of AAPI Cinema & Television. Hikari’s debut feature 37 Seconds premiered at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival and won the Panorama Audience Award, the CICAE Art Cinema Award, and earned a nomination for Best First Feature. The film was acquired by Netflix. She directed three episodes of the Emmy winning Beef series including its pilot as well as HBO Max’s Tokyo Vice. One of the projects she’s currently developing is Made in Utah with Annapurna, an original TV series based on her life as an exchange student living with a dysfunctional Mormon family in Utah.
Huyck co-created the HBO limited series White House Plumbers and was a writer on Late Show With David Letterman. He’s won four Primetime Emmys: two for The Studio in Best Comedy Series and Writing for a Comedy Series as well as two Outstanding Comedy Series Emmys for HBO’s Veep.
Matt co-wrote the Cedric the Entertainer action comedy movie Above the Line and the animated TV series Weird Waters.
Hikari is repped by WME and Brillstein Entertainment Partners. Huyck is repped by WME and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, etc. Matt is repped by Verve and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole.