EXCLUSIVE: Emily Bader (People We Meet on Vacation) and Logan Lerman (Oh, Hi!) are set to star in a 13 Going on 30 reboot coming together at Netflix, with Jennifer Garner aboard as executive producer.
The project reunites Bader with Brett Haley, director of her hit Netflix rom-com People We Meet on Vacation, which spent four weeks on the Global Top 10 Movies (English) this year and reached the Top 10 Movies in 92 countries. Sources said the pair were eager to reteam following their success with that title and found the 13 Going on 30 reboot to be the perfect opportunity, eyeing Lerman as Bader’s romantic counterpart from the jump.
Plot details for the reboot are under wraps. Haley will direct from a script by Hannah Marks (Mark, Mary, & Some Other People) with revisions by Flora Greeson (The Princess Diaries 3).
Joe Roth and Jeff Kirschenbaum will produce for RK Films with Garner exec producing alongside Donna Roth and Susan Arnold, Scott Hemming for Revolution Studios, Alyssa Altman for RK Films, and Marks.
A Columbia Pictures title released in April 2004, 13 Going on 30 is a fantasy rom-com centered on Jenna Rink (Christa B. Allen), a 13-year-old girl who magically wakes up as her 30-year-old self and must navigate adulthood while rediscovering who she really is.
Garner played the grown-up version of the character, starring opposite Mark Ruffalo in the beloved film from Gary Winick. After grossing around $96 million in theaters worldwide and achieving major success on home video, the film has endured for decades as a cultural touchstone, making a reboot inevitable. Amid development on this film, Garner recently exec produced a stage musical adaptation, directed by Andy Fickman, which world premiered at the Manchester Opera House in September.
In a statement to Deadline on the project, Haley said: “13 Going on 30 is one of those rare, perfect films. Funny, emotional, deeply human, with unforgettable performances from Jennifer Garner, Mark Ruffalo and Judy Greer. I’m a longtime fan, so stepping into this reimagining comes with tremendous responsibility.”
The director added: “Jennifer Garner being on board as an executive producer, after playing such a big part of what made the original special, is especially meaningful. I also couldn’t be more excited to reunite with Emily Bader after People We Meet on Vacation. She and the amazingly talented Logan Lerman are a magical pairing. I feel incredibly lucky to be trusted with something that means so much to so many people.”
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A sought-after lead at Netflix, following the performance of People We Meet on Vacation, Bader was recently cast as soccer legend Mia Hamm in their upcoming sports drama The 99’ers, based on Jeré Longman’s book The Girls of Summer: The US Women’s Soccer Team and How It Changed the World. Previously seen starring in Prime Video’s My Lady Jane, as well as the mob drama Fresh Kills, opposite Jennifer Esposito and Odessa A’zion, she is repped by CAA, Untitled Entertainment, and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman
Recent credits for Lerman include Sophie Brooks’ dark comedy Oh, Hi!, which Sony Pictures Classics snapped up following its Sundance premiere, as well as the fifth season of the hit Hulu comedy Only Murders in the Building. He is repped by UTA and Brillstein.
Haley has established himself as an in-demand romance director for Netflix following his work on People We Meet on Vacation, an adaptation of the Emily Henry bestseller produced by Temple Hill and Sony 3000, as well as All the Bright Places starring Elle Fanning, and All Together Now starring Taylor Richardson and Carol Burnett before that. He is repped by WME, Untitled and McKuin Frankel Whitehead.
Recently returning to Apple TV with the second season of her hit mystery thriller The Last Thing He Told Me, on which she’s an executive producer, Garner most recently signed on to lead the Netflix comedy One Attempt Remaining opposite John Cena. Upcoming, she also has The Five-Star Weekend, a miniseries she exec produced and starred in for Peacock. She is repped by CAA, Linden Entertainment and attorneys Jason Sloane and Harris Hartman of Sloane Offer Weber & Dern.
Marks is repped by UTA, Untitled, Circle Management + Production and Goodman Genow Schenkman, and Greeson is with UTA, Kaplan/Perrone and Yorn Levine.
