Warner Bros. Reboots 'You've Got Mail' with Jason Orley Directing

Warner Bros. is rebooting the 1998 romantic comedy "You've Got Mail," with Jason Orley attached to direct, Variety has confirmed. Deadline first reported the news.

Plot details remain under wraps. That silence matters: the project has a director and producers, but no cast, no release date and no finished script has been announced.

Orley is currently drafting a script based on a previous take by Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont. Neal Moritz and Tania Landau will produce under the Original Film banner.

What made the original a hit?

Nora Ephron's film starred Tom Hanks as Joe Fox, the chain-bookstore capitalist whose new location threatens to put Meg Ryan's Kathleen Kelly — owner of an independent children's bookstore — out of business. In person, their rapport is confrontational. Over the now-defunct AOL Messenger, they spark an anonymous romance.

The supporting cast included Greg Kinnear, Parker Posey, Jean Stapleton and Steve Zahn. Released at Christmas time in 1998, the film earned $250 million worldwide against a budget of about $65 million — a major box office success by any measure.

The story itself is older than the internet romance at its center. "You've Got Mail" drew inspiration from the 1937 play "Perfumeire" by Miklós László, previously adapted into the 1940 comedy classic "The Shop Around the Corner" with Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullavan.

That lineage raises the reboot's central practical question: what does anonymous romance mean in an era when AOL Messenger no longer exists? The source does not say. The answer will determine whether the new script is a remake or a reimagining.

Who is Jason Orley?

Orley recently wrapped post-production on "Close Personal Friends," an Amazon comedy film starring Brie Larson, Jack Quaid, Lily Collins and Henry Golding.

He made his feature directorial debut with "Big Time Adolescence" in 2019 and followed it with 2022's "I Want You Back."

On television, Orley directed six episodes of Pete Davidson's 2023 Peacock series "Bupkis." He also collaborated with Davidson on three of the comedian's comedy specials.

Orley is repped by UTA, Rise Management and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman, Newman, Warren, Richman, Rush, Kaller, & Gellman L.L.P.

What does this change for the studio?

For Warner Bros., the reboot adds a proven title to a development slate hungry for recognizable IP — the original's $250 million gross on a $65 million budget is the kind of arithmetic studios chase. For Orley, it is a step up to a legacy studio property after two streaming-era features.

For now, the project rests on a script still being written. Casting, a start date and a release window remain unannounced.