Jake Johnson’s Self Reliance is getting a short theatrical release ahead of its Hulu debut.
Neon announced that Self Reliance, a new film written and directed by New Girl’s Johnson, will play in AMC Theaters in the United States for one night only on Wednesday, January 3, 2024. A 10-minute behind-the-scenes discussion between Johnson and Lamorne Morris, who also stars in New Girl, will be included in the Self Reliance theatrical screenings.
Following its one-night theatrical run, Self Reliance will drop on Hulu on January 12, 2024.
What is Self Reliance about?
In addition to writing and directing Self Reliance, Johnson also stars in the movie as a character named Tommy Walcott. The movie’s cast also includes Anna Kendrick, Andy Samberg, Christopher Lloyd, Mary Holland, Biff Wife, Natalie Morales, Emily Hampshire, Boban Marjanović, GaTa, and Wayne Brady.
“The film follows Tommy (Johnson), who is offered a million dollars to play a game in which he must outwit hunters as they attempt to kill him,” the official synopsis reads. “He thinks he has found the perfect loophole – they can only attack when he’s alone – but his only problem is that none of his friends or family believe the game is real.”
Self Reliance was produced by The Lonely Island, Walcott Productions, Ali Bell, Joe Hardesty, and Johnson. Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Taccone serve as executive producers.
Johnson wrote the screenplay for Self Reliance during the COVID-19 pandemic. He told Vulture in September 2023, “As everybody was alone, all the ideas of this project came together. I thought, ‘What would happen if somebody was on a show that pushed it to the extreme and no one believed anybody?’ When the pandemic hit, I was working on another project that I was going to try to finish. It was April of 2020, and the world was shutting down. Agents and managers were all saying we might never go back to the way it was. I thought, If I’m going to spend my nights aimlessly writing a screenplay that no one’s ever going to read or make, this is the one I want it to be.”
Self Reliance will play in AMC Theaters on January 3, 2024, before it hits Hulu on January 12.
