'Saturday Night Live's Bowen Yang to star in 'Fire Island' rom-com

The picturesque locale of Fire Island has inspired a third film of that name in three years. Set to star Bowen Yang ("Saturday Night Live," "Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens") and comedian Joel Kim Booster (the recent NBC sitcom "Sunnyside"), who also wrote the screenplay, the romantic comedy for the streaming service Hulu is scheduled to begin shooting this summer in New York City and on the titular Suffolk County barrier isle.

Producers Searchlight Pictures and Jax Media announced on Wednesday that the movie "is an unapologetic, modern day rom-com inspired by Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice,' " the much-adapted and often-modernized romantic comedy-of-manners about wryly judgmental Elizabeth Bennet and her upper-class social circle in early 19th-century Regency England.

Directed by Andrew Ahn ("Spa Night"), the movie will be set in Fire Island Pines and "centers around two best friends who set out to have a legendary weeklong summer vacation with the help of cheap rosé and a cadre of eclectic friends."

"This is my Jurassic World. This is my Eternals," tweeted Ahn enthusiastically, in all capital letters. "A gay Pride and Prejudice on Fire Island with @ihatejoelkim and bowen yang!"

"[I]'m going to WHAT??" wrote the 30-year-old Yang on Instagram with a puzzled-face emoji, captioning an image of a Variety headline about him and Booster starring. On Instagram Stories, where posts cycle out after 24 hours, Yang posted an image from "Spa Night," Ahn's 2016 debut feature about an 18-year-old Korean-American in Los Angeles struggling with his sexual identity. "[D]o yourself a biiiiig favor and watch @andrewahnfilms's work!" Yang wrote. In another Story, he promoted Ahn's 2019 film "Driveways," about a young boy who strikes up a friendship with a retiree after accompanying his mom to clean his late aunt’s apartment. Yang wrote in the post, "[N]ow come on now etc."

Booster, 33, posted on his social media the same image of the Variety article that Yang posted, adding on Instagram: "Having some trouble stringing together a sentence today but needless to say this is a pretty big deal for me. ... Groundbreaking stuff. But seriously I’ve been trying to get this ... made for two years and I’m eternally grateful to Searchlight and Hulu for rescuing us from the Quibi shipwreck. ..." Quibi is the now-defunct short-form streaming platform that launched with original content in April 2020 and eventually shut down by December of last year.

Two other recent films bear the title "Fire Island." Director and co-writer Myles Clohessy in May was filming a Fire Island shot-and-set LGBTQ slasher thriller starring Jonathan Bennett, Robert John Burke, Connor Paolo, dad Robert Clohessy (NYPD Lt. Sid Gormley on CBS' "Blue Bloods") and brother Byron Clohessy. Its locations include the Sunken Forest and the Belvedere Guest House for Men, in Cherry Grove.

Director Mimi Spiwak Harris in 2018 made the romantic comedy "Fire Island" staring Carly Brooke, Stephen Ken Davis, and Dan Folino, which was unreleased domestically in theaters but has been available on streaming services. Neither Clohessy nor Harris responded to Newsday requests for comment.

The many film and TV adaptations of "Pride and Prejudice" include the 1940 classic starring Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier; the slightly retitled "Pride & Prejudice" (2005), with Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen; and such modern-day and alternate retellings as "Bridget Jones's Diary" (2001) starring Renée Zellweger and Colin Firth, and "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" (2016) with Lily James and Sam Riley.