Karen Gillan, Margaret Sophie Stein & Jermaine Fowler To Star In Lisa Steen’s Comedy ‘Late Bloomers’; Kevin Nealon, Talia Balsam Also Set
EXCLUSIVE: Karen Gillan (Thor: Love and Thunder) will star opposite Margaret Sophie Stein (Bullets Over Broadway), Jermaine Fowler (Sorry to Bother You), Kevin Nealon (SNL) and Talia Balsam (Divorce) in the Lisa Steen-directed comedy Late Bloomers from We’re Doin’ Great and Park Pictures, which has wrapped production in Brooklyn, NY.
The film written by Anna Greenfield is loosely based on her experience living in Brooklyn in her 20s. It centers on Louise (Gillan), an aimless millennial who drunkenly breaks her hip, landing her in physical therapy. There, she makes an elderly Polish BFF (Stein) who speaks no English. And it’s this unlikely friendship that gives her the courage to face what she’s been running from all along: Her mother’s early-onset Alzheimer’s. Fowler plays Louise’s Craigslist roommate/landlord Brick, with Nealon and Balsam as her parents.
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Late Bloomers marks the feature directorial debut of Greenfield’s frequent collaborator, Steen. The pair previously worked together on the short films Sundowners and Stepdaddy, which premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival and the 2019 SXSW Film Festival, respectively, as well as the shorts Games for Girls and New Adult. Producers Alexandra Barreto and Taylor Feltner developed their new feature comedy via the Sundance Institute Feature Film Creative Producing Fellowship in 2020, also seeing the project included in the 2021 Sundance Catalyst Spring Slate, the 2020 Film Independent Directors Lab, the 2020 IFP Market and the 2019 edition of Film Independent’s Fast Track.
Producing the film alongside We’re Doin’ Great’s Barreto and Feltner is Park Pictures’ Sam Bisbee. Executive producers on the project include Park Pictures’ Jackie Kelman Bisbee, Lance Acord and Cody Ryder, Wendy Neu, Franklin Carlson, Fierce Optimism Films’ Robina Riccitiello, Good Gravy Films’ Emma Pompetti and Tegan Acton, World of HA Productions’ Hallee Adelman and Ivy Herman, Burn Later Productions’ Sam Slater, David Bernon and Paul Bernon, mm2 Asia’s Marc Iserlis, Ng Say Yong and Anthony Eu, and Bindery Films’ Greg Beauchamp and Carter Collins. UTA will represent worldwide sales.
Gillan is an award-winning actress known around the world for her character Nebula in the Guardians of the Galaxy films and other Marvel projects. She’s also known for her role as Ruby Roundhouse in Sony’s recent pair of Jumanji films, and as Amy Pond over three seasons of Doctor Who. She can currently be seen in Taika Waititi’s Thor: Love and Thunder and will next appear in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special.
Known in her native Poland as Ma?gorzata Zaj?czkowska, Stein is an actor and writer whose credits include Mark Tarlov’s Simply Irresistible, Glenn Jordan’s Sarah, Plain and Tall, Woody Allen’s Bullets Over Broadway, Paul Mazursky’s Enemies: A Love Story and a Broadway production of Noel Coward’s Present Laughter.
Fowler is an actor, comedian, producer and writer who recently co-starred in Stephanie Allyne and Tig Nataro’s Am I OK?, which premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival and will be released later this year. He’s also been seen in films like Coming 2 America, Judas and the Black Messiah and Sorry to Bother You, as well as such series as Crashing and Superior Donuts. Other upcoming projects for the actor include Tim Story’s comedy The Blackening and the FX miniseries Retreat.
Nealon is an Emmy-nominated actor and comedian best known for his time as an SNL cast member from 1986 to 1995. He’s also appeared in series like Weeds and such films as Happy Gilmore and The Wedding Singer, among many others.
Balsam can currently be seen in Mariama Diallo’s Sundance hit Master, which is streaming on Amazon. She’s also recently appeared in films like The Many Saints of Newark, Worth and The Climb, and has been seen on such acclaimed series as Mad Men and Divorce, among others.
Outside of her work with Greenfield, Steen was a co-producer on the feature Plus One, starring Maya Erskine and Jack Quaid. She also served as showrunner on Epic Night, an interactive series for Eko Studios.
In addition to the previously mentioned short films, Greenfield penned the play All Girls and wrote and co-produced Haunt the Johnsons, a scripted comedy audio series for Audible.
Late Bloomers marks the first feature for Barreto and Feltner’s production company We’re Doin’ Great, which is based in Los Angeles.
Launched in the summer of 2010 by Sam Bisbee, Jackie Kelman Bisbee and Lance Acord, Park Pictures Features has produced such Sundance-selected films as Robot and Frank (2010), Infinitely Polar Bear (2014), God’s Pocket (2014), Cop Car (2015), Other People (2016), The Hero (2017), An Evening With Beverly Luff Linn (2018), Hearts Beat Loud (2018), The Sentence (2018), Farewell Amor (2020), The Truffle Hunters (2020), The Last Shift (2020) and Us Kids (2020). The company this year premiered the films Broadway Rising, Aisha and There There at the Tribeca Film Festival and received a Peabody Award nomination for the documentary Storm Lake. Also coming up for Park is the political drama The Independent, which it will release with Relativity and Sky later this year. Park Pictures Features is a division of Park Pictures, an award-winning commercial production company with offices in New York, Los Angeles and London, owned by Jackie Kelman Bisbee and Acord.
Gillan is represented by UTA, Maison Two and Linden Entertainment; Stein by Studio Gama in Poland; Fowler by UTA and Entertainment 360; Nealon by Gersh and Brillstein Entertainment Partners; Balsam by Gersh and One Entertainment; Steen by Gersh and Good Fear Content; and Greenfield by Gersh.
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