Melissa McCarthy Is Starring In A New Holiday Comedy & It'll Be Out By Thanksgiving

Melissa McCarthy is the gift that keeps on giving. Quite literally, in her new holiday comedy Genie. The Bridesmaids star plays a genie who offers unlimited wishes in this feel-good movie from the writer of Love, Actually, and she is exactly as charming as you’d imagine. Here’s everything you need to know about Genie before it premieres.

Flora and Bernard go on a Christmas mission in the Genie trailer.

The trailer for Genie sees Bernard (played by Paapa Essiedu), at a low point in his life. He missed his daughter’s birthday, his wife left him, and he lost his job. Bernard finds an antique jewelry box in his house and, as one always does, he rubs it with his sleeve. Out pops Flora (McCarthy), in the traditional genie garb of matching blue vest, pants, and shoes with curly toes. She has been trapped inside that box for 2,000 years because of a misunderstanding with a sorcerer in 77 B.C., and now she’s ready to grant Bernard unlimited wishes. Like having a camel in his living room, for example, or ordering a large pepperoni pizza (which he could do with his phone, to be honest). Bernard and Flora develop a friendship as he realizes how much she has missed inside that box for 2000 years, and they go on a quest. To help Flora find joy in the modern world and help Bernard get his family back.

Genie is based on a teleplay by Love, Actually writer Richard Curtis.

Genie is based on the 1991 teleplay Bernard and Genie, also written by Love, Actually’s Richard Curtis, which starred Alan Cumming as an art dealer having a bad day and discovering a hip genie (Lenny Henry) who can help him get the life he wants.

Genie was filmed on location in “ultimate Christmas city,” New York.

The holiday comedy remake was filmed in New York City, or “the ultimate Christmas city,” as director Sam Boyd called it. He went on to note that working with McCarthy, who is really a style of her own at this point, as well as famed writer Richard Curtis, made for a unique filming experience. “The whole thing was really this huge collaboration,” he told Entertainment Weekly, “where we were working within a few different traditions, running parallel — the tradition of the Christmas movie, of the Richard Curtis movie, of the Melissa McCarthy movie — and the hope is that the final product is a glorious mash-up of them all.”

Where and how can you watch Genie?

Genie premieres on Peacock on Nov. 22, just in time to watch with the family for Thanksgiving. Perhaps a new tradition in the making?