Movies Andy Samberg and Jean Smart are ex-lovers with a cryogenic twist in rom-com 42.6 Years It's that same old classic tale of boy meets girl, boy gets frozen, boy wakes up in the future, boy meets now-older girl... By Lester Fabian Brathwaite Lester Fabian Brathwaite Lester Fabian Brathwaite is a staff writer at Entertainment Weekly, where he covers breaking news, all things Real Housewives, and a rich cornucopia of popular culture. Formerly a senior editor at Out magazine, his work has appeared on NewNowNext, Queerty, Rolling Stone, and The New Yorker. He was also the first author signed to Phoebe Robinson's Tiny Reparations imprint. He met Oprah once. EW's editorial guidelines Published on February 7, 2023 08:21PM EST Andy Samberg produced and starred in one of the wittiest rom-coms in recent memory with 2020's Palm Springs, and now he's taking another sci-fi swipe at the genre with 42.6 Years. He'll star alongside the venerable Jean Smart, fresh off a second consecutive Emmy win for Hacks and an appearance in Damien Chazelle's Babylon, as a young man who undergoes an experimental procedure and is cryogenically frozen. When he awakens 42.6 years later, the only person he has left to turn to is his now much older ex-girlfriend (Smart). Andy Samberg and Jean Smart to star in rom com '42.6 Years'. Jesse Grant/Getty; Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic Now that is a rom-com we can get behind. Two charismatic leads and a fun, fresh twist — what more could you ask for... besides a rich supporting cast of scene-stealing character actors and actresses? Some rom-com tropes are sacred. Seth Reiss (Late Night with Seth Meyers), who recently earned a WGA nomination for co-writing The Menu, penned the script from a story he wrote with Samberg. The story is based on an original idea of Samberg's. Craig Gillespie (Pam & Tommy, I, Tonya) will direct and co-produce along with Samberg and Ali Bell of Party Over Here, Samberg's production company. 42.6 Years is currently in development at Amazon Studios, and hopefully, the wait to see it won't feel like a cryogenic freeze. Related content: Jean Smart and Margot Robbie on the perils of deepfakes: 'I don't want to be in a year 3000 porn' Nominated for Nothing: Why Palm Springs, the peak 2020 movie, floated right by the Oscars The Menu review: A deliciously wicked food-world satire