Meg Ryan Rom-Com Return ‘What Happens Later’ Lands Interim Agreement (Exclusive)

Mia Galuppo
·2 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

Meg Ryan’s much-anticipated return to the rom-com, What Happens Later, has landed an interim agreement from SAG-AFTRA ahead of its Nov. 3 theatrical release.

Bleecker Street is releasing the film nationwide, which stars David Duchovny and Ryan as a former couple who get snowed in at a regional airport overnight. The synopsis of the film reads: “Indefinitely delayed, Willa (Ryan), a magical thinker, and Bill (Duchovny), a catastrophic one, find themselves just as attracted to and annoyed by one another as they did decades earlier. But as they unpack the riddle of their mutual past and compare their lives to the dreams they once shared, they begin to wonder if their reunion is mere coincidence, or something more enchanted.”

More from The Hollywood Reporter

The film is seen as a nod to Ryan’s longtime collaborator Nora Ephron, who directed the star in Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail, among other titles.

Ryan directed What Happens Later, which is an indie production and not associated with an AMPTP company, from a screenplay she wrote with Steven Dietz and Kirk Lynn that is based on the play “Shooting Star” by Steven Dietz.

Ryan and Duchovny met with SAG chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland about the interim agreement, discussing the best course of action and encouraging them to promote the film. Having signed the agreement, Ryan and Duchovny will participate in TV, radio, print and online press for the movie.

SAG and Crabtree-Ireland have been bullish about how interim agreements are seen as helpful to the union’s continuing negotiating strategy. “When we sign an interim agreement with a producer, that is a full-on collective bargaining agreement. It’s not some exception to something. This is the producer agreeing to every term that we had on the table with the AMPTP on July 12,” Crabtree-Ireland told THR. “So once a producer makes that deal, we want their project to be successful, we want them to be able to promote it. We want actors to go out and do all the things they would normally do in connection with a project like that.”

What Happens Later is the latest independent film to land an interim agreement for publicity, joining A24 features like Priscilla and Iron Claw, Neon’s Ferrari and the Taylor Swift Eras concert film.

Prowess Pictures, Ten Acre Films, Jupiter Peak Productions and Rockhill Studios are behind What Happens Later, which was produced by Jonathan Duffy, Kelly Williams, Laura Smith Ireland and Kristin Mann. Ken and Liz Whitney, Steven Shapiro, Andrew Karpen, Kent Sanderson, Kerri Elder, Blake Elder, Michael Goyette, Ryan and Duchovny serve as executive producers.

Best of The Hollywood Reporter

Click here to read the full article.