Boy howdy! Glen Powell (Twisters, The Running Man, Anyone but You) and Judd Apatow (Knocked Up, The King of Staten Island, Bros) are hitching a ride aboard the same horse for Universal’s The Comeback King. The project finds Powell returning to his laptop to pen the script with Apatow and play the lead, in which he plays a country-western star in free fall. The Comeback King is set for a February 5th, 2027 release.
It will be Apatow’s first feature since the Netflix comedy, Bubble in 2022, and his first made for theaters since The King of Staten Island in 2020 (although that film ended up going direct-to-streaming due to the pandemic). In addition to directing, Apatow produces through his Apatow Productions label, which has a deal at Universal, where the film is setting up camp. For a long period in the 2000s, Apatow was the king of studio comedy, directing the landmark The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Funny People, This Is 40, and Trainwreck. He also produced comedy classics like Superbad, Walk Hard, Bridesmaids, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and any more. Cristin Milioti, Madelyn Cline, Stavros Halkias and Li Jin Hao will co-star.
Powell produces alongside Dan Cohen through their joint venture Barnstorm, with Kevin Misher producing through Misher Films. Powell and Universal recently joined forces for Twisters, which grossed $372M globally. Powell is hot s**t in Hollywood right now, and his pairing with Apatow will turn heads.
Powell’s untitled comedy with Apatow isn’t his first writing project. He co-wrote the screenplay for 2023’s Hit Man with Richard Linklater and is currently working on a script for reviving the environmentally friendly superhero Captain Planet. He’s also a contributing writer for Chad Powers, the Hulu sports comedy series about a disgraced college quarterback named Russ Holliday who disguises himself as Chad Powers and walks onto a struggling southern football team to revive his football career. A second season is on the way.
Powell, who recently starred in Edgar Wright’s The Running Man and How to Make a Killing has a busy 2026. He just voiced Star Fox in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, and will star in J.J. Abrams’ The Great Beyond this fall.
Do Glen Powell and Judd Apatow have the chemistry to create a worthwhile comedy? What would your country singer’s stage name be? Let us know in the comments section below.
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