HBO Max has acquired worldwide rights to “An American Pickle,” a comedy starring Seth Rogen, that is moving to the new streaming service in a deal with Sony Pictures so that the film would not be delayed due to the coronavirus theater closures, the new service announced Monday.
Rogen stars in the comedy in dual leading roles based on Simon Rich’s 2013 New Yorker novella series “Sell Out.” Rich also adapted his own source material for the screen and Brandon Trost, a cinematographer on Rogen’s previous films including “This is The End” and “Neighbors,” is directing.
“An American Pickle” is set in 1920 and follows Herschel Greenbaum, a struggling laborer who immigrates to America with dreams of building a better life for his beloved family. One day, while working at his factory job, he falls into a vat of pickles and is brined for 100 years. The brine preserves him perfectly and when he emerges in present-day Brooklyn, he finds that he hasn’t aged a day. But when he seeks out his family, he is troubled to learn that his only surviving relative is his great-grandson, Ben Greenbaum (also played by Rogen), a mild-mannered computer coder whom Herschel can’t even begin to understand.
HBO Max will release the film under the platform’s Warner Max label later this year.
Rogen, Evan Goldberg and James Weaver produced “An American Pickle” for their Point Grey productions. The executive producers are Rich, Point Grey’s Alex McAtee and Ted Gidlow.
“I couldn’t be more thrilled to be partnering with HBO Max to release this film. We worked very hard and put as much of ourselves in this story as possible. We’re very proud of the end result and we can’t wait for people to get to see it,” Rogen said in a statement.
“HBO Max is in the market for motion pictures that stand out. And ‘An American Pickle’ does stand out – with Seth in this wonderfully original, funny, and heartfelt film that we look forward to debuting this summer,” Kevin Reilly, chief content officer at HBO Max, president, TNT, TBS and truTV, said in a statement.
“I am a huge fan of the original New Yorker story Sell Out and am in awe of how brilliantly Seth, Simon and Brandon translated it to film as only they could have,” executive vice president of original films, Jessie Henderson, said in a statement.
Seth Rogen, Point Grey, Simon Rich and Brandon Trost are all repped at UTA.