Academy Award®–winning filmmaker James L. Brooks—the legendary mind behind As Good as It Gets, Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News, and The Simpsons—returns with Ella McCay, a heartfelt new comedy about the humor, the headaches, and the heart that make a family.

The film stars Emma Mackey (Barbie) as Ella McCay, an idealistic young woman juggling family and career in a story about the people you love—and how to survive them. The all-star cast also includes Jamie Lee Curtis, Jack Lowden, Kumail Nanjiani, Ayo Edebiri, Spike Fearn, Julie Kavner, Rebecca Hall, Becky Ann Baker, and Joey Brooks, with Albert Brooks and Woody Harrelson rounding out the ensemble.

Brooks shared that his goal was to “pay tribute to the golden age of movie comedy—the 1940s and ’50s, when each of the Hepburns reigned—while still taking seriously the inevitable jolts, pains, and pitfalls of being human.”

With original music by Hans Zimmer, Ella McCay is produced by James L. Brooks, Richard Sakai, Julie Ansell, and Jennifer Brooks, and executive produced by Colby Pines, Seth William Meier, and Amy Brooks.

Ella McCay arrives exclusively in theaters December 12, 2025.