Months after earning an Oscar nomination for her performance in Wicked, worldwide pop star Ariana Grande has finally found her next movie.
The Grammy winning singer is set to join Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller in the newest installment of Universal’s comedy movies series, Meet the Parents.
Blythe Danner and Teri Polo, who also starred in the initial trio of movies that were released over the course of the first decade of the 2000s, are expected to return although those deals have yet to close, according to sources.
John Hamburg, who co-wrote all three prior films, wrote the screenplay for the new feature and is set to direct. Universal has dated the film for Nov. 25, 2026. (Jay Roach, who directed the first three, is now one of the producers.)
The conceit of the first movie was simple: the universal life event of having your future father-in-law give his blessing to a marriage proposal. Catching combustible chemistry in a bottle, combined with spot-on directing, the movie became a commercial and critical hit when it was released in 2000. Stiller leapfrogged to the next wrung of Hollywood stardom, becoming a comedy kingpin for the next decade, while De Niro turned his tough guy persona on its head, extending his star power into the 21st century.
Grossing over $330 million in the global box office, not adjusted for inflation, the movie became the seventh-highest grossing film globally of that year. Sequels Meet the Fockers, which brought Dustin Hoffman and Barbara Streisand into the family tree, and Little Fockers, were also box office successes, culminating in a total franchise gross of over $1.13 billion in the global box office.
While much of the plot remains under lock and key, THR can reveal that one point revolves around the son of Stiller and Polo’s characters, who gets engaged to a ball-busting woman who seems all wrong for him. Sources say Grande will play the fiancée.
Jane Rosenthal and De Niro are producing through their Tribeca Productions. Roach will produce through his Delirious Media. Stiller will produce with and John Lesher via their Red Hour Films banner. Hamburg will produce through Particular Pictures.
Executive vp of production development Matt Reilly and director of production development Jacqueline Garell will oversee the project for Universal.
While Grande is now known for being one of the top-selling music acts of all time, she got her early start in acting, starring in the Nickelodeon hit Victorious. Other acting stints revealed themselves over the years, but it was Grande’s performance as Glinda in Universal’s acclaimed and pop culture-defining hit Wicked that showed the world what her starpower and acting talent could do.
The movie, released last November, earned almost $800 million worldwide and earned Grande not only an Academy Award nomination but Golden Globe, SAG and BAFTA nominations for best supporting actress as well. (For good measure, the film was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including best picture, and won for costume design and production design.)
Grande next appears on the big-screen reprising Glinda in Wicked: For Good, which arrives in theaters on Nov. 21, 2025.
In recent months, Grande has been offered numerous movie projects from Universal, Sony and Warner Bros., passing on all of them. She even declined a Warner comedy that would have given her the power to pick her co-star, said one source. One thing is clear, however: she was intent on finding a comedy.
She is repped by CAA, Good World Management, and Myman Greenspan.