Exclusive: Blue Harbor Entertainment and Variance Films Pick Up U.S. Rights to Sundance Comedy ‘The Musical’
Blue Harbor Entertainment and Variance Films have secured the U.S. rights to the Sundance comedy ‘The Musical’, starring Will Brill, Rob Lowe, and Gillian Jacobs. The film, directed by Giselle Bonilla, is set to hit theaters nationwide on September 18.
‘The Musical’ follows the story of Doug Leibowitz, a disgruntled playwright turned middle-school theater teacher longing for New York. When his ex-girlfriend begins dating his nemesis, the school’s principal, Brady (Lowe), Doug’s ambitions morph into a diabolical scheme. To ruin Brady’s reputation and jeopardize his coveted Blue Ribbon award, Doug plots revenge by secretly staging the most inappropriate play imaginable with his middle-school students.
The film made its world premiere at Sundance in January in the U.S. Dramatic Competition. Bonilla, an alum of the Sundance Institute, is also an Ignite x Adobe Fellow and a Latino Film Institute x Netflix Inclusion and Telluride FilmLAB Fellow. Bonilla and Heller, both alums of the American Film Institute, first collaborated on a short film of the same name, which won the Audience Award at the American Cinematheque’s 2024 Proof Film Festival and received a Special Mention from the jury.
‘For me, there is no greater rush than watching a comedy in a theater with an audience. I am forever grateful to these partners for providing ‘The Musical’ with that opportunity,’ said Bonilla.
‘The Musical’ is produced by Lowe, Greg Lauritano, Alexander Heller, Findlay Brown, and Jordan Backhus. Executive Producers include Gillian Bohrer, Jonathan Levine, Chris Quintos Cathcart, Tyler Boehm, Bonilla, David Duque-Estrada, Sean Calvano, Vince Jolivette, Jiarui Guo, Dan Reardon, Kyle Fox, Luke Daniels, and Alan Pao.
Blue Harbor Entertainment, led by Amanda Sherwin, Mike Messina, and Seth Needle, has recently released the 2025 Sundance U.S. directing award-winner ‘Ricky’, starring Stephan James, Sheryl Lee Ralph, and Titus Welliver. Their notable releases include ‘A Nice Indian Boy’, starring Karan Soni and Jonathan Groff, and ‘Audrey’s Children’, starring Natalie Dormer.
Unapologetic Projects, co-founded by Chris Quintos Cathcart and Tyler Boehm, works with underrepresented creators to tell authentic stories. As Executive Producers, they had the 2024 theatrical release with ‘Dìdi’ via Focus Features, after premiering in competition at 2024 Sundance and winning both the U.S. Dramatic Audience Award and the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Best Ensemble Cast.
Variance has handled the theatrical releases of AMC concert event movies, including ‘Taylor Swift: Eras Tour’ and ‘Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Oscar winner ‘Drive My Car’. They have also released ‘Flow’ (for Sideshow/Janus Films), ‘Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance’ and ‘Lynne Ramsay’s Die My Love’ (for MUBI), ‘Bi Gan’s Resurrection’ (for Janus Films), and ‘Roshan Sethi’s A Nice Indian Boy’ (for Blue Harbor Entertainment).
