A gross-out comedy that turns Northern California’s Wine Country on its head has landed a major distribution deal.
Magnolia Pictures has acquired U.S. rights to “The Napa Boys,” an absurdist buddy film described by Variety as “Sideways” meets “American Pie.” The movie skewers – and celebrates – the quirks of Napa Valley’s tasting rooms, tour buses and Merlot-shaming culture.
Co-written by and starring Armen Weitzman and former head creative at Funny or Die Nick Corirossi, who also directed, “The Napa Boys” premiered in September at the Toronto International Film Festival.
The story follows a group of wine-soaked misfits led by a mysterious figure known as “The Sommelier,” whose antics include a Francis Ford Coppola doppelgänger and a very unconventional approach to wine appreciation.
The film debuted in TIFF’s Midnight Madness section, a late-night showcase typically reserved for horror and extreme genre fare. While “The Napa Boys” is comparatively tame, its gleefully absurd humor proved polarizing.
During an IMAX press screening, one sequence – in which Corirossi’s character confuses medication and commits a shocking act involving a wine cask – reportedly prompted several audience members to walk out.
“It initially had a press and industry screening in IMAX,” Corirossi told Variety. “We shot it for IMAX, and the barrel scene, around that point, older buyers scoffed and dramatically, almost in a ‘Brown Bunny’ way, walked out. There was even someone who left a review that was like, ‘How dare they desecrate and reduce the name of IMAX by showing this film!'”
Produced by Mike Rosenstein (“The Eric Andre Show”), Erin Owens (“Another Period”) and Weitzman for Sunset Rose Pictures, the film has a stacked cast of alt-comedy talent – including Sarah Ramos (“The Bear”), Chloe Cherry (“Euphoria”) and David Wain (“Wet Hot American Summer”). Comedian Jerrod Carmichael is the executive producer.
“Audiences are hungry to laugh in theaters together. That’s why I think ‘Napa Boys’ is really going to work,” Rosenstein told Variety. “When you do get people together and they’re laughing like this, it’s something else. So the idea is to really get it out there and let people see it together.”
Magnolia Pictures plans a theatrical release early next year.
This article originally published at Outrageous Wine Country movie that prompted walkouts just landed a Magnolia Pictures deal.
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