After a thrilling and traditional bidding war at Sundance, Olivia Wilde's latest movie, "The Invite," has successfully landed at A24. This sale has been the most significant one at the festival so far, and it seems unlikely that it will be surpassed anytime soon. The bidding process involved at least one all-night session, with multiple distributors vying for the title, including Neon, A24, Focus, and Netflix. On Tuesday, Warner Bros.'s newly launched indie label made a late-in-the-game push, hoping to make a statement with a bold acquisition. However, in the end, A24 emerged victorious in an eight-figure deal.
This relationship comedy, a remake of the Spanish language movie "Sentimental," stars Seth Rogen, Ed Norton, Penelope Cruz, and Wilde. It centers on a couple (Wilde and Rogen) whose relationship is on the brink of collapse and who have an ill-timed dinner party with their enigmatic neighbors (Norton and Cruz), whose relationship seems to have the passion and open communication that the former's is desperately lacking.
The audience at the Saturday night premiere at the Eccles Theater gave the film a standing ovation, while critics praised the movie, Wilde's third directorial effort following "Booksmart" (2019) and "Don't Worry Darling" (2022). The Hollywood Reporter's Sundance review reads, "When it's cooking, which is most of the runtime, this is a smart, sophisticated, and incisively acted adult entertainment that savages the crumbling institution of marriage, dangles the promise of sexual rescue, and then brings the walls crashing down in a bitter reckoning that seems irreversible—until a window of hope and healing gets cracked open."
Talking to THR ahead of the festival, Wilde said that she chose to make the film outside of the studio system to allow for more freedom in production, including filming in Los Angeles, shooting in order, and weeks of rehearsals. She said, "It was the kind of experience I've been dreaming of my whole career—a movie that would just allow a group of creative people to come together and truly collaborate." The movie also reunited Wilde with Megan Ellison and Annapurna, who produced her directorial debut "Booksmart."
UTA Independent Film Group and FilmNation co-repped the sale. CAA reps Olivia and Penelope, and UTA reps Rogen, Norton, Will McCormack, and Rashida Jones.
