Olivia Wilde has lined up her follow-up to her feature directorial debut. “Booksmart” is still in theaters, and she’s already signed on to helm a holiday comedy for Universal, which “prevailed over another five bids from rival Hollywood studios,” The Hollywood Reporter confirms.
Currently untitled, the feature sees Wilde reuniting with “Booksmart” co-writer Katie Silberman, whose other credits include “Set It Up” and “Isn’t It Romantic.” Both Wilde and Silberman are producing.
“Booksmart” boasts a 97 percent “Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The teen comedy centers on Molly (Beanie Feldstein, “Lady Bird”) and Amy (Kaitlyn Dever, “Last Man Standing”) — BFFs on a mission. On the eve of their high school graduation, the pair begin to fear that they’ve been letting life pass them by. They’ve spent so much time focusing on getting good grades and getting into good colleges that they haven’t gone to any good parties — or any parties at all. Their peers, meanwhile, have managed to achieve stellar SAT scores and make lots of memories outside of the classroom. So Molly and Amy resolve to catch up on all the fun they’ve missed out on in the span of one night.
Wilde, whose credits as an actress include “Tron,” “House,” and “Meadowland,” has said that she wished she tried her hand at directing earlier. “I’m not that old, but it took me time to get over my insecurity of not having gone to film school. I thought: ‘How can you become a director without having studied lenses for years?'” she explained. “I just didn’t realize that my 15 years on set as an actress had actually been my de facto film school and then I’d been spending that time shadowing great directors and also learning from bad directors. Bad professional experiences are just as valuable as cautionary tales.”