‘Theater Camp’s Molly Gordon To Direct ‘Small Parts’ For Searchlight Pictures

After acquiring Molly Gordon‘s Sundance movie Theater Camp for $8M, Searchlight Pictures is back in business with the filmmaker again on the movie Small Parts. The movie is currently in development.

The pic is a new take on the 1987 Shelly Long and Bette Midler blockbuster comedy Outrageous Fortune. In the pic, co-written by Gordon and Allie Levitan, two actresses clash on a scrappy indie movie set accidentally find themselves entangled in a game of cat-and-mouse more outrageous than any movie.

Searchlight SVP of Production Taylor Friedman is overseeing Small Parts, reporting into Searchlight Production Heads Dan Tram Nguyen and Katie Goodson-Thomas.

Gordon co-directed, co-wrote, and starred in Theater Camp, which won the Sundance U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Ensemble and was one of 2023’s Top Ten Independent Films by the National Board of Review. Gordon and her co-writers were nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay. She can currently be seen starring as “Claire” in the second season of FX/Hulu’s Emmy and Golden Globe Award–winning series The Bear, opposite Jeremy Allen White and Ayo Edebiri. Gordon won a Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Ensemble for her work in the series, which will be returning for a third season in June. Other credits include Emma Seligman’s Shiva Baby, which won the John Cassavetes Award at the 2022 Film Independent Spirit Awards, Netflix’s You People, Adam McKay’s HBO series ‘Winning Time’, Olivia Wilde’s Booksmart, Gene Supnitsky and Lee Eisenberg’s Good Boys, Ben Falcone’s Life of the Party, TNT’s Animal Kingdom, and the FX series ‘Ramy’. 

Gordon is represented by WME and Gang, Tyre, Ramer, Brown & Passman.

Levitan is a writer, actress, and comedian who worked as a Staff Writer and voiced Elizabeth Warren on Stephen Colbert’s Showtime series Our Cartoon President. Most recently, she co-wrote and starred in the short, Flail, which was an official selection of 2024’s Sundance Film Festival. The short also won best comedy at The 2023 Palm Springs ShortFest. In the past, she’s worked for Gossip Girl (HBO), Williamstown Theatre Festival, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, Story Pirates, Second Stage Theater, and Ojai Playwrights Conference. Levitan is represented by WME.