The Romanossaince Enters Stage Two With the Trailer for Ray Romano’s Directorial Debut Film
The adage rings as true today as it did in 1994 — everybody really does love Raymond.
The stand-up-comedian-turned-sitcom-star-turned-indie-film-icon Ray Romano is set to make his directorial debut with Somewhere in Queens, a comedy about a close-knit Italian-American family whose son is offered the life-changing opportunity to earn a basketball scholarship. The film co-stars four-time Emmy-winning actress Laurie Metcalf and professional Italian Sebastian Maniscalco.
Somewhere in Queens is set to premiere in theaters on April 21st, a day that will mark yet another milestone in Romano’s transformation from a quintessential sitcom dad into a renaissance man with multi-faceted appeal. Robert Barone is seething.
Romano, a Queens native, has worn many hats since the conclusion of Everybody Loves Raymond in 2005 — he continued his family comedy career in the countless Ice Age sequels, and he had a brief stint showrunning a self-starred sitcom on Men of a Certain Age. More recently, Romano moved into mumblecore movies and touching indie darling films with lauded performances in Kumail Nanjiani’s Oscar-nominated rom-com The Big Sick and Mark Duplass’ tearjerker Paddleton.
With Somewhere in Queens, Romano is further expanding his horizons in a way few 1990s stand-up comedians who struck lucrative sitcom deals have before — we can’t imagine a Roseanne Barr or a Tim Allen-type getting the kind of roles that Romano has enjoyed in the last decade or so, let alone a directing deal from Lionsgate. At 65 years old, Romano is still reinventing himself in a way his peers either can’t or won’t.
Romano’s continued evolution this many decades into an already accomplished career is an admirable approach to his craft. In an age when sitcoms from the Everybody Loves Raymond era are striking reboot deals left and right, Romano would rather write and direct his first feature film than retread the sitcom path. Besides, we don’t need CBS to give us Everybody Still Loves Raymond — we already know it’s the truth.
