Sartaj Singh
A touching drama about the elderly and the young will be Zach Woods’ feature directorial debut! The principal photography for ‘The Accompanist’ is slated to be carried out in New Jersey between October 12 and November 17, 2024. The film, written by Woods and Brandon Gardner, revolves around two “dented-up, magical” individuals: an imaginative eight-year-old named Emily and her caring seventy-year-old guardian, Sylvia. Emily comes from a troubled family, with her mother’s life spiraling out of control and her caring grandfather facing growing dementia.
The narrative progresses with Emily inadvertently revealing that her grandfather almost got them killed, only for the school nurse to contact child welfare and a novice worker to step in. Following a chaotic and emotional separation, Emily finds herself in the foster care of Sylvia, a compassionate elderly woman who has seen her fair share of strife.
A subplot will introduce us to an old-world-style ballet master, Oscar, and his bond with Nadia, a teen dancer driven by a ferocious artistic spirit. While Oscar is infinitely hard to impress, Nadia is dead set on winning his approval. Despite the seeming disparity in their statuses, the two are interdependent and the most important people in each other’s lives. The captivating drama promises to explore the depths of human connection across a tremendous age gap and the unexpected beauty found in life’s most tumultuous moments.
Woods is a comedian, actor, writer, and director from Trenton, New Jersey, perhaps best known for portraying Gabe Lewis in ‘The Office.’ His other notable performances include Donald “Jared” Dunn in HBO’s ‘Silicon Valley,’ Douglas in ‘The Other Guys,’ Chad in ‘In the Loop,’ and Zach Harper in ‘Playing House.’ He has recently appeared in Apple TV+’s ‘The Afterparty’ as Edgar and HBO’s ‘Avenue 5’ as Matt Spencer, in addition to lending his voice to New Andrew in Netflix’s ‘Big Mouth’ and Lauren Caspian in Peacock’s ‘In the Know.’
Woods created and directed ‘In the Know,’ a stop-motion animated TV show about the team behind public radio’s third most popular interview program and their hypocritical host, Lauren Caspian. He also helmed ‘Bud,’ a short film about a father and daughter’s outing starring Michael Peña, and ‘David,’ another short about an emergency therapy session with Will Ferrell in the lead. Woods will appear in John Patton Ford’s ‘Huntington,’ a film led by Glen Powell about a young man plotting murder to inherit his family’s wealth.
‘The Accompanist’ is set in New Jersey and will highlight its beautiful nature that reflects the lives of the protagonists. It will be joining several noteworthy family dramas filmed in the state, including ‘Annie,’ ‘Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.,’ ‘The Adventures of Pete & Pete,’ ‘Ta Ra Rum Pum,’ and ‘Where the Red Fern Grows.’
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