Eventually he reworked the script with the help of Director Max Barbakow ( Palm Springs is Barbakow's directorial debut), and Saturday Night Live alum Andy Samberg ( Brooklyn Nine-Nine) signed on to star in the film. The film premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival (pre-coronavirus), and sparked a bidding war for distribution rights. He has said he was inspired more by Leaving Las Vegas than Groundhog Day. Screenwriter Andy Siara ( Lodge 49) wrote a draft of the script while still a student at the American Film Institute, although there were no science-fiction-y time-loop elements in that version.
(Some spoilers below, but no major reveals.) One would think there wouldn't be many new veins to mine in this subgenre, but Palm Springs rises to the challenge, delivering a slyly subversive, charmingly self-aware time-loop tale that toys with audience expectations in subtly surprising ways. Last year gave us two innovative multiverse twists on the well-worn time-loop trope: the Netflix comedy series Russian Doll, and the horror/comedy Happy Death Day 2 U (a sequel to 2018's Happy Death Day). Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti relive the same day over and over in Palm Springs, now streaming on Hulu.
