Jay Roach and Michelle Graham Producing New Line Ensemble Comedy

New Line is developing a new comedy with a female-driven ensemble cast, and Jay Roach and Michelle Graham are producing it. Deadline reported the project on 29 October 2026.

Roach has history with New Line. He directed the Austin Powers trilogy, the spy comedies that the studio released. Now he returns to the studio with a new comedy, though its title and plot are being kept under wraps.

The screenplay is being adapted by Larry Stuckey and Joanna Leeds. The story was conceived by Stuckey, Joanna Leeds and Andrew Leeds, who is Joanna's brother. Adapting means turning a story idea into a full script, and the writers on a project like this often work from a basic concept that other people helped shape.

Stuckey has worked with Roach before. He began his film career as a development executive for Roach, a role in which a person finds and shapes projects before they go into production. He later associate-produced Meet the Fockers and contributed to its writing, and he co-wrote Little Fockers. An associate producer is a credit that usually goes to someone who helps the producers run a film day to day.

Ensemble comedies, which follow a group of characters rather than one lead, often start with a small team of writers and a producer who can hold the project together. In this case, the chain runs from a story idea shared by three people to a screenplay, a pair of producers and a studio willing to develop it. Each link is a decision made by a person, and the next decisions, such as casting and a release date, have not been announced.