‘Little Italy’ Looks Like a Cinematic Trip Back to 2005

Has the early aughts nostalgia boom kicked in yet? Because the new poster for a 2018 movie called Little Italy looks like something that would be released in the era when fedora bro Ashton Kutcher was pranking his celebrity friends left and right, and the iPod Nano was all the rage.

This new, very real film features Hayden Christensen — the guy who played young Darth Vader in two of those disappointing Star Wars movies — and 2007’s Nancy Drew, Emma Roberts, in a story of love that blossoms between rival pizzeria owning-families in Little Italy of an unnamed city (it was filmed in Toronto). And it should come as no surprise that the families are full of kooky characters of all ages, including a nonna played by Andrea Martin, one of the cast members of the My Big Fat Greek Wedding, its sequel, and short-lived TV spinoff. The film also stars Hollywood’s go-to Italian-Americans Danny Aiello and Alyssa Milano, and British star Jane Seymour — aka Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman.

When things heat up between the two families, the patriarchs decide that there’s only one way to settle the Little Italy turf war: a culinary showdown! According to a description of the film on IMDB, “When the fathers hear of their adult children’s blossoming romance, they orchestrate a pizza cook-off to determine who will be forced to leave town.” And Darth Vader and Nancy Drew aren’t the only people who are falling in love in Little Italy. Per the plot description, the “grandparents enjoy a clandestine romance of their own.”

It’s basically My Big Fat Greek Wedding mixed with Mystic Pizza (which, by the way, starred Emma’s aunt Julia) mixed with the $6.99 DVD bin at your local 7-Eleven. No word yet on an exact release date, but the IMDB page lists this as a 2018 release. Brace.

• New Poster for Little Italy [E]
• Little Italy [IMDB]