A director known for female-led comedies like “Bridesmaids” and “Ghostbusters,” Paul Feig now tries his hand at the thriller genre with “A Simple Favor,” a mystery film that was pitched to Fox 2000 as a work in the vein of “Gone Girl” and “The Girl on the Train.”
Like those two noirish pictures, ‘Favor’ is based on a novel of the same name, with Fox buying the rights to author Darcey Bell’s twisty 2017 debut prior to the book’s publication. Co-written by Feig and Jessica Sharzer (“American Horror Story”), the film looks to be the director’s first in over a decade to feature zero Melissa McCarthy. Instead, we’ll be getting Anna Kendrick in the role of lead sleuth, opposite Blake Lively and British-Malaysian actor Henry Golding, the latter of whom will be making his big screen debut this August in rom-com “Crazy Rich Asians.”
Earlier this year at CinemaCon, Kendrick compared the tone of the film to blackly comic crime flicks “In Bruges” and “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.” “It’s definitely serious, the stakes are very real, it’s not a spoof but it’s still funny,” Kendrick told Flickering Myth, suggesting that Feig’s latest won’t be a complete departure from the director’s jokey past work.
Here’s the official synopsis:
A SIMPLE FAVOR, directed by Paul Feig, centers around Stephanie (Anna Kendrick), a mommy vlogger who seeks to uncover the truth behind her best friend Emily’s (Blake Lively) sudden disappearance from their small town. Stephanie is joined by Emily’s husband Sean (Henry Golding) in this stylish thriller filled with twists and betrayals, secrets and revelations, love and loyalty, murder and revenge.
Kendrick, Lively and Golding star alongside Linda Cardellini, Rupert Friend and Eric Johnson. Feig coproduces the film with his regular collaborator Jessie Henderson, and Lionsgate are handling distribution.
“A Simple Favor” arrives in cinemas on September 14. Take a look at the new trailer below.