EXCLUSIVE: Kestrin Pantera (Pretty Problems) is set to direct and star in an untitled indie featuring a cast of top comedic performers. Among them are “Weird Al” Yankovic (Weird: The Al Yankovic Story), Tia Carrere (Wayne’s World), Jackie Tohn (GLOW), David Wain (Wet Hot American Summer) and The Sklar Brothers (What We Do in the Shadows), as well as Pantera’s longtime collaborators, Breeda Wool (UnREAL) and Sam Littlefield (Batwoman).
The film will also feature performances by Tiffany Haddish (Girls Trip), Sherry Cola (Joy Ride) and Rob Corddry (The Daily Show), among other celebrity cameos.
Marking the first feature from Pantera’s newly launched Pantera Pictures, dedicated to female-driven stories, the comedy watches as a one-hit former rockstar moves her family to a picturesque town and channels her unfulfilled ambition and rage into the 5th grade science fair, where she ignites a fierce parent rivalry and starts a war.
Watch on Deadline
Pantera is directing from her own script, also producing under Pantera Pictures, with production currently underway in Los Angeles.
In a statement to Deadline, Pantera said, “It’s an honor to bring this film to life alongside the funniest, smartest, most attractive and weirdest people alive. Hilarity, heart and dick-punching stories are what Pantera Pictures is all about. Can’t wait to unleash this film (and our slate) upon the world.”
Pantera is best known for directing the IFC Films dramedy Pretty Problems, which won a SXSW Audience Award in 2022. Previously, the filmmaker has also helmed the indies Mother’s Little Helpers and Let’s Ruin It with Babies. Other upcoming projects from her Pantera Pictures include a feature adaptation of her James Bond-style action-comedy short Dr. No Means No, produced with Charlotte Ubben’s Resting Bitch Face Productions. The filmmaker is repped by CAA, Zero Gravity Management, and Bloch Law.
Yankovic is repped by Paradigm; Carrere by Innovative Artists, The Characters Talent Agency, and The Arlook Group; Tohn by CAA, Armada Partners, and Myman Greenspan Fox; Wain by WME, Entertainment 360, and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman; The Sklar Brothers by IAG, Artists First, and Felker Toczek Suddleson; Wool by Innovative Artists, Bold Management & Production, and Jackoway Austen Tyerman; Littlefield by Ideal Talent Agency and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman; Haddish by UTA, Brillstein Entertainment Partners, She Ready, and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole; Cola by CAA, Stark Management, and Ginsburg Daniels Kallis; and Corddry by WME and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller.