Paramount Sets Brie Larson’s ‘One Italian Summer’ for Mother’s Day Weekend 2028

Paramount Pictures has locked a Mother’s Day weekend theatrical date—and a major movie-star package—around Rebecca Serle’s bestselling novel One Italian Summer. Brie Larson will star as Katy Silver and executive produce the Amalfi Coast drama, with Fleabag and Enola Holmes filmmaker Harry Bradbeer directing for Temple Hill Entertainment, Deadline reported exclusively on September 14, 2026. The Hollywood Reporter and TheWrap confirmed the May 12, 2028 release the same day.

Deadline described the story as a moving, magical mother-daughter tale set against Italy’s Amalfi Coast: after a devastating loss, a young woman gains an extraordinary chance to reconnect with her mother “in a new light,” leading to unexpected discoveries about love and identity. Serle will executive produce alongside David Stone of TFC Productions. THR added that Flora Greeson—Princess Diaries 3—wrote the screenplay, a detail that clarifies the adaptation’s credited writer beyond the director attachment.

The calendar math is deliberate studio strategy. Deadline noted that Warner Bros./New Line’s Final Destination 7 is the only other wide title currently listed for the same Mother’s Day weekend in 2028, giving Paramount a counterprogramming lane aimed at adult women rather than horror repeat business. Booking Larson—Oscar winner for Room, MCU lead, and Emmy-nominated star of Apple’s Lessons in Chemistry—supplies the awareness a literary drama needs two years out. Her forthcoming slate, as listed by Deadline and THR, still includes FX’s Cry Wolf, Amazon MGM’s Close Personal Friends, Sony’s Skeletons, and voice work as Rosalina in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.

Bradbeer’s résumé explains the hire. Emmy-winning work on Fleabag and features Enola Holmes and Enola Holmes 2 built a brand around sharp, audience-friendly storytelling; he is in post on Netflix’s A Matter of Time with Ben Stiller and Nicholas Galitzine and recently directed early episodes of Amazon’s Spider-Noir. Temple Hill’s involvement keeps the project inside a producer shop familiar with YA-to-adult literary transfers.

For Studio-desk readers, September 14’s announcement is a clean development-to-date package: star, director, producers, writer (per THR), book IP, and a dated theatrical window. No budget, shooting start, or full supporting cast has been disclosed. In a week when animation rights splits and indie label launches have dominated other studio headlines, Paramount’s move is the classical tentpole-calendar play—secure the holiday, attach the Oscar winner, and give exhibition a female-skewing alternative two Mother’s Days from now.

Book-to-screen pipelines remain a core studio development habit, and Serle’s recent heat—Deadline listed Expiration Dates at Amazon MGM with Emma Roberts and early Apple work on Once and Again—helps explain why Paramount moved quickly to date the film. Larson’s producer credit also signals more than vanity billing; she has directed documentary and VR projects, including an Emmy-winning VR experience, which studios increasingly cite when they want movie-star packages that double as creative partners. None of that substitutes for a finished cut. For now, the September 14 package is what buyers and exhibitors can put on a whiteboard: Paramount, Temple Hill, Bradbeer, Larson as Katy Silver, Mother’s Day 2028, and a clear counterprogram against Final Destination 7.

Related: Paramount and Netflix end Skydance Animation deal.