Writer/director/producer Judd Apatow (“Knocked Up“) has a long history of mentoring and helping out comedians in need, often vaulting them to the next level in the process. He forever changed Steve Carrell’s career with the “40-Year-Old Virgin,” elevated nearly every member of the “Freaks & Geeks” team with their own movies (Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, Jason Segel) and gave huge career boosts to popular comedians by directing or producing their breakout films (Kristen Wiig with “Bridesmaids,” Amy Schumer‘s “Trainwreck,” and Kumail Nanjiani‘s “The Big Sick“). The avuncular and mentoring Apatow has done it yet again with “The King Of Staten Island,” a movie that has helped out SNL comedian Pete Davidson seemingly overcome his own struggles with fame, addiction, and bad press.
In a recent “The King of Staten Island – Conversations” video (below), Davidson referred to himself jokingly as the Dennis Rodman of comedy, a guy who isn’t liked and never gets a break. And as self-deprecating as he is, there’s truth to this comment. Ever since Davidson dated Ariana Grande, which spawned the term “big dick energy” (perhaps not the worst term you want to be associated with yourself if you’re a man in Hollywood), and Margot Qualley and Kate Beckinsale to name a few, the actors, ahem, gifts, have been under constant scrutiny by the press and paparazzi. Davidson struggled with drugs in the fallout and there were even reports of a suicide scare at one point.
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Somewhere in the madness of it all, Judd Apatow reached out to Davidson told him to use this time and channel this energy into a personal story about his life and that’s turned into the semi-autobiographical, “The King Of Staten Island,” which centers on a young man who’s been grapple with grief and smoking weed ever since his firefighter dad died during 9/11. The film also stars Marisa Tomei, Maude Apatow, Bel Powley, Pamela Adlon, Steve Buscemi, Bill Burr, and Kevin Corrigan among many others you will likely recognize. Here’s the official synopsis:
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Scott (Davidson) has been a case of arrested development ever since his firefighter father died when he was seven. He’s now reached his mid-20s having achieved little, chasing a dream of becoming a tattoo artist that seems far out of reach. As his ambitious younger sister (Maude Apatow, HBO’s Euphoria) heads off to college, Scott is still living with his exhausted ER nurse mother (Oscar® winner Marisa Tomei) and spends his days smoking weed, hanging with the guys—Oscar (Ricky Velez, Master of None), Igor (Moises Arias, Five Feet Apart) and Richie (Lou Wilson, TV’s The Guest Book)—and secretly hooking up with his childhood friend Kelsey (Bel Powley, Apple TV+’s The Morning Show).
“The King Of Staten Island” was first set to premiere at SXSW earlier this year, and then Tribeca, but then COVID-19 happened and you know the rest. Given there are few theaters to release the movies now, outside of the reckless theater owners in Texas and places like that, the comedy is available on-demand June 12. Watch the first trailer below.
Update: A new featurette has arrived.