Alan Ritchson is again on the planet of comedy with Playdate, and director Luke Greenfield cannot anticipate the surprises to return from the movie. Ritchson stars within the movie as Jeff, an enthralling stay-at-home dad who, after assembly down-on-his luck stepparent Brian on the park, units up a day outing between their youngsters and one another at a neighborhood arcade. Unbeknownst to Brian, nonetheless, is that Jeff is hiding a giant secret that results in a combat for survival towards a ruthless crew of mercenaries.
Alongside Ritchson, who’s reuniting with Reacher platform Prime Video for the movie, the ensemble Playdate forged contains Kevin James as Brian, Sarah Chalke, Stephen Root, Isla Fisher and Resident Alien‘s Alan Tudyk because the movie’s central villain. The film, which is premiering on November 12, is helmed by Greenfield, finest recognized for the likes of The Lady Subsequent Door and Let’s Be Cops, and penned by Scrubs vet Neil Goldman.
In anticipation of the film’s launch, ScreenRant interviewed Luke Greenfield to debate Playdate. Whereas the film’s preliminary announcement got here with the information that Ritchson and James had been each forged, the director revealed that the previous was the primary to be forged within the movie, with he and Ritchson having beforehand tried to work collectively on a “romantic comedy at Sony” that they in the end “could not get going“:
After I received this script for Playdate, I instantly despatched it to him, as we had been dying to work collectively. I instantly despatched it to him, and I stated, “This might carry you again into comedy, dude. This might carry you again to the Blue Mountain State [era].” A little bit extra grounded of a personality, and he was in straight away. So, we had been off and operating.
The following years noticed Ritchson, Greenfield, Goldman and producer Jason Benoit collaborating with each other to essentially hone in on the script and flesh out the star’s character. The director pointed to Wes Anderson’s Bottle Rocket as being a key inspiration for Jeff, expressing his love for Owen Wilson’s Dignan and “adults which can be like 14-year-old youngsters which can be impulsive” and “that do not actually stay in our actuality“.
Greenfield went on to reward Ritchson for having “simply nailed” his imaginative and prescient of Jeff in Playdate, whereas additionally saying he is instructed everybody “that is gonna make him the largest motion comedy star“. Describing the Reacher vet as being “so fu—ng humorous“, he acknowledged that whereas Ritchson is actually expert in motion and is “a handsome motherf—er“, the star can be going to shock audiences with the “dramatic stuff” he tackles within the movie:
There’s a number of heartfelt stuff, it is about fathers and sons, and it is about generally very robust father-son relationships. He is actually gonna shock you. Lots of people cry on this film. It is fairly loopy. So he got here on first, after which I would by no means met Kevin James. He got here on second, after which got here Isla Fisher and Paul Walter Hauser and Alan Tudyk and Stephen Root, and Sarah Chalke. It is unimaginable.
Previous to Playdate, Greenfield has expertise within the discipline of buddy comedies, serving to conceive the bottom thought for Function Fashions and writing, producing and directing the Jake Johnson and Damon Wayans Jr.-led Let’s Be Cops. As such, not solely was he in acquainted territory with the Prime Video motion comedy, he was additionally eager to carry the vitality of letting Ritchson and James improvise with each other, feeling “it is received to be genuine” and “have that actual comedic rhythm” to it:
This isn’t some massive, large, broad comedy the place all the things’s unrealistic. There’s some large twists within the film, however relating to characters, I like to hold issues very grounded and actual, so to actually really feel what they are going via and you may relate. Everybody’s gonna relate to this film. Each dad or mum, each one that’s had a dad or mum. So, sure, sorry, long-winded reply, however I actually encourage going off guide. I actually encourage that after they really feel one thing, it is, “Let’s do this. Let’s do this. Oh, that is a f—-ng good thought. Let’s flip it round and do that.” I believe that is the perfect filmmaking.
This encouragement even led to Greenfield having “ruined so many takes on” Playdate, admitting he is “a laugher” and prefers to be in shut proximity to the actors throughout filming, which implies “they’ll hear me both burst out laughing or laughing“. This even led to the manufacturing having to “do some ADR to get my f—-ng laughter out of the background“, which Greenfield says some will likely be seen within the film’s blooper reel enjoying over the tip credit.
The director additionally described the movie as “an motion comedy like those that I grew up on“, citing the likes of Beverly Hills Cop and Deadly Weapon as inspirations for his strategy to the fabric. He went on to recall getting the spec script from Goldman, the author’s characteristic debut, and being stunned by the “main twists” of its plot, calling the movie a “fu—ng curler coaster“:
As you noticed within the trailer, as quickly as you get to a sure half, there is a first-act flip, the place all the things goes straight ahead, after which, increase, it goes in a whole course. Neil is a grasp. The dialogue is hilarious, we had developed the script for a very long time earlier than I received Alan.
Greenfield went on to disclose that the film had much more modest of a price range than the trailer might lead some to imagine, describing Playdate as being “my first unbiased movie” and that “it was not an enormous price range in any respect“. Calling himself a “studio boy” since his first movie with the Rob Schneider-led The Animal, he discovered placing collectively a few of his new film’s larger motion set items as “difficult“:
I would by no means made an unbiased movie earlier than. I like it, however so far as price range and all types of challenges that an unbiased movie brings, oh, I skilled them.
Along with getting to talk with Greenfield, ScreenRant additionally is worked up to completely debut a brand new clip for Playdate. The video is a part of Brian and Jeff’s enterprise to a Chuck E. Cheese’s-like arcade for the eponymous outing, with Ritchson’s character using quite a lot of issues from the arcade to combat a knife-wielding mercenary, in addition to inadvertently preventing a few of the harmless staff in mascot costumes. Take a look at the clip under:
Playdate begins streaming on Prime Video on November 12.
- Launch Date
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November 12, 2025
- Director
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Luke Greenfield
- Producers
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Jeff Sussman, Kevin James, Neil Goldman, Alan Ritchson, Dan Spilo, Mark Fasano, Sean Patrick O’Reilly, Jeffrey Greenstein, Nathan Klingher, Jason Benoit