EXCLUSIVE: A new holiday film is reuniting 90s big screen lovebirds Rachael Leigh Cook (Josie and the Pussycats) and Freddie Prinze Jr. (I Know What You Did Last Summer), more than two decades after starring alongside one another in She’s All That.
The duo will also reunite with Jennifer Gibgot, co-producer of She’s All That, who will produce on the Fox Entertainment Studios project The Christmas Affair, which is currently in development.
The Christmas Affair follows superstar sportscasters Natalie (Cook) and Gabe (Prinze Jr.), who form an unlikely alliance after their spouses are caught cheating weeks before Christmas. As holiday chaos and media attention mount, they begin to fall for each other. But is this just a rebound…or the start of a real Christmas romance?
“Fox Entertainment Studios is excited to grant the Christmas wish of countless holiday romcom fans with the long-awaited reunion of Freddie Prinze Jr. and Rachael Leigh Cook,” said Hannah Pillemer, Head of Scripted at Fox Entertainment Studios. “This iconic couple stole our hearts over 25 years ago, and we are grateful to work with them on this all-new romantic comedy filled with holiday magic.”
The project will be the first time since She’s All That that the pair will appear on screen together; however, they reunited irl at Prinze Jr.’s latest film premiere for The Girl in the Pool last year.
Freddie Prinze Jr. and Rachael Leigh Cook in ‘She’s All That’
Miramax / Courtesy Everett Collection
The Christmas Affair will be produced by FOX Entertainment Studios with production services from Choice Films Inc. Jennifer Gibgot and Andrew Panay serve as producers. Rachael Leigh Cook and Freddie Prinze Jr. executive produce, alongside Mattie Fellbaum, David Massey, Larry Grimaldi, Hannah Pillemer, and Fernando Szew. The script is written by Elizabeth Hackett and Hilary Galanoy, who also serve as executive producers.
Cook began her acting career in 1995 when she booked her first audition as a lead in a major film in The Baby-Sitters Club. She went on to star and host other films such as Strike!, the Sundance Grand Jury Prize-nominated film The Hi-Line, and Tom and Huck. She is best known for playing Laney Boggs in She’s All That opposite Freddie Prinze Jr. and Josie McCoy in Josie and the Pussycats.
Cook was also recently seen in Spirit Halloween, opposite Christopher Lloyd, and starred in Netflix’s He’s All That, a gender-swapped remake of her 1999 hit romantic comedy, as well as Love Guaranteed opposite Damon Wayans Jr. and Heather Graham for the streamer. In addition, she also starred in and produced the Netflix film A Tourist’s Guide to Love, and the Hallmark movies Rescuing Christmas and Sisterhood, Inc. Cook is managed by Mainstay Ent and attorney Michael Fuller.
Prinze Jr. is best known for starring in movies such as She’s All That, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, as well as the Scooby-Doo franchise. He will next reprise his role of Ray Bronson in I Know What You Did Last Summer. The film, directed by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, which will also star Jennifer Love Hewitt, will be released by Sony on July 18th.
This past year, Prinze Jr. produced and starred opposite Monica Potter and Kevin Pollak in Dakota Gorman’s mystery thriller The Girl in the Pool. Recently, he had a recurring guest voice on Comedy Central’s Robot Chicken, Star Wars Rebels, and other animated series and video games. Additionally, he recently starred in the Netflix holiday movie, Christmas with You, opposite Aimee Garcia, which debuted #6 globally on Netflix. Prinze Jr. He is repped by Paradigm, Brillstein Entertainment Partners, and Yorn, Levine, Barnes, Krintzman.
Content shared from deadline.com.