Universal Pictures has set Emma Stone and Chris Pine’s romantic comedy The Catch for release on May 21, 2027, giving the studio a star-driven title for the pre-Memorial Day frame. Dave McCary will direct the film, which remains under wraps on plot details.
The movie is being built as a two-hander romantic comedy, with Stone reuniting with McCary behind the camera. Patrick Kang and Michael Levin wrote the original spec script, while Jen Statsky and Travis Helwig handled the most recent draft.
Shawn Levy and Dan Levine are producing through 21 Laps, along with Michael H. Weber. Stone, McCary and Ali Herting are producing through Fruit Tree, which signed a first-look deal with Universal after the studio landed the film in 2024. Robin Fisichella is executive producing, and Universal’s Erik Baiers and Jacqueline Garell are overseeing the project for the studio.
The release date puts The Catch into a crowded holiday weekend that also includes Paramount and Blumhouse’s revival of the Paranormal Activity franchise and Warner Bros. Pictures Animation’s Bad Fairies, starring Cynthia Erivo and Ncuti Gatwa. Stone, meanwhile, is coming off her fourth Oscar acting nomination for Bugonia and a Best Picture nomination as a producer on the same film, making her the first woman to land Oscar nominations as both actress and producer on two different films, a feat she first achieved in 2024 with Poor Things.
For Pine, the project follows his turn opposite Jenny Slate in the romance film Carousel, which premiered at Sundance this year, and comes before his role in the Zellner Brothers’ sci-fi comedy Alpha Gang alongside Cate Blanchett, Dave Bautista, Lily Rose-Depp and Lea Seydoux. McCary’s feature directing resume dates to 2017, when he made his debut with Brigsby Bear. With the cast in place and the date now fixed, Universal has staked out a crowded but high-visibility weekend for a film that is still guarding its story.