When speaking about his collaboration with his actress wife, the 'Now You See Me' star also talks about how invaluable it was for him to have her starring in his directorial debut film.

• Jul 16, 2020

AceShowbiz - Dave Franco and his actress wife Alison Brie has spent the coronavirus lockdown writing a romantic comedy.

The "Now You See Me" star, who recently made his directorial debut by overseeing his wife's movie "The Rental", explains he and Brie were bored one day and decided to see if they could recreate a classic, like "When Harry Met Sally" or "Pretty Woman".

"It's a genre that we both love, but when we looked at the landscape of rom-coms over the past decade, it feels like the bar is set really low," Dave tells Variety. "There's a trend where rom-coms have an overly bright aesthetic and the concepts are really silly and the acting isn't grounded."

"We looked back on classics like 'When Harry Met Sally', 'Sleepless in Seattle', 'Pretty Woman'... When you look at those films, you remember how grounded they are and how great the acting is."

And if their romantic comedy takes shape, Dave would love to direct Alison again.

"She's a unique actor in the way that she's able to balance heavy drama with moments of levity, and it was just so comforting for me to have her there through the process (while I was making 'The Rental')," he adds.

"As a first-time director, there were moments where I would get in my head and start to doubt myself. It was invaluable to have her there to build me up when I needed to be, and to remind me that we were doing good work."

The couple debuted their new film during a drive-in screening last month (June).