An American Pickle: HBO Max Acquires Seth Rogen’s Comedy Film

April 27, 2020

HBO Max has acquired worldwide rights to Seth Rogen’s upcoming comedy feature An American Pickle. The project comes from Sony Pictures and is set to be released this summer on the digital streaming service under its Warner Max label. You can check out a first look at the movie in the gallery below!

Couldn’t be more thrilled that my next film “An American Pickle” will be on HBO Max this summer. I can’t wait for you all to see it, but here’s a taste! Get it?!?! pic.twitter.com/zcM725FNzu

— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) April 27, 2020

An American Pickle is an adaptation of the 2013 New Yorker novella Sell Out by Simon Rich, who adapted his own script. Brandon Trost, the cinematographer of Rogen films This Is the End, Neighbors, and The Interview, will direct.

Rogen will star in dual leading roles in the film. Rogen will play Herschel Greenbaum, a struggling laborer who immigrates to America in 1920 with dreams of building a better life for his beloved family. One day, while working at his factory job, he falls into a vat of pickles and is brined for 100 years. The brine preserves him perfectly and when he emerges in present-day Brooklyn, he finds that he hasn’t aged a day. But when he seeks out his family, he is troubled to learn that his only surviving relative is his great-grandson, Ben Greenbaum (also played by Rogen), a mild-mannered computer coder whom Herschel can’t even begin to understand.

“I couldn’t be more thrilled to be partnering with HBO Max to release this film. We worked very hard and put as much of ourselves in this story as possible,” said Rogen. “We’re very proud of the end result and we can’t wait for people to get to see it.”

“HBO Max is in the market for motion pictures that stand out. And An American Pickle does stand out – with Seth in this wonderfully original, funny, and heartfelt film that we look forward to debuting this summer,” added Kevin Reilly, Chief Content Officer at HBO Max, President, TNT, TBS, and truTV.

Rich will executive produce along with Point Grey’s Alex McAtee and Ted Gidlow. Rogen and his Point Grey producing partners Evan Goldberg and James Weaver will produce.

(Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images)