UTA Signs ‘Brian’ Filmmaker Will Ropp

EXCLUSIVE: UTA has signed emerging filmmaker Will Ropp for representation in all areas.

Earlier this year, Ropp took to SXSW to premiere his feature directorial debut, the coming-of-age comedy Brian starring Ben Wang, William H. Macy, Randall Park and Natalie Morales, and exec produced by Seth Meyers.

Wang plays the title character, an anxious, socially isolated 17-year-old whose unrequited crush on his English teacher, played by Morales, motivates him to run for class president.

No word yet on when the film will be released.

Already, though, Ropp is in post on his sophomore feature, Dedicated to Morris Burke, starring Academy Award winner Da’Vine Joy Randolph as a widow who discovers that her late husband’s final novel is dedicated to a mysterious man instead of her. As she becomes consumed with finding out who Morris Burke is, grief gives way to an increasingly obsessive search. Kate McKinnon, Amy Sedaris and Alison Pill co-star in the dark comedy.

Before moving behind the camera, Ropp established himself as an actor in Gavin O’Connor’s The Way Back, Megan Park’s The Fallout and Peter Farrelly’s The Greatest Beer Run Ever. His television credits include Adults, Fatal Attraction, Dave, The Sex Lives of College Girls and Love, Victor.

Ropp continues to be represented by Entertainment 360 and Felker, McGinnis & Ryan.