Jerry Seinfeld's Pop-Tart Movie: Everything We Know So Far

What's the deal with Jerry Seinfeld's Pop-Tart movie?

Okay, backing up. You know that adage about how we have two wolves inside of us? The same goes for Netflix. There's the wolf that greenlights the type of personal, low-to-mid-budget films that none of the major studios are releasing on a consistent basis anymore, in between making critically-acclaimed international movies readily available in the U.S. Then there's the wolf that's been on a warpath since the streamer's stock prices began to drop, firing employees with little to no warning, axing promising animated projects, and exploiting its biggest hit series in a way that runs insultingly counter to the show's core message.

So, which one of these two wolves is responsible for giving the go-ahead to Seinfeld's new movie, "Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story?" It's hard to say, really. The streamer has gone all-in on Seinfeld-related projects in the past, between picking up his talk show series "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee" in 2018 and providing a platform for his stand-up specials "Jerry Before Seinfeld" and "23 Hours to Kill." But a film about the origins of that breakfast delicacy known as the Pop-Tart could just as easily prove to be an inspired comedic vision as the next "Bee Movie."

Here's what we actually know about the film so far.

Although "Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story" was announced in June 2021, its genesis goes all the way back to a bit that Jerry Seinfeld began to perform in 2010 on "The Late Show with David Letterman." Here's the response Seinfeld gave last year when asked how the project came together:

"Stuck at home watching endless sad faces on TV, I thought this would be a good time to make something based on pure silliness. So we took my Pop-Tart stand-up bit from my last Netflix special and exploded it into a giant, crazy comedy movie."

Production on "Unfrosted" is slated to start this year, which makes it likely the film will stream on Netflix by 2023. As for when exactly it will arrive, that depends entirely on the kind of movie Seinfeld and his team are cooking up. If it's merely a low-key crowd-pleasing comedy for the dads of the world, then it could arrive as soon as the summer next year. But, should it prove to be a little more exceptional than that, would Netflix go so far as to give it an awards season rollout? Shoot, now there's part of me that's hoping we're living in the timeline where a Pop-Tart film becomes a legit Oscar contender.

"Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story" takes place in Michigan in 1963, and is described by Netflix as "a tale of ambition, betrayal, sugar, and menacing milkmen" that pits the breakfast cereal rivals Kellogg's and Post against one another in a race to create a game-changing breakfast pastry. Jerry Seinfeld may've also offered a small taste of the film's comedic outlook when he tweeted about an idea he had for a Pop-Tart film all the way back in August 2018:

"At one point I was thinking about an invention of the Pop Tart movie. Imagine the drunk on sugar-power Kellogg's cereal culture of the mid-[1960s] in Battle Creek, MI [the location of Kellogg's corporate headquarters]. That's a vibe I could work with."

As much as I was joking earlier about "Unfrosted" joining the Oscar race, that idea is not quite as far-fetched as you might think. After all, director John Lee Hancock and Michael Keaton went for the gold with a comparable film in 2016, teaming up to tell the sordid tale behind the creation of the McDonald's fast-food restaurant chain in "The Founder." With the right satirical approach, "Unfrosted" could similarly end up having something meaningful to say about consumerism and the cutthroat nature of the American business world.

Or maybe not. But hey, cinematic miracles do happen.

Jerry Seinfeld is starring in and directing "Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story" from a script he co-wrote with his "Bee Movie" scribes Barry Marder and Spike Feresten (the latter of whom was also a writer and producer on "Seinfeld"). Joining him in the film's cast are Melissa McCarthy, Jim Gaffigan, Amy Schumer, Hugh Grant, and James Marsden, as well as Jack McBrayer, Tom Lennon, Adrian Martinez, Bobby Moynihan, Max Greenfield, Christian Slater, and comedian Sarah Cooper.

Seinfeld's behind the scenes crew on the film is, if anything, as noteworthy as most of its cast. There's director of photography Bill Pope ("The Matrix," "Spider-Man 2," "Baby Driver"), Adam McKay's longtime production designer Clayton Hartley ("The Big Short," "Don't Look Up"), set director Amy Wells ("Mad Men," "Big Little Liars"), and more, with Seinfeld and Ferensten also producing. Not to sound like a broken record, but, again, "Unfrosted" may yet prove to be more than just an over-extended joke that took on a life of its own.