Matthew McConaughey and Zoe Saldaña Team Up for Daniel Roher’s Sun-Soaked Netflix Romantic Caper Positano
Matthew McConaughey and Zoe Saldaña are in talks to headline Positano, a Netflix romantic caper from director Daniel Roher.
Netflix is putting together a sun-drenched, probably chaotic romance set on the Amalfi Coast, and they want Matthew McConaughey and Zoe Saldana to lead it. The movie is called 'Positano,' and the pairing makes sense: McConaughey (Interstellar, Dallas Buyers Club, Mud) plus Saldana (Avatar: Fire and Ash, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Adam Project) screams charming trouble in a scenic town. The surprising twist is who is directing it.
The package so far
- Title: 'Positano'
- Leads: Matthew McConaughey and Zoe Saldana (in negotiations)
- Director: Daniel Roher (the documentarian behind 'Turner' and the Oscar-winning 'Navalny')
- Writers: Alessandro Tanaka and Brian Gatewood
- Producers: Eric Fellner and Tim Bevan
- Executive producers: Amelia Granger for Working Title, plus Tanaka and Gatewood
- Status: Netflix jumped in after the stars sparked to the script; if deals close, the streamer plans to fast-track
So what is it?
Netflix is keeping plot details locked down. The trade chatter is that it is a romantic caper in, yes, the real-life cliffside wonder that is Positano.
Deadline calls it "a romantic caper set in the Italian town the film is named after."
That alone sells the vibe, but the director choice is the curveball. Roher is a non-fiction guy best known for 'Navalny' and 'Turner,' so seeing him pivot to a glossy, thief-of-hearts romp is unexpected in a fun way. If everything falls into place, Netflix wants this moving quickly once the ink is dry.
Where McConaughey has been
He mostly stepped away from live-action roles for a bit, sticking to voice gigs like 'Agent Elvis,' 'Sing 2,' and 'Deadpool & Wolverine.' This year he jumped back in front of the camera with two projects: the Andrew Patterson crime drama 'The Rivals of Amziah King' and Apple’s based-on-a-true-nightmare disaster thriller 'The Lost Bus.' That latter one is directed by Paul Greengrass and centers on a wayward bus driver and a determined school teacher (America Ferrera) trying to save 22 kids from a massive inferno. Classic Greengrass tension, with McConaughey in full crisis-mode mode.
And Saldana is about to go big again
She is headlining James Cameron’s 'Avatar: Fire and Ash,' which opens in theaters this weekend. Cameron has been very much on the 'see it in IMAX' drum, promising the full, overwhelming experience. Story-wise, Jake (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) are reeling from Neteyam’s death when a new, aggressive Na'vi faction shows up: the Ash People, led by the strikingly intense Varang. The war on Pandora escalates and the movie leans into a different moral axis than the last one. Analysts are calling a massive opening in the $340M to $380M range worldwide, with upside if crowds pile in early before the holidays.
A quick postcard from the title
Positano is not just a pretty name: it is a real town on Italy’s Amalfi Coast in the Province of Salerno, Campania. If the movie shoots there, expect at least three new travel fantasies and a spike in linen shirt sales.