Marry Me will be Maluma’s film debut, alongside Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson, in a romantic comedy that is also opening doors for Latin artists in Hollywood.
Universal Pictures has finally given fans a first look at its new romantic comedy, Marry Me, starring Jennifer Lopez, Owen Wilson, Sarah Silverman, and Colombian singer Maluma.
The teaser trailer shows Jennifer Lopez as singer Katalina “Kat” Valdez, who is engaged to singer Bastian, played by Maluma. Both are successful global megastars who decide to get married in Madison Square Garden in front of their fans and a streaming audience of 20 million people. Unbeknownst to Kat, Owen Wilson, who represents the “average Joe” in the film, gets dragged by his friend to the concert, where he mistakenly ends up holding a sign that reads “marry me.” A tearfully Kat looks on and accepts after learning that her fiancé has been having an affair with her assistant. The first look shows Kat and her new husband, Charlie Gilbert, trying to navigate this modern love story about fame, marriage, and social media.
After numerous delays, the film will premiere in theaters on February 14, 2022. Following her Super Bowl halftime performance in February 2020, Lopez sat down with Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show and shared that the film’s soundtrack is composed entirely of original music by her and Maluma. “I think I have like six or eight songs, and Maluma does two or three.”
Lopez, who has released new music throughout the past year like “In The Morning,’ “Cambia el Paso” ft Rauw Alejandro, and “Pa Ti” ft Maluma, joked with Fallon about the possibility of doing a Marry Me tour. “You know what,” she begins to tell Fallon. “I could do that, but not this year. Not this year,” she adds.
In October of 2020, Maluma and Lopez graced the cover of Billboard Magazine‘s latest issue, looking sultry and glamorous. Dubbed by the magazine as “Latin power players,” the two touched on the movie and music’s integral role. Lopez told the magazine that the film’s bilingual soundtrack would help accomplish what many films cant.
“Music is the universal language, whereas film really isn’t,” she begins to say. “Rhythm and melody is something anybody can understand. We had some really dynamic artists in the first “Latin explosion”: Marc [Anthony], Ricky, Shakira, Enrique [Iglesias], myself. That was the first time people said, ‘Oh, Latin artists exist in mainstream America.’ But we had to make English-language music.” She continues, “This is the first time Spanish-language music has been embraced. But I think it comes down to the artists. I’m not saying there haven’t been dynamic artists over the years, but there’s something about the streets that makes everything cool: that reggaetón movement, that trap movement. ‘Despacito’ — people were like, ‘This is cool, this is sexy, this is hot.’”
Barry Wetcher/Universal Pictures
Casting newly discovered talent in major films is not a common practice in Hollywood, but it is also not unheard of. While this film is Maluma’s first attempt at acting – and it’s alongside Hollywood heavyweights – the studio is aware of Mulama’s star power and potential for bringing in moviegoers of the Latin community. In 2019, while attending Heidi Klum’s annual Halloween bash, Maluma spoke to ET about working with Lopez on the film.
“It’s been an amazing month, actually. I’ve been here in New York for two or three weeks shooting the movie with Jennifer,” he said. “It’s been such an amazing experience also working, doing music. I mean we never stop.”
When asked by Billboard about breaking down barriers in Hollywood, Maluma admitted that breaking into the American market has been difficult. But, it’s achievable with support from those on the inside.
“People like Jennifer — who has been working a long time to get people to understand who we are as a community — opened a lot of doors for a lot of artists,” shares the singer. “I feel very grateful for Jennifer. Who was going to think that my first movie was going to be a Hollywood movie with Owen Wilson and Jennifer Lopez?”
This film also reunites Lopez and Owen Wilson, who last worked together in the 1997 movie, Anaconda. “We really had a good cast…It was nice too, sort of, meet up with Jen after all these years and work on Marry Me,” Wilson told ET in June 2021 for the premiere of Loki.
Based on the graphic novel by Bobby Crosby, Marry Me hits theaters Valentine’s Day 2022.
