{"id":536332,"date":"2026-01-23T05:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T05:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/536332\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T05:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T05:42:10","slug":"james-l-brooks-ella-mccay-set-for-disney-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/536332\/","title":{"rendered":"James L. Brooks’ ‘Ella McCay’ Set For Disney+ Debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDeadline called Oscar winning director James L. Brooks<\/a>\u2018 return to character-driven movie comedy, Ella McKay, a \u201csmart, funny and surprisingly timely film set in the world of American politics centered on an idealistic, issue-driven woman.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDisney released the 20th Century Studios production wide in theaters last month and it failed to find an audience<\/a>. Hopefully, that will not be the case when it hits Disney+<\/a> on February 5.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs the writer-director of Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News and As Good as It Gets and the creator of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Brooks knows how to tell women\u2019s stories onscreen. <\/p>\n

\n\tBilled as a \u201cfresh and heartwarming comedy is about the people you love and how to survive them,\u201d Ella McCay<\/a>\u00a0stars standout French-British actress\u00a0Emma Mackey<\/a>\u00a0(Sex Education) as an idealistic young woman juggling her less-than-perfect family with her passion for her work. The stakes increase as her star rises, working as chief of staff to the Mayor and then as the super-smart lieutenant governor Governor Bill (Albert Brooks<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\n\tCurtis steals scenes as Ella\u2019s faithful Aunt Helen, who helps anchor the film. The other scene stealer is Broadcast News alum Brooks. He hits just the right notes as the practical, retail-politics-loving governor who wants Ella to succeed, but in far more realistic ways than she can deal with.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film also stars Jack Lowden, Kumail Nanjiani, Ayo Edebiri, Spike Fearn, Rebecca Hall, Julie Kavner, Becky Ann Baker, Joey Brooks and Woody Harrelson. <\/p>\n

\n\tIt is produced by James L. Brooks, p.g.a.; Richard Sakai, p.g.a.; Julie Ansell, p.g.a. and Jennifer Brooks.<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter a long stint producing movies such as The Edge of Seventeen and Are You There God? It\u2019s Me, Margaret as well as long-standing series work on The Simpsons, Brooks felt the need to channel his energy into writing an original story again. It\u2019s his first feature directing outing in 15 years.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMy goal for this movie was to pay tribute, as best I could, to the golden age of movie comedy, the 1940s and 50s\u2026the challenge all along was to maintain the same zany spirit of that era, while still taking seriously the inevitable jolts, pains and pitfalls of being human,\u201d Brooks explains. <\/p>\n

\n\tYou can watch a new trailer below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Deadline called Oscar winning director James L. Brooks\u2018 return to character-driven movie comedy, Ella McKay, a \u201csmart, funny…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":536333,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[7299,202620,171,202622,15460,53,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-536332","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-disney","9":"tag-ella-mccay","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-james-l-brooks","12":"tag-jamie-lee-curtis","13":"tag-movies","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115942820800728547","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=536332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/536333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}