It’s not quite the story of Fivel finding his way back to his family with the help of a cat voiced by Dom Deluise, but American Pickle looks like it could be a great new film for the fledgling HBO Max streaming service.
The new film, which stars Seth Rogen as both Herschel Greenbaum, a man who fell into a vat of pickles in 1920 and Ben Greenbaum, his great-grandson and only living relative. While we haven’t read the novel by Simon Rich, we love the idea of Rogen teaming up with the man behind shows like Man Seeking Woman and Miracle workers. Check out the trailer below and then check out An American Pickle when it hits HBO Max on August 6th.
AN AMERICAN PICKLE, directed by Brandon Trost, is based on Simon Rich’s New Yorker novella and stars Seth Rogen as Herschel Greenbaum, a struggling laborer who immigrates to America in 1920 with dreams of building a better life for his beloved family. One day, while working at his factory job, he falls into a vat of pickles and is brined for 100 years. The brine preserves him perfectly and when he emerges in present-day Brooklyn, he finds that he hasn’t aged a day. But when he seeks out his family, he is troubled to learn that his only surviving relative is his great-grandson, Ben Greenbaum (also played by Rogen), a mild-mannered computer coder whom Herschel can’t even begin to understand.