EXCLUSIVE: Following competitive bidding, A24 has landed rights to an untitled raunchy teen comedy spec from writer Morgan Lehmann, with Fruit Tree on board to produce. Ley Line Entertainment will produce alongside Fruit Tree, with Fruit Tree’s Emma Stone, Dave McCary and Ali Herting and Ley Line’s Tim Headington and Theresa Steele Page producing. Ley Line is co-financing the film.
Deadline is hearing the script is about Delaney Pitts, a nerdy teenage virgin who has a secret online life as an erotic fan fiction author.
Even with no talent attached, the script had suitors that included major studios, streamers and financiers chasing it, an impressive feat for a comedy script on its own. Stone, McCary and Herting continue to show up as tastemakers who build on relationships with creators, ultimately leading to the script landing with Fruit Tree and A24.
The sale marks a major win for Stone as a producer and is a throwback to the type of films like Superbad and Easy A that helped launch her career. Fruit Tree is cementing itself as a formidable production company following a successful awards season that saw its film A Real Pain land Kieran Culkin an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
As for Lehmann, this sale marks an impressive feat for a rising star in the comedy writing scene and furthers the narrative of a more robust feature spec market in 2025. It als signals a renewed and resurgent appetite for feature comedies.
Fruit Tree is repped by WME. Lehmann is repped by CAA, Untitled Entertainment and Yorn Levine.
