EXCLUSIVE: Deadline has the first clip from Lionsgate‘s comedy Scrambled marking the feature debut of writer-director Leah McKendrick, which is set to world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival on March 11.
McKendrick also stars in the pic as thirty-something Nellie Robinson, who is your quintessential eternal bridesmaid. Her weekends are spent hopping from wedding to baby shower to yet another she-said-yes engagement party, all while nursing a broken heart due to a recent breakup. Nellie distracts herself in the shallow dating pool of bartenders and Hinge bros, but when a doctor visit reveals her fertility may be in jeopardy, she stares down the barrel of a future without options and decides to freeze her eggs. The arduous (and pricey) process sends her on a journey of self-examination, confronting past lovers, dreams and regrets, and ultimately bringing her face to face with the one she’s meant to be with forever: Herself.
In the first-look clip from Scrambled, Nellie discusses the idea of freezing her eggs with family members (Clancy Brown, Laura Cerón, Andrew Santino) who don’t completely understand. The film based on McKendrick’s personal experiences also stars Ego Nwodim (SNL), Yvonne Strahovski (The Handmaid’s Tale), June Diane Raphael (Grace and Frankie), Adam Rodriguez (Magic Mike’s Last Dance), Brett Dier (Fresh) and Sterling Sulieman (I Know What You Did Last Summer).
BondIt Media Capital fully financed the project, with Megamix’s Jonathan Levine and Gillian Bohrer producing under their first-look deal with Lionsgate. Hearts Beat Loud filmmaker Brett Haley and Amanda Mortimer (Bone Tomahawk) also produced, with Mariah Owen, Grady Craig and BondIt’s Matthew Helderman and Luke Taylor serving as exec producers. Lionsgate picked up worldwide rights to Scrambled last September and will launch global sales out of SXSW.
McKendrick told Deadline that “Scrambled was inspired by the real trials and tribulations of being a single, 34-year-old woman freezing her eggs. My goal was to make a film as awkward, messy, raw, confronting, and ultimately empowering as the experience itself. It’s a privilege to premiere my 90-minute overshare at SXSW, and hopefully illuminate a process that has too often been discussed in hushed tones.”
Added Megamix’s Levine: “I got my start in independent film. It’s where my heart lies and I am so grateful to those who saw something in me and gave me the chance to make my first film. When Gillian and I started Megamix, we said from the outset that we wanted to be those producers — the ones who would take a shot on a voice we believed in. When we read Scrambled, we were blown away by Leah’s honest, raw, and deeply funny script.
“It reminded me of a movie I directed, 50/50, in its ability to tackle a very dramatic subject with levity, humanity, and a uniquely modern perspective,” continued the filmmaker. “We are honored to have played a part in bringing Leah’s intensely personal, yet also universal story to the screen.”
Scrambled‘s first SXSW screening will take place at Austin, TX’s Alamo Drafthouse Cinema South Lamar on the 11th at 4 p.m. View the first clip from the film by clicking above.
