EXCLUSIVE: After reinventing the dinner party pic with The Invite, Olivia Wilde is looking to get into the holiday spirit for her next directorial outing. Sources tell Deadline Universal Pictures have greenlit her holiday comedy Naughty and tapped Jennifer Aniston and Peter Dinklage to star. The studio also dated the pic for Nov. 5, 2027. Wilde is on board to direct with LuckyChap producing.
Naughty follows Mallory (Aniston), whose only hope of securing custody of her son from her gaslighting trash-bag ex is to find Santa Claus (Dinklage) and convince him to testify in her divorce hearing. The film feels like a perfect follow-up project for Wilde, who just showcased her skills as a comedy director with The Invite, one of the best reviewed films of the year.
Jimmy Warden penned the script, which originated from his original spec that Universal landed in 2023 with Wilde on board to direct. Though Wilde would go on to direct The Invite first while Warden fine tuned the script, she always had Aniston and Dinklage in mind to star as Mallory and Santa.
Following the success of The Invite, the studio knew it had to move fast to make sure they didn’t lose Wilde to another project and over the past weeks, worked out Aniston and Dinklage’s schedule while getting it in front of a greenlight board who signed off and set it for Nov. 2027.
Olivia Wilde
Atsushi Nishijima
LuckyChap will produce along with Wilde and Warden. Executive Vice President of Production Development Sara Scott and Director of Production Development Jacqueline Garell will oversee the project for the studio.
The Invite had highest film sale out of Sundance and acquired by A24 after an all-night bidding war. The film has had the best platform release of the year, reinforcing the urgency for theatrical comedies. So far it has earned $20mm US and $16mm internationally with most European markets yet to release.
The film has a critic rating of 97% on Rotten Tomatoes, one of the highest of the year with 90% of people in exit polls recommended seeing it in the theater as an experience vs at home.
While she has spent a lot of her time recently earning Emmy nominations for her critically acclaimed role in the Apple drama series The Morning Show, Aniston is no stranger to making audiences laugh for the last couple of decades going back to her Emmy-winning role on Friends. Since then her hit comedies have included We’re The Millers, The Breakup and the Murder Mystery movies and this film feels like a return to form. The final season of The Morning Show was just announced by Apple.
The Emmy-winning Dinklage recently produced and starred in the films American Dreamer, The Thicket and Brothers through his production company Estuary Films. He was also part of the SAG nominated ensemble for the smash hit Wicked. Upcoming films Idiots and Wicker, which both premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and will be released in the Summer and Fall respectively.
On the TV side, he was recently on the new season of the popular series Dexter: Resurrection and The Lowdown and was just added to the cast of Noah Hawley’s Alien: Earth for the upcoming second season.
Aniston is repped by CAA, Lighthouse Management & Media, and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller. Dinklage is represented by CAA and Jackoway Austen Tyerman. Wilde is represented by CAA, Untitled Entertainment and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole. Warden is represented by CAA, Untitled Entertainment, Sunshine Sachs Morgan & Lylis and Ziffren Brittenham. LuckyChap is represented by Entertainment 360, CAA and attorney Jeff Bernstein.
