Academy Award winners George Clooney and Julia Roberts reunite on the big screen in the romantic comedy Ticket to Paradise as divorced couple David and Georgia who find themselves on a shared mission to stop their lovestruck daughter Lily (Kaitlyn Dever) into marrying Gede (Maxime Bouttier) so soon and from making the same mistake they once made.
From Working Title, producer of unforgettable and iconic blockbuster rom-coms like Notting Hill, Bridget Jones’s Diary, Love Actually, and Four Weddings and a Funeral, Ticket to Paradise is set to bring back those “feels” that had left the audience eager to re-experience the collective excitement of watching a love story in a cinema.
“The world had completely changed when the pandemic hit. I thought about what I wanted to write and work on next, and I landed on writing something that would make people happy—something joyous and optimistic. Romantic comedies bring a large audience together to collectively laugh with each other, and after a few tough years, that seemed like a beautiful thing to bring to the big screen,” shared director Ol Parker.
It was rich comedic material for Clooney and Roberts to mine, and luckily, they both saw its potential. “Julia and I weren’t actively looking for a project to do together, but, of course, it was easy to say yes to a chance to work on another project with her,” Clooney says. “Ol Parker sent the script to both of us at the same time and said that he had written the parts for Julia and me. So, right after I read it, I called Julia and told her, ‘I’ll do it if you do it,’ and she said, ‘Well, I’ll do it if you will.’ And not long after that, we were heading to Australia.”
Roberts and Clooney’s history and friendship goes way back, and that friendship comes across in their work. “George and I have always had a good chemistry as friends,” Roberts says. “We approach our work in similar ways as well. I think we also get a lot of joy out of making each other laugh. So, each day was like a search for me to find how I could make George laugh. We both take an immense amount of care in creating an environment where people feel creative and happy at work. It brings out the best in everyone.”
Although Ticket to Paradise is principally a comedy, it touches on deeper, universal themes of love, regret, and the complex emotions of parenting children as they take their first real steps into adulthood. Unlike most romantic comedies, which are primarily about people in their 20s or early 30s, the film explores love, in all its permutations, and about the sweet surprise of second chances.
Ticket to Paradise opens on October 5 in local cinemas nationwide from Universal Pictures International.