Mike Fleming

After making her directorial debut on Then She Found Me, Helen Hunt will direct Ride, a romantic comedy she’ll also star in later this year. Michael Roiff and his Night & Day Pictures will produce with Hunt, Matthew Carnahan and Moon Blauner. Intandem Films will pre-sell foreign rights at Cannes.

Hunt will play the mother of a 20-year-old NYU student, and when he leaves for a summer in California, this strong-willed magazine-editor mother is alarmed. When he reveals he’s abandoning school for the surfing life, she follows him to L.A. There, each finds their own version of love, sex and self discovery. Hunt just starred in Soul Surfer and, as director, just shot an episode of Showtime’s Californication. CAA will broker a domestic distribution deal for the film.