Kumail Nanjiani joins forces with The Big Sick director Michael Showalter and Issa Rae in the trailer for their upcoming comedy, The Lovebirds. Released in 2017, The Big Sick told the partially true story of how Nanjiani (who stars as himself) and his cowriter on the film, Emily V. Gordon, met and fell in love in real life. Celebrated for its earnest and funny portrayal of the challenges of navigating cultural differences, family, and illness, the movie went on to become one of the biggest indie box office hits of that year, ultimately netting Nanjiani and Gordon an Oscar nomination for their writing.
Although The Lovebirds isn't a full blown The Big Sick reunion, it does re-team Najiani and Showalter for a very different kind of rom-com costarring Rae. Written by Blindspot alums Aaron Abrams, Brendon Gall, and Martin Gero, the film revolves around a couple (Nanjiani and Rae) who are on the precipice of breaking up when they find themselves entangled in a bizarre murder mystery, forcing them to work together and get themselves out of this mess over the course of one very wild night. With its April release date still a few months off, The Lovebirds is getting its marketing up and going this week.
Paramount dropped the trailer for The Lovebirds online this morning, ahead of its debut in theaters this weekend. You can check it out in the space below, followed by the newly-unveiled poster.
The trailer does a nice job of teasing the madness to come for Nanjiani and Rae's characters in the movie, and just as they're having a serious discussion about their relationship and where it's going (or, rather, not going). What ensues is a date night gone very, very wrong, beginning with a random man basically stealing their car and killing someone, leaving them to take the blame and find a way to clear their names before they're brought in by the cops. The Lovebirds brings recent action-comedies like Game Night to mind from that point, following its characters on an increasingly strange odyssey that takes them everywhere from an immersive play that looks like something out of Eyes Wide Shut (or The Handmaid's Tale, as Rae points out in the trailer) to a close encounter with an unhinged couple played by Anna Camp and Kyle Bornheimer.
In addition to The Big Sick, Showalter is known for writing rom-coms with a twist like The Baxter (which he also directed and starred in) and They Came Together, as well as the zany cult comedy Wet Hot American Summer. That's to say, he seems to be operating comfortably within his wheelhouse with The Lovebird's own wacky spin on the rom-com genre. Of course, there's a risk the movie will follow in the footsteps of last year's Murder Mystery (an Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston Netflix comedy that also revolved around a couple forced to clear their names when they're wrongly accused of murder) and prove to be better in setup than execution. So far, though, The Lovebirds looks and sounds more inspired than not.
Source: Paramount Pictures