Attendees at South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin will be the first to see one of Netflix’s upcoming original films. The streaming video service will give Pee-wee’s Big Holiday its worldwide premiere at SXSW’s annual nine-day film festival in March 2016.
Written by Paul Rust and comedian Paul Reubens, Pee-wee’s Big Holiday is based on the popular fictional character Pee-wee Herman created by Reubens in the late 1980s for a stage performance. The Netflix feature film finds Pee-wee meeting a stranger who convinces the child-like adult to take his first-ever holiday. Judd Apatow executive produces Pee-wee’s Big Holiday, while John Lee directs.
Back in December 2014, a Netflix spokesperson said the streaming service was near to closing a distribution deal for Pee-wee’s Big Holiday, which had originally been set up at Universal Pictures. Two months later, Netflix confirmed it would be the exclusive release platform for the Pee-wee Herman flick, with CCO Ted Sarandos saying his company “didn’t hesitate for a moment” to pick up the passion project from Apatow and Reubens. Fans haven’t been treated to many more updates since then, except for an Instagram picture of Reubens with co-star Joe Mangeniello on set in April 2015.
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Pee-wee’s Big Holiday, which still doesn’t have an official Netflix release date, will debut at SXSW from March 11-19. The festival will announce an official date and time for the film’s world premiere once programming has been finalized.
