“There are a lot of reasons for people not to leave their homes and go to the theater,” Will Packer, the veteran producer behind an extensive collection of beloved crossover hits like Think Like a Man, Ride Along, Girls Trip, and Night School, explains from his home office in Atlanta.
“Gas prices are high, the world is upside down, and there are so many other options when it comes to content. My job is to make entertaining work and remain keenly aware of what my audience wants and is looking for.”
Right now, Packer believes the demand is for romantic stories with laughter and a hint of nostalgia, which he intends to serve up in cinemas later this month with You, Me & Tuscany, a globetrotting romcom starring Rege-Jean Page and Halle Bailey.
Set for a wide theatrical release on April 10 via Universal, the film follows a young chef who impulsively takes refuge in an abandoned Tuscan villa, only to become entangled with the wealthy family connected to the property. You, Me & Tuscany was directed by Kat Coiro from a screenplay by Ryan Engle (Beast) and is Packer’s first feature credit since 2023. Here, the producer speaks with us in depth about mounting the project and what he described as the acute struggle to land studio backing for a contemporary romcom.
Packer also discusses his lengthy career. Across three decades, Packer has grossed over $1 billion at the box office and produced 10 movies that debuted at number one. In 2022, he became the first Black producer of the Academy Awards and is also now a minority owner of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons. Below, he also discusses his future plans, including the much-talked-about Girls Trip sequel and a third Ride Along movie.
DEADLINE: Will, it’s great to chat. I grew up watching your movies. I remember watching ‘This Christmas,’ probably from a bootleg copy, as a kid.
WILL PACKER: Let me tell you, I knew I made it the first time I ever had one of my movies bootlegged. I remember it. I was in New York. This was back when we had VHS tapes, and people would sell them from tables on the side of the road. I remember walking past a guy with one of those tables. I looked and saw my first movie, an erotic thriller called Trois. I thought, holy shit, that’s my movie. They bootlegged my movie. I’ve made it. I bought like five copies just to show people.
DEADLINE: There’s a lot to discuss. Firstly, how did ‘You, Me & Tuscany’ cross your desk and why was it a yes for you?
PACKER: I worked with the writer Ryan Engle before. He wrote a project I made called Beast, starring Idris Elba, and Breaking In, starring Gabrielle Union. I didn’t know him as a romantic comedy writer. I knew him for action thrillers. He told me he had a romantic comedy, and I was surprised. But then he explained that he wrote it with his wife. She was the inspiration. That’s when it started to make sense. I read the script, and, like his past work, it had a propulsive quality. The reason it was a yes for me was that it was this aspirational, joyful story that I hadn’t seen in a while. You don’t see romantic comedies, much less romantic comedies that happen to have Black leads on the big screen, often. Comedies in general, and romantic comedies specifically, have been released primarily on streaming platforms in recent years. So I thought there’d be an opportunity because now more than ever, people need an escape. The world is crazy enough. And the thing I love about romantic comedies is that they encourage you to fall in love with the idea of love.
DEADLINE: Yeah, streamers have really cannibalized the romcom genre. Was it hard to find studio backing for this project?
PACKER: It’s hard to get any film made. It always has been. It is doubly hard in today’s environment. There’s an oversaturation of content in the market. Audiences can watch anything, anywhere, anytime they want. That means you’ve got to do something else to stand out. Industries ebb and flow, and we’re definitely in an ebb right now in terms of Hollywood production. There has been a decline in the number of projects being made by Hollywood. So the long answer is that, yeah, it was really hard to get this movie made. Additionally, this movie has two Black leads. Hollywood is making less in general, so you know they’re proportionately making fewer projects starring Black people. I had to work really hard to make this happen, but that’s what I do. That is my job. But even for somebody with my pedigree, it was difficult. I have to give all props to Universal Pictures, because nobody else would make this movie theatrically for the big screen. They did. They took the leap. They trusted me, and now I am trusting audiences to show this was a smart bet.
DEADLINE: You speak a lot about audiences and have said your superpower as a filmmaker is that you’re keenly aware of what audiences want. I guess you’re traditionally associated with African American stories and audiences. But you don’t gross over $1 billion at the box office with just Black audiences. Who do you think your audience is?
PACKER: People who love films that are authentic, with a very specific POV, and feel inclusive. Girls Trip happens to be a movie with four Black women leads, but the themes are universal. The same is true with You, Me & Tuscany. If you look at my canon, I am very rarely telling stories that speak only to one niche. My stories deal with universal subject matter. I’ve certainly had great success with audiences that look like the people on screen in my movies, but I would not have, as you said, the billion-dollar resume only off of one particular audience. You have to be able to expand. And these days, audiences like authenticity. We’re connected in a different way than we ever were. We’re connected to people outside our demographic, cultural, and geographical circles. That means there’s a curiosity about what is happening in other cultures. But you still have to do it well. You can’t just put it up there and hope people will come. You’ve gotta do it in a way that feels engaging and entertaining to audiences.
