This week, while Screen Talk cohost Ryan Lattanzio hangs out in Spain, we celebrate the comedy “Splitsville,” which debuted at Cannes and marks a welcome return for writer/director/star Michael Covino and his co-writer-star Kyle Marvin.
I met them at Cannes when they debuted their buddy comedy “The Climb” in 2019, which landed them agency UTA and distributor Sony Pictures Classics. When I saw them at the festival this year, I promised to grill them again. Later in the show I also talk to their producers, Topic Studios, who have their fingers in many projects.
Topic Studios backed “The Climb” and signed Covino and Marvin’s production shingle Watch This Ready. Since then, they have been busy producing other people’s movies and acting — Covino, who is based in New York, co-starred with Tom Hanks in “News of the World,” and Marvin, who moved his family from L.A. to Oregon, directed sports comedy “80 for Brady” and starred in “We Crashed” for Apple TV. With the release of “The Climb” delayed by the pandemic, they made the rounds of Hollywood.
With “Splitsville,” a bigger-budgeted comedy shot in 35mm in Montreal, the partners return to their favorite subject, infidelity. They play two buddies confronting the realities of open marriage. And Covino cast Dakota Johnson and Adria Arjona as the two wives in this combustible mix. The bravura centerpiece is the two friends’ destructive brawl in a Hamptons manse, which explodes everything in sight, from an enormous aquarium to the second story window.
Hopefully, after the success of “Naked Gun,” this comedy will remind distributors that comedy can be successful at the box office.
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I also talked with Topic Studios’ Ryan Heller (EVP of Film and Documentaries) and CEO Michael Bloom. The company has spun off its not-for-profit entity to focus on the studio, which has delivered quite a few hits along the way, including Best Picture winner “Spotlight,” Oscar winner “A Real Pain,” Emmy winner “The 100 Foot Wave,” and Magnolia’s documentary releases “Folktales” and “It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley.”
This summer, they are co-financiers on “Mother Mary” with A24 and just wrapped production on Jesse Eisenberg’s untitled musical. Topic supports filmmakers in a variety of ways, from co-financing deals (“Mother Mary”) to co-productions/co-releases (“Splitsville”) to serving as the main studio on a project (the Untitled Jesse Eisenberg).
A Neon release, “Splitsville” will hit theaters on Friday, August 22.
Listen to the episode below.
