Scarlett Johansson, Owen Wilson, Penelope Cruz & Michael Fassbender to Lead Romantic Comedy Film for Netflix

by Darian Scalamoni

    Netflix continues to put together pricey packages for their streamer as news comes per Deadline that Scarlett Johannsson (Marriage Story, The Avengers), Penelope Cruz (Vicky Christina Barcelona, Vanilla Sky), Owen Wilson (Loki, Midnight in Paris) and Michael Fassbender (Shame, Prometheus) will star in the big-budget romantic comedy, Paris Paramount.

    Paris Paramount marks the return of directing for Nancy Meyers (Something's Gotta Give, The Holiday) who hasn't directed a film since 2015's The Intern starring Anne Hathaway and Robert De Niro. However, given her success with the romcom genre and the star power associated with the pic, Netflix may have a successful project on their hands despite being a gamble with a budget over $100 million. The film tells the story of a filmmaking pair who reluctantly come back together on set after falling in and out of love with each other. Meyers is set to write, direct and produce the film for Netflix which marks reunions at Netflix for Johansson who previously starred in Noah Baumbach's Marriage Story, while Penelope Cruz starred in Wasp Network for the streamer. 

    Johansson just wrapped up her role as Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow with her self-titled solo film and will next star in Wes Anderson's Asteroid City which potentially could premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. She's also filming two films for Apple; first, an adaptation of Project Artemis co-starring Channing Tatum. Following that, she's scheduled to film Bride for director Sebastian Lelio. 

    Wilson has been an incredibly busy actor as of late, recently joining the MCU as Mobius in Loki, which will premiere its highly anticipated second season later this year. He'll also play a Bob Ross-style painter in indie comedy Paint for IFC before he heads to the Haunted Mansion with Rosario Dawson and LaKeith Stanfield this July. 

    Oscar-winning actress Cruz starred in the female-led spy thriller The 355 last year with an all-star cast that also included Jessica Chastain, Lupita Nyong'o and Sebastian Stan. She also earned her fourth Academy Award nomination for Parallel Mothers in 2022. She'll next appear in Michael Mann's Enzo Ferrari biopic alongside Adam Driver, Shailene Woodley and Jack O'Connell.

    Fassbender may have the biggest 2023 comparatively as he's scheduled to have three film releases this year. Two of them include working with some of the starriest directors in the industry, David Fincher and Taika Waititi. He'll lead both Fincher's latest Netflix release, The Killer and Waititi's soccer dramedy Next Goal Wins after being off-screen for 4 years since his final appearance as Magneto in X-Men: Dark Phoenix.