Just when you thought the romantic comedy was dead, along comes this little beauty staring Lake Bell and Simon Pegg. Man Up is the story of two people who meet on a blind date, only one of them isn’t supposed to be on that date. Wait, let’s back up for a minute. Because this is a true story based on something that happened to screenwriter Tess Morris.
“So, I was under the clock at Waterloo Station and the guy came up to me and thought I was his blind date… and I said no… And then he walked off,” she says. “And I just thought, what if I had said yes?” Sometimes real life makes for the best script ideas. Morris decided to try it out and wrote the script on spec. “You want how your leads meet to make you laugh. That’s always a good sign,” Morris says. “That’s a good set up.”
Once Bell’s character pretends to be Pegg’s blind date, the night is off and these two try to fall in love, then out of love and then reconnect as the clock ticks down on what could be the most important night of their lives.
ScreenwritingU sat down with Morris to talk about the death of the romantic comedy, how to stay true to the audience in this kind of comedy and why we can’t give up on romance.
Man Up releases in theaters November 13 in Los Angeles and New York and expands to additional theaters and on demand November 20.
LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE:
Watch the trailer here:
Photo credit: StudioCanal