Justin Bettman / Treadway / Brito
EXCLUSIVE: After a nearly week-long bidding war that saw five offers from various suitors, including theatrical distributors and streamers, the Kim Kardashian-starring comedy package “The Fifth Wheel” has been sold to Netflix. In recent days, the number of bids was reduced from five to three, with Netflix finally making the winning offer right after Thanksgiving, which won over Kardashian and co-writers Paula Pell and Janine Brito.
Pell will produce with Kardashian. Sources report that Deadline Kardashian has been very active in selling the women’s comedy, showing up at every meeting to make the pitch, and that studios are lining up to do business with Kardashian.
Logline is not yet known, but Kardashian will play the eponymous “fifth wheel” alongside a female ensemble.
The unique thing about how this package came together was the speed with which it took months, days in many cases, from Pell and Brito’s idea to Kardashian’s pitching almost immediately after the strike ended. Within days, the package would hit the market and is now the first major sale before the end of 2023.
Since Kardashian is also a producer, sources say there is a real marketing aspect to the deal where she will be very hands-on with that aspect, and that includes having her branding and ad agency play a role in addition to Netflix. Whether it’s her clothing line SKIMS or her other projects, Kardashian has shown that she’s capable of bringing out the best in every product she’s involved in, and that’s the hope with this project as well.
The package was picked up by Niija Kuykendall’s mid-budget film team at Netflix. Upcoming mid-budget films on this list include the romantic comedy “A Family Affair” starring Nicole Kidman, Zac Efron and Joey King, the romance “Lonely Planet” starring Laura Dern and Liam Hemsworth, and Dan Levy’s directorial debut “Good Grief”, in which he stars alongside Ruth Negga, Himesh Patel and Luke Evans, as well as Tyler Perry’s Six Triple Eight, starring Kerry Washington.
Deadline first reported over the weekend that this package is heating up the market ahead of Thanksgiving and is the first major sale related to the SAG-AFTRA strike that was resolved earlier this month. After the SAG and WGA strikes, the question arose as to whether there would still be auctions in the market with so many bidders, but this bidding war clearly shows that these types of bidding wars are alive and well and approaching the end of the year.
Kardashian has done limited work as an actress, including lending her voice to two Paw Patrol films. In the final season of the FX series “American Horror Story,” she upped the ante by stealing the scene. Her role as a publicist brought her a lot of attention. Now she wants to build on that and move into the feature film world. She also still has her hit Hulu series The Kardashians.
Pell is the “Saturday Night Live” veteran who later worked with Tina Fey on “30 Rock” and also with Amy Poehler and Judd Apatow. She also wrote the comedy “Sisters,” starring Fey and Poehler. Brito gets her first major screenplay after appearing in “Wine Country,” which also starred Pell.
Britto’s other credits include the critically acclaimed series “GIRLS5Eva,” which will premiere its third season on Netflix next year (which will also star Pell), and she was also a writer on “Mr. Mayor” on NBC.
Kardashian, Pell and Brito are all repped by WME. Kardashian is also represented by Cooley LLP and Pell is also represented by Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman, Newman, Warren, Richman, Rush, Kaller & Gellman, LLP and Brito is also represented by. Cohen & Gardner.