Yahoo News Denis Leary Joins Michelle Pfeiffer in Amazon MGM Holiday Comedy ‘Oh. What. Fun.’ (Exclusive)
Denis Leary is returning to the movies.
The actor and comedian, who hasn’t appeared in a film since 2014’s Amazing Spider-Man with Andrew Garfield, has joined the cast of Michael Showalter’s holiday comedy Oh. What. Fun. for Amazon MGM Studios.
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He joins Michelle Pfeiffer, Chloë Grace Moretz, The Holdovers discovery Dominic Sessa and Felicity Jones on the call sheet.
Described as both a love letter to moms and tonally a cross between Home for the Holidays and Planes, Trains and Automobiles, the story centers on a woman named Claire Clauster (Pfeiffer) who organizes a special Christmas outing, but her family forgets her in the shuffle. By the time they realize their mistake, she’s gone missing and their Christmas is in jeopardy. Luckily, nothing will stop Claire from giving her family the holiday they deserve.
The studio did not comment on the roles, but sources say Leary is playing Pfeiffer’s husband in the movie. Moretz and Sessa are said to be playing two the woman’s grown children.
The script is based on Chandler Baker’s short story, published by Amazon Original Stories. Showalter and Baker wrote the script for the feature.
Showalter is producing the film via Semi-Formal Productions alongside Jordana Mollick, Tribeca’s Berry Welsh and Jane Rosenthal, and Kate Churchill.
The team is planning a late-May production start in Atlanta.
While Leary is well known for his television work, notably his Emmy-nominated series Rescue Me, the versatile actor was a fixture on the big screen in the 1990s, appearing in movies ranging from Demolition Man and Judgment Night to Wag the Dog and The Thomas Crown Affair. In more recent times, he was a staple voice in the animated Ice Age movies, playing the scruffy sabertooth Diego, and appeared as Captain Stacy in the Andrew Garfield Spider-Man movies released in the mid-2010s. The second one was released only two weeks after Draft Day, a Kevin Costner-led drama in which he also co-starred
He is repped by WME and Ziffren Brittenham.
A previous version of this story stated that Leary’s last feature film on-screen appearance was in 2014’s Draft Day. It was corrected to reflect that it was in Amazing Spider-Man 2.
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