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How Marsai Martin became the youngest executive producer in Hollywood
Almost two years ago, Universal Pictures released the body-swap comedy Little, which stars Marsai Martin, Issa Rae, and Regina Hall.
Given by the looks of the trailer and the starry line-up, the new comedy could be the funniest movie to hit theaters in 2019. Regina Hall plays Jordan Sanders, a ruthless tech mogul who shows little regard for her overworked assistant, April (Rae).
After a confrontation with a young girl, Hall wakes up to find that she has turned back into her 13- year-old self, (Martin), leaving the underappreciated assistant April (Issa Rae) to tend to her young boss, given that she is the only one who knows her secret.
As Jordan heads back to grade school to live the life of a young adolescent, April is instructed to take over for her at the office and run the company.
The comedy also stars Justin Hartley, Tone Bell, JD McCrary and Rachel Dratch. The film will be helmed by Tina Gordon, who will also direct the upcoming 2019 comedy What Men Want starring Taraji P. Henson.
Girls Trip screenwriter, Tracy Oliver co-wrote the screenplay for Little, along with Gordon. The upcoming comedy was produced by William Packer, James Lopez and Black-ish showrunner and creator, Kenya Barris.
Little was based on an idea by Martin who came up with the film’s premise after watching the 1990’s classic, Big. At the age of 10, Martin went on to pitch the idea to Black-ish showrunner Kenya Barris, after the ABC show’s season 1 finale. With Barris enthralled with the idea, he rallied mega-producer Will Packer to bring the project to life.
While the body-switch comedy isn’t a concept new to Hollywood (17 Again, 13 Going on 30, Freaky Friday, The Change Up), the film is formative for the reason that a 14-year-old Marsai Martin will now hold the title as the youngest executive producer of a major Hollywood motion picture in history.
What’s more, this is a film created by a black girl, starring black women, directed by a black woman and written by black women, and therefore shows there is nothing little about the amount of Black Girl Magic that went into creating this film.
Speaking on her achievement, Martin told The Root,
“It doesn’t matter if you are four or 84, there’s no limit to what you can do. And if you prove that you can do it, you don’t have to wait… A 13-year-old created this film and it turned out to be a wonderful, Black girl magic fulfilling and loving film. I think that is probably what I want to let kids know about, like, ‘Oh, wow, she made this really dope film at this young age, that means I can do it, too.'”
Little is set to hit theaters April 12. Who else is already hyped?