Lionsgate & Mandeville Films Reteam For ‘Undercover’ With Zachary Levi & Cole Sprouse

Anthony D'Alessandro
·4 min read

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Shazam star Zachary Levi made the news official today about the upcoming music-driven family comedy film Undercover on his Instagram.

Lionsgate is reuniting with Mandeville Films for the movie which will also star Cole Sprouse, and be directed by Steve Pink, who previously directed such music-driven movies as Hot Tub Time Machine and wrote the seminal classics High Fidelity and Grosse Point Blank.

Mandeville Films’ Todd Lieberman and David Hoberman are producing, their $1.8 billion-grossing credits including such family hits as Lionsgate’s Wonder, and Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, and The Muppets.

Undercover was written by Amy Talkington, with revisions by Jonathan Igla, Diablo Cody, Chris Hazzard & Michael Fontana. Jonathan Levine serves as executive producer. Alex Young serves as an executive producer for Mandeville Films.

Levi will play Jack, a down-on-his-luck rocker-turned-father, who, to make ends meet, secretly joins a group of young musicians in a wedding cover band led by misfit Ben, played by Cole Sprouse. Things start looking up for this ragtag band, but when Jack’s secret gets revealed, he rediscovers what’s truly important in life while teaching Ben to find his own voice as a musical talent.

Commenting on the announcement, Lionsgate Motion Picture Group President Nathan Kahane said, “Like School of Rock and Pitch Perfect, Undercover is a movie that unites audiences with the way the cast interprets and performs familiar songs. Not only is it hilarious and charming, but it’s going to be a blast to see personalities like Zachary and Cole own their performances of so many classics.”

Added Lionsgate’s President of Motion Picture Production Erin Westerman, “We’re thrilled to be working with Steve Pink and reteaming with our friends at Mandeville on Undercover. Just like they did so beautifully with Wonder, they have a focused sense of the kind of entertainment that will connect and resonate with family audiences. Zachary and Cole are perfect for this film and their addition to our cast pumps the volume way up!”

Lionsgate’s Meredith Wieck and Aaron Edmonds will oversee the production for the studio, which begins this April.

Levi was last seen in New Line/DC’s Shazam!, which grossed $365M WW, and he just wrapped production on Kevin MacDonald’s Prisoner 760 opposite Benedict Cumberbatch and Jodie Foster. He also starred in Thor: Ragnarok and Thor: The Dark World. Other credits include the Amazon award-winning series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, for which he took home a SAG Award for Best Ensemble in a Comedy Series for his recurring role in season two of the series. He also starred in NBC’s Chuck. Levi was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for She Loves Me in 2016. He was also the co-lead (with Mandy Moore) in the Disney animated musical Tangled.

Sproue recently seen starred in Lionsgate/CBS Films’ breakout box office success Five Feet Apart, which grossed over $90M WW. He can also be seen starring on The CW’s hit series Riverdale as Jughead.

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Levi is repped by UTA, Untitled, and McKuin Frankel; Cole Sprouse is repped by WME, Authentic Talent and Literary Management, and DLA Piper; Steve Pink is managed by Mosaic and he continues to be represented by UTA and Morris Yorn Barnes Levine Krintzman Rubenstein Kohner & Gellman; Robert Melnik negotiated the deals on behalf of Lionsgate.

View this post on Instagram

So stoked to announce my latest project “Under Cover”, starring (so far) the uber talented @colesprouse and myself, and to be directed by my pal #StevePink! Y’all, this is gonna be a real humdinger! 💃 A big thank you to @lionsgate @mandfilms @liebermantodd et al for believing in this project, and trusting me to lead it. It’s gonna be chock full of heart, humor, and some of the most iconic tunes of the last 50 years, that I get to SING!!! Let’s party. 🤘😎🤘

A post shared by Zachary Levi (@zacharylevi) on Feb 11, 2020 at 8:57am PST

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