HBO’s released the first short trailer for My Dinner with Herve, based on a true story. The film stars Game of Thrones‘ Peter Dinklage as actor Hervé Villechaize, the beloved star of the long-running primetime series Fantasy Island.
In addition to releasing the 30-second trailer, HBO’s confirmed the film will premiere on Saturday, October 20, 2018 at 8pm ET/PT.
Fifty Shades of Grey‘s Jamie Dornan co-stars as journalist Danny Tate. The cast also includes Mireille Enos (World War Z, The Catch) as Hervé’s longtime girlfriend, Kathy Self; Harriet Walter (Babel, Atonement) as Danny’s newspaper editor, Fiona Baskin; and Oona Chaplin (Taboo, The Longest Ride) as Danny’s girlfriend, Katie Nielson. David Strathairn is Villechaize’s longtime agent, Marty Rothstein, and Andy García play Ricardo Montalbán, Villechaize’s Fantasy Island co-star.
Sacha Gervasi (Anvil: The Story of Anvil, Hitchcock) directed and wrote the screenplay based on a story by Gervasi and Sean Macaulay. Gervasi, Peter Dinklage, Steven Zaillian, Richard Middleton, Ross Katz, and Jessica de Rothschild executive produced.
As a journalist, writer/director Gervasi conducted an interview with Hervé Villechaize not long before he committed suicide and that interview provides the basis for the film. In an interview with the New York Times, Dinklage explained, “After he killed himself, Sacha realized Hervé interview was a suicide note.”
Gervasi’s behind the scenes team includes director of photography Maryse Alberti, editor Carol Littleton, production designer Jeremy Reed, and costume designer Julie Weiss, with music by David Norland.
The Plot: Inspired by a real story, My Dinner with Herve explores the unlikely friendship between struggling journalist Danny Tate (Dornan) and Hervé Villechaize (Dinklage), the world’s most famous knife-wielding French dwarf actor, as it unfolds over one wild night in LA – an encounter that will have life-changing consequences for both.
