At the end of Olivia Wilde’s last film InvitationBefore the credits roll, there is a brief moment when the screen flashes to show a note that says “For Diane”.
Diane was mentioned by Diane Keaton, and Wilde dedicated the film — which follows a couple who barely keeps their marriage together and invites their neighbors over for a dinner party that quickly goes off the rails — to the late star.
“I really wanted to show this movie to Diane. I don’t think there is anything.” He calls “Without Diane Keaton because she’s been in so many movies that inspired this movie,” Wilde said. Hollywood Reporter At its Los Angeles premiere on Wednesday. “She’s the first actress that I realized that she represents a completely unique and complex woman; she didn’t fit any archetype, she was unique in her vulnerability and complexity and creativity. She’s unlike anyone else and she was so encouraging to me personally, and I just wanted this to be hers.”
Keaton, who passed away in October, played Wilde’s mother in the 2015 comedy I love Coopers. When she died, Wilde wrote a long tribute on Instagram, recalling how she “laughed during nightly shoots, constantly made us laugh, and talked to us for hours about love. She told me to keep my heart open. She told me to get out. She asked me to be brave. She asked me to keep laughing.”
Not only is Wilde directing the project, she’s also making her third time behind the camera Booksmart and Don’t worry dear — but also stars alongside Seth Rogen as a couple in crisis. Penelope Cruz and Edward Norton play their neighbors in the story adapted from the 2020 Spanish-language film. People upstairs.
“This project gave me the opportunity to approach production the way I had always dreamed of,” Wilde explained. “I really wanted to do a workshop together, I wanted to feel a real collaboration, I wanted to rehearse, I wanted to shoot on film, and given the logistical reality of having this film in one place, we could also shoot in sequence, which is something I had always dreamed of. And I thought, ‘Great, we can treat it like a play.’ So it was film that allowed for a very unique process, and I just thought, ‘This is what I want.’ I want to make something because of the process and not the imagined result.”
Writers Rashida Jones and Will McCormack also participated in that rehearsal period, tweaking the script while the entire team thought about how to make the characters deeper and more complex. When it came to making changes from the Spanish version, McCormack said: “We didn’t want to reinvent the wheel, we love the Spanish film. I think the ending was something we really focused on from the jump, and that was something we paid the most attention to. And with any film that has relationships, we try to figure out why they fell in love, how they fell in love, are they still in love, if they’re going to stay together and really dig into that and make sure it all works.”
Invitation It slides into select theaters on Friday, and opens wide on July 10.
