Pete Davidson's ready for his close-up in the first trailer for Judd Apatow's The King Of Staten Island

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Pete Davidson's ready for his close-up in the first trailer for Judd Apatow's The King Of Staten Island
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Fresh off a Netflix standup special and a lead role in the so-so Big Time Adolescence, everybody’s favorite tabloid fixture is ready for another kind of spotlight. Next month, Pete Davidson will see The King Of Staten Island, a semi- autobiographical comedy directed by Judd Apatow, land on VOD. On Thursday night, Entertainment Weekly shared its first trailer, as well as an interview with Apatow.

“The movie is an imagining of what Pete’s life might have been like if he never found comedy,” Apatow explained to EW. “Comedy really was his savior, it gave him direction. And in the movie he’s someone who is flailing about, not sure what he should do with his life.”

So, yes, this is a Judd Apatow movie. What distinguishes it from his previous flicks, however, is its personal nature; Davidson co-wrote the script with the filmmaker and Dave Sirus, weaving in the loss of his father, a firefighter who died on 9/11. His character, Scott, lives with his mom (Marisa Tomei) in Staten Island and bristles when she begins dating another firefighter (Bill Burr), who then tries to take Scott under his wing. Scott, meanwhile, tries to find meaning through weed, sex, and his dreams of becoming a tattoo artist.

“A lot of what we discussed was how when you have a loss in your family it brings up all of these issues that take a long time to work through,” Apatow continued. “By writing this movie and thinking through his life, he hopefully had a cathartic experience trying to let go of a lot of the obstacles that have complicated his life.”

Steve Buscemi, Pamela Adlon, Bel Powley, and Moisés Arias round out the cast of the comedy, which appears to posit that people don’t know the lyrics to “One Headlight,” which is absolutely false. It hits VOD on June 12.

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