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Emma Stone and Dave McCary‘s production banner Fruit Tree has bore quite a bit of fruit, and now they are reaping the rewards. The couple’s company, which they run alongside Ali Herting, has signed a first-look film deal with Universal Pictures, the studio announced Thursday.
The deal brings the two-time Oscar-winning actress into the Universal fold alongside some of the studio’s other buzzy first-look relationships with filmmakers like Jordan Peele, Steven Spielberg, the Daniels, David Leitch, and more.
No projects were announced today under the deal, but the couple already has an untitled movie at Universal that will star Stone and will be directed by McCary.
Stone and McCary’s Fruit Tree is only four years old, and as a producer, Stone has already racked up a mess of acclaim and success. The studio in 2020 launched with a first-look TV deal at A24, which brought us Showtime’s “The Curse” that also starred Stone. She produced Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things” last year, for which she won the Best Actress Oscar. In 2024 alone, Fruit Tree had a hand in Searchlight’s “A Real Pain,” as well as A24’s “Problemista” and “I Saw the TV Glow.”
Stone will be making films for Universal proper under the deal, not the studio’s specialty label Focus Features, so this is a chance for Stone to bring her indie chops to a major studio stage.
“I’ve long admired Emma’s versatility as an actress, fearlessly embodying every role,” Donna Langley, the chairman of NBCUniversal Studio Group and its chief content officer, said in a statement. “Paired with Dave’s distinctive comedic voice and creative instincts, we’ve seen the incredible work they have accomplished together. We’re thrilled to support the creative ambition and vision that Emma and Dave will continue to bring to projects behind the camera.”
“Fruit Tree was founded with a passion for supporting ambitious filmmakers and bold storytelling,” Stone and McCary said in a statement. “Working with the amazing team at Universal allows us to push those boundaries even further. We couldn’t be more grateful to Donna, Peter, and Erik for their partnership, and we are looking forward to what the future holds together.”
The untitled film McCary is directing starring Stone is only his second feature after making his debut with 2017’s “Brigsby Bear.” But he’s a veteran writer and director who has been in the NBCUniversal fold after spending five years at “Saturday Night Live.” One of the most memorable pre-taped sketches he directed and wrote was “Papyrus” with Ryan Gosling, in which Gosling is obsessed with the knowledge that the “Avatar” logo is pretty much just designed in the Microsoft Word font Papyrus.
Stone most recently starred in “Kinds of Kindness” (also from Lanthimos), and she’s appearing in Ari Aster’s next film for A24, “Eddington.”
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