wheels and deals

Amazon Spends $12 Million on Sundance Rom-Com The Big Sick From Kumail Nanjiani, Michael Showalter, and Judd Apatow

Kumail Nanjiani Photo: Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images for Sundance Film Festival

The Big Sick, a romantic comedy starring, co-scripted by, and based heavily on the life of Kumail Nanjiani, just became one of the first big deals of this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Per Variety, Amazon acquired the project for a cool $12 million after a lengthy bidding war. The Big Sick is about a struggling stand-up (Nanjiani) and his would-be heckler who fall in love but struggle with cultural differences — he’s Pakistani-American, she’s white — and a health crisis. Continuing her streak as the indie rom-com’s Meg Ryan, Zoe Kazan plays the female lead in the film directed by Michael Showalter, produced by Judd Apatow, and co-written by Nanjiani and his wife, Emily V. Gordon. This has been your semi-regular reminder that the rom-com did not die, it just went slightly off the grid.

Amazon Acquires Judd Apatow Rom-Com The Big Sick