Ryan, who became America’s sweetheart thanks to her roles in When Harry Met Sally, You’ve Got Mailand Sleepless in Seattle, will star in and direct a new rom-com called What Happens Later. David Duchovnywill co-star in the project, which Ryan also co-wrote alongside Steven Dietz and Kirk Lynn. The film is based on Dietz’s play Shooting Star. In the movie, Ryan and Duchovny play exes Willa and Bill, who are snowed in together overnight at an airport decades after their breakup. “Willa is still the willful, independent spirit she once was, free of any ties. Bill, recently separated, is reassessing his life and his relationships with his estranged wife and daughter,” a synopsis for the movie reads. “All each wants is to get home, but over the course of the night they find themselves at first reluctantly drawn together yet compelled to revisit their past, along with what could have been and what might well be again. But when the versions of their shared history don’t quite add up, where do they go from there?” What Happens Later is slated for a 2023 release. Ryan posted a photo of a poster for the movie in all its wintery glory to her Instagram. Ryan isn’t the only rom-com icon making a comeback. In April 2022, Nancy Meyersannounced that she would write and direct a new movie for Netflix. The genre is having a much-welcomed renaissance after quietly disappearing for the better part of a decade. Studios were largely more focused on tentpole films, with mid-budget efforts like romantic comedies taking a backseat to superhero fare. Kimber Myers, a critic for The Los Angeles Times, Crooked Marquee and other outlets, previously explained to Parade.com, “The legacy studios are definitely making fewer romantic comedies than they were 20-30 years ago during the genre’s modern heyday, and that’s largely because they stopped being such a sure bet at the box office. There’s certainly a chicken-or-the-egg situation here; studios aren’t making as many rom-coms—and they aren’t putting as many resources behind the ones they are making—and so people don’t show up, and so they make even fewer, and so on.” Fellow rom-com staples like Sandra Bullockare diving back into the genre as well, so it makes sense for Ryan—who deliberately is quite private and flies well under the radar—to grace our screens once more. Next, look back ath the 60 best romantic movies so far this century!
