Diane Keaton & Taylour Paige Set For Romantic Comedy ‘Mack & Rita’

EXCLUSIVE: Here’s an independent romantic comedy we hear is coming together: Oscar winner Diane Keaton and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom star Taylour Paige are set to star in Mack and Rita which will be produced by Alex Saks. Katie Aselton is directing, we hear.

The comedy is billed as being in the spirit of Big. Mackenzie Martin is tired of doing all the things she has to do to keep up and get ahead in her 30’s. Since she was a little girl, raised by her Grammie Martin, her deepest wish has been to be just like her Grammie, comfortable in her own skin, great at saying “no” and largely unburdened by what other people think of her. Not to mention Mack has always loved a good chunky sweater and being in bed by 8 pm. While at her best friend’s bachelorette in Palm Springs, Mack stumbles into a sound bath regression pod and comes out as a 70-year-old woman, who she names her Aunt Rita. But Mack’s transformation really has nothing to do with her exterior body and Mack she learns that the reality of old age isn’t quite what she imagined. It turns out that being comfortable in your own skin isn’t a given at 70, or any age, really, because self acceptance comes from within and only through actually living.

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Keaton is playing the role of Rita. Paige is playing Carla who is Rita’s best friend as young Rita.

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Writers are Madeline Walter and Paul Welsh.

Keaton, who recently starred in Love, Weddings & Other Disasters is repped by WME and Pearlman and Tishbi. Keaton won a Best Actress Oscar for her turn in Annie Hall and received three other Oscar noms for Something’s Gotta Give, Marvin’s Room and Reds. Recent feature credits include Finding Dory, Book Club, Poms and the HBO limited series The Young Pope. 

Paige has had a fantastic run recently, starring in Focus Features’ Eddie Huang movie Boogie, currently in theaters, and the five-time Oscar nominated Netflix movie Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom as back-up singer to Ma, Dussie Mae and g.f. to Chadwick Boseman’s cornet player Levee. Paige is repped by 360 Management, CAA, and Granderson Des Rochers. Paige also starred in the Sundance hit Zola, White Boy Rick and the BET series Hit the Floor.

Aselton, who stars in the upcoming Screen Gems Easter weekend release The Unholy, is repped by ICM and Untitled Entertainment. Her feature directorial credits include Black Rock and Freebie. She also starred in Bombshell, The Devil Has a Name, The Tomorrow Man and the FX series Legion. 

Walter and Welsh are repped by UTA and Rise.