Comedy veterans Colin Mochrie (“Whose Line Is It Anyway?”) and Andrea Martin (“Evil,” “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”) have boarded “Any Way You Want Me,” joining Callan Potter (“Heated Rivalry”), Cobie Smulders and Iris Apatow in Rana Strazza’s romantic drama, which is now shooting in Toronto.
Strazza writes and directs the film, which takes place in 1950s New England and is designed to play like a picture from that period. Fina Strazza stars as Billie Blake, who comes back to her hometown after her mother comes into a dress shop through an inheritance. Next door is a diner run by Calvin Wilkes (Brian Altemus), her boyfriend from high school. Thrown together with him again, Billie has to confront the honesty and the deception that brought their relationship to an end.
Smulders’ credits include “Shrinking,” “How I Met Your Mother,” “The Lincoln Lawyer” and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Apatow appears in Alexandra Pechman’s Toronto title “Magazine” and has “The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping” on the way. Altemus is known for “Brilliant Minds” and Harlan Coben’s “Shelter.”
“It’s great to get a chance to return to my stage roots with the pathos of this film, which started when I studied at Studio 58 in Vancouver, and of course at Second City,” Mochrie said. “Improv and theater are closely related, and there’s something incredibly exciting about bringing that experience into Rana’s world. I’m thrilled to be working with Andrea, Fina, and the rest of this wonderful cast.”
Marium Carvell, Rebecca Ablack, Jennifer Hui, Michaela McGowan, Robert Fulton and Joseph Daly complete the ensemble.
First Magnitude Films and Stagg Forrest Films are producing. The shoot is set to wrap in mid-October.