DEADLINE: As you say, the industry is in flux, and the studios are struggling. How has that materially changed the way you work with them?
PACKER: It has changed the way I present projects. I’m a creative producer, but I’ve always been keenly aware of the business aspect of the film industry. Now more than ever, you have to present the studios a proposition that minimizes the risk as much as possible. Hollywood has always been risk-averse. It’s always been reactive, not proactive. But now, with consolidation, with the challenge of theatrical films and getting audiences to come to theaters, you have to know that you can’t just walk into a room with a film financier and say, I’ve got a great idea. That means nothing. You need a great proposition from a 360-degree perspective. It needs to be a great idea. It needs to have an audience. It needs to be presented in a medium that the audience will support and consume. You need to make it for a number that makes sense, given the economic environment and the economics of the audience you’re targeting. All those things have to line up. It has always been like that, but there were more chances taken before. Some of the greatest films in film history were made by somebody doing something that didn’t make sense on paper, but they were just creatively enthused. You don’t really see that a lot now. Now it’s got to all make sense and line up. My job is to make it make sense to these media companies.
DEADLINE: As a producer, you’re best known for launching new talent like Kevin Hart and Tiffany Haddish. How has the popularity of online content creation changed how you engage with up-and-comers? Because someone like, say, Druski has just continued to scale up and create great work within the creator ecosystem.
PACKER: I love the advent of the internet creator who has nothing but their phone and can scale an audience with that. That’s talent. For myself, it’s always been about lining up people who are right for a role and have a certain appeal for an audience and marrying those two.
With the advent of the new generation content creator, it just means I’ve got bigger pools to find talent. Now, that doesn’t mean that everybody who’s a content creator and has a million followers is right to be in one of my movies. Because you also have to understand that some audiences only want to see some people in particular media. There are some people that audiences really enjoy watching on their social media feeds, and they wouldn’t necessarily pay to watch them elsewhere. Social media is free. It’s a lot of user-generated content. The bar is very low in terms of quality. Often, it doesn’t always translate. My job is about trying to be very discerning about that.
DEADLINE: What do you want to do moving forward? What kind of stories do you want to tell in the future?
PACKER: Oh, so many things. I’d love to tackle sci-fi. I’m a big sci-fi fan but haven’t had a chance to work in the genre yet. I got a chance to work with Sam Jackson last year. He was on my list of people I’d love to work with. I also want to continue exploring new mediums and giving audiences options that other people aren’t putting on screens, be they big or small screens. I think there’s still a lot of opportunity to tell stories from my lens.
DEADLINE: Girls Trip 2. People have been talking about that since the first movie. Will it still happen?
PACKER: I certainly hope so. We are closer than we’ve ever been. I’ve always said, I’d rather not do it than do it incorrectly. So a lot of time, care, and energy have gone into the story. We now have a script that we feel pretty good about. We’ve shared it with the ladies. We’re all in this extremely hilarious group chat that Tiffany Haddish runs. She is definitely the loudest and proudest in that group chat. She keeps us all entertained. But we’re getting close. I can’t give a specific date or release or anything like that, but I am hard at work on it, because it’s the thing that I get asked about the most.
DEADLINE: Essence Fest owes you a lot.
PACKER: Absolutely, they do. Put that in the article.
DEADLINE: And Ride Along 3. It has been teased in the past. Will it still happen?
PACKER: Ice Cube called me the other day, so stay tuned. That would be fun.
DEADLINE: You produced the most-watched and talked-about Oscars in recent history. What do you make of the recent YouTube deal, and how do you think the Academy can get audiences to watch the show again?
PACKER: It’s hard. Award shows are not what they used to be in terms of the place they hold in audiences’ minds. Their importance has diminished because audiences have access to all the stars. It used to be that you had to watch the Oscars because that was the only time you got to see your favorite stars all year. Now, you literally can see them every day. So it’s a challenge. I was up against that. YouTube is a logical destination. It is where the audiences are. It is not legacy media. It’s not the traditional way. But I think change is good. I don’t believe that if it’s not done the way it’s always been, that it is somehow bad. It depends. It could be a much better show on YouTube or not as good. Who knows? It will be up to the execution and the team tasked with putting it together. But I’m always pulling for it.
DEADLINE: And what about those Falcons? Tough season.
PACKER: Listen, it’s a new day in ATL. I am optimistic. One of my proudest accomplishments has been becoming a minority owner and limited partner of the Falcons. It’s the coolest thing ever. Win or lose, that’s my team. I’m riding with them. And when we do win, which is coming, it makes it that much sweeter.
