Hold on to your hats with a little lentil in them, because Marcel is about to go full Hollywood. Entertainment Weekly reports that millennials’ beloved little Marcel the Shell, created by comedian Jenny Slate and filmmaker Dean Fleischer Camp, will be be making his big screen debut in a feature directed by Fleischer Camp and starring the original duo who divorced in 2016 after four years of marriage.
Once confined to viral YouTube shorts and New York Times best selling books, Marcel the Shell With Shoes On will find Slate’s titular mollusk shacking up in an AirBnb with a down-on-his-luck documentary filmmaker portrayed by Fleischer Camp. Marcel also lives with his grandmother Connie—played by none other than Isabella Rosellini–and, of course, their pet lint, Alan. Over the course of the film, Dean’s camerawork turns Marcel and Connie into overnight sensations, and may help Marcel reconnect with his long-lost family.
Slate told EW that the process of adapting Marcel the Shell With Shoes On was “careful and deliberate, very creatively open, and extremely hopeful at its core.” Fleischer Camp added that “expanding Marcel’s world in this way is a dream I’ve been working toward for many years, but we took our time because he means so much to us. We felt a responsibility to do it right, and I think we did!”
The film was co-written by Fleischer Camp, Slate, and Nick Paley, based on a story by the trio and Elisabeth Holm. The cast includes Rosa Salazar, Thomas Mann, and Lesley Stahl—yes, that Lesley Stahl, playing herself. Marcel the Shell With Shoes On premieres on Friday, Sept. 3 at The Chuck Jones Theater in Telluride.
— Unhappy Little Trees: The Dark Legacy of Bob Ross
— The True Story of a Hollywood Partnership Built and Destroyed by Money, Sex, and Celebrity
— Ted Lasso’s Roy Kent on Why the Show Isn’t “Warm and Fuzzy”
— Caftans, Goyard, and Elvis: Inside The White Lotus’s Costumes
— The Chair Is Like an Academic Game of Thrones
— The Best Movies and Shows Streaming on Netflix This Month
— Rachael Leigh Cook on Reclaiming She’s All That
— Watch Kristen Stewart Channel Princess Di in Spencer’s Official Trailer
— From the Archive: Jeffrey Epstein and Hollywood’s Omnipresent Publicist
— Sign up for the “HWD Daily” newsletter for must-read industry and awards coverage—plus a special weekly edition of “Awards Insider.”