Olivia Wilde explains how ‘The Invite’ was impossible as studio film

LifestyleOlivia Wilde explains how ‘The Invite’ was impossible as studio filmBy Sarah Brohi-Aug 19, 2026Add ARY News on GoogleAAResizeOlivia Wilde’s new film The Invite underwent several adaptations. According to new updates, the source material for director Olivia Wilde’s new film The Invite has undergone numerous adaptations. Cesc Gay first wrote and directed the film as a Spanish-language play, The Neighbours Upstairs, which was later adapted into the 2020 film Sentimental Gay’s source material has been adapted into five different films, shot in five different languages and countries: Italy, Switzerland, France, South Korea, and now the US. During a Filmmaker Toolkit Podcast, Wilde noted, “I thought any story that has been adapted by different cultures in this way must have a kind of root to it that feels very universal, and it turns out relationships are difficult in every language. And I think that what drew me to it as a director was the idea that there was a chance to make a version of this that felt specific to not only an English-speaking audience, but to this cast, who all personalized it, and really continued the adaptation through the workshopping process”. Wilde noted, “The end of the film was something that Seth Rogen and I workshopped up until the last minute because the end is different than the original movie, and very different from our script”. “The Invite” ends with an emotionally resonant and somewhat ambiguous scene of Joe playing the piano, a painful reminder of his failure to maintain a career as a professional musician, which he had refused to touch for years. The idea for that ending came from Jones and McCormack watching “Sentimental” for the first time, and McCormack’s incorrect assumption of what was going to happen in Gay’s film. “We were watching the original, and I was like, ‘Oh, my God, he’s going to go play the piano at the end, and it’s going to destroy me. And she’s going to hear it from the other room, and what does it mean?’” sa...