Quick summary
- Seth Rogen talked to Variety’s Awards Circuit Podcast about two very different films this year, “The Invite” and “Tangles”.
- “The Invite”, Olivia Wilde’s A24 dinner-party film, is streaming on HBO Max.
- “Tangles”, a hand-drawn black-and-white animated feature from his Point Grey Pictures, opens in cinemas this year for an awards run, with a wider release in early 2027.
- He also discussed a newly announced “Darkwing Duck” revival at Disney+ and Season 2 of “The Studio”.
Seth Rogen is having a year that looks unlike his usual run of comedies. In an interview published on 14 November, he told Variety about a dramatic turn in “The Invite” and a long-gestating animated drama, “Tangles”, while also teasing news on a Darkwing Duck revival.
Seth Rogen in The Invite
According to Variety, recorded at the Middleburg Film Festival in Virginia, Rogen plays Joe in “The Invite”. Joe is a husband whose fraying marriage is tested over a single excruciating evening with the upstairs neighbours, played by Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton. The film is directed by Olivia Wilde for A24.
The Variety writer calls it Rogen’s finest hour as an actor and says he plays it in a way audiences would not expect. Rogen gave much of the credit to Wilde. He said she let the cast shape the film’s tone, allowing him to add humour in moments that were not written as funny and to make jokes that undercut scenes in ways that were not scripted. Norton, he said, was given room for dramatic monologues in places the script had not planned them.
Rogen added that if Wilde had ignored those ideas, he “would not have been as funny” in the film, as Variety quotes him.
He also described going dramatic as a “cheat code” among comedians. Variety reports that he recalled Jonah Hill predicting that “Moneyball” (2011) would bring Hill the most acclaim of his career for doing the least. Hill was right: it earned him his first Oscar nomination, for supporting actor.
Tangles took a decade
“Tangles” is the riskier project. It is adapted from Sarah Leavitt’s graphic memoir about her mother’s Alzheimer’s and directed by first-time feature filmmaker Leah Nelson. The film comes from Rogen’s Point Grey Pictures, and Variety lists him among the voice cast alongside Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Abbi Jacobson, Bryan Cranston and Samira Wiley.
It took 10 years to make, Variety reports, and Rogen told the outlet that it only fails to happen when its makers give up on it. He also said the timing of this year’s releases was luck: nobody knew “Tangles” would arrive now, and the run of projects only looks planned in hindsight.
Variety describes the film as an outlier in a category dominated by studio franchises. Independent Film Company and Sapan Studio are releasing it.
Other projects he covered
Besides the two films, the conversation touched on the recently announced “Darkwing Duck” revival at Disney+ and the awards-season satire in Season 2 of “The Studio”. Rogen also discussed how “Steve Jobs” opened a door to a part of the industry he had not been invited into before. The excerpt available to us does not include his answers on those topics, so details on the revival are still to come.
For more on his recent news, see our Seth Rogen page, our Movies section, or the recent post on The Night Before streaming free on Tubi.
What happens next
“Tangles” opens in cinemas this year for an awards-qualifying run, then expands more widely in early 2027, according to Variety. “The Invite” can be watched now on HBO Max. No date for the “Darkwing Duck” revival was given in the material we reviewed.
Frequently asked questions
Where can I watch The Invite?
Variety reports that “The Invite” is streaming on HBO Max.
What is Tangles about?
It is a hand-drawn, black-and-white animated feature based on Sarah Leavitt’s graphic memoir about her mother’s Alzheimer’s. Leah Nelson directs.
When does Tangles come out?
It opens in cinemas this year for an awards-qualifying run, with a wider expansion planned for early 2027.
