A Little White Lie Trailer Shows Michael Shannon Pretending To Be A Famous Reclusive Author

Michael Shannon’s world is turned upside down when he is mistaken for a reclusive famous author in the new trailer for Saban Films’ A Little White Lie.

Shannon plays a New York City handyman who is mistaken for an author he hasn’t seen in years and attends a book festival posing as him.

Kate Hudson, who revealed earlier this month that she will be releasing her debut album this year, plays the teacher who runs this festival.

The trailer opens with Hudson’s character, Simone Cleary, telling her team, “What if I told you that the man coming to this year’s festival is going to put us back on the literary map?”

We see shots of Shriver (Shannon) sitting on a plane next to Delta Jones (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), while Simone adds: “The man who disappeared after the publication of his masterpiece.”

Delta says on the plane, “I know who you are, the mysterious Shriver,” as Simone and her team say his name Shriver, though Professor Arthur Baldwin (M. Emmet Walsh) says, “I thought he was dead.” .’

The college president (Kate Linder) tells Simone, “Bring Shriver and bring a crowd, because this is the last chance for this festival.”

Back in a New York bar, Shriver tells his friend Lenny (Mark Boone Junior), “They think I’m someone else.” I’m not a writer,’ though Lenny replies, ‘Everybody’s a writer these days. When was the last time you were in a Starbucks?

The trailer cuts back to the university as Simone reads Shriver’s letter, stating that it would be my pleasure for him to attend your “esteemed and prestigious festival… which is totally my thing.” Also, is the prize a car?

Simone is seen waiting at the airport with a well-worn copy of Shriver’s masterpiece Goat Time as she takes him to the festival, where she meets T. Wasserman (Don Johnson).

“Here you go… unless the real Shriver is still in hiding,” Wasserman quips, as a woman named Layla (Perry Mattfeld) meets Shriver and tells him, “Something about you just doesn’t smell right.”

Shriver declares that he needs a drink and begins having drinks with Wasserman as they look at a pool full of bikini-clad women.

Later, Simone tells him that she just needs him to “behave for three days”, and he says he can, but she admits “there’s no car”.

At some point, it seems Simone realizes that Shriver isn’t the real Shriver and tells him, “I need you to be the man who wrote a brilliant novel.”

Another man says: ‘I’m with you’, while shouting in a bar: ‘I’m not Shriver!’ before Simone takes Shriver to a party thrown by Dr. Bedrosian (Wendie Malick), whom Simone says is a “key festival benefactor.”

Dr. Bedrosian leads Shriver into what she says is her library, but it’s actually her bedroom when she pulls him out of bed, insisting, “Talk to me about literature!”

The plot thickens when the supposedly real Shriver (Zach Braff) shows up at the festival, as Simone asks Shriver, “Can you honestly tell me you haven’t been lying to me?”

“That’s a tricky question,” Shriver replies, while another scene shows Detective Karpas (Jimmi Simpson) asking, “Could the real Shriver come forward?”

‘Can we please stop this buffoonery?’ the real Shriver asks, while another shot shows Wasserman insisting, “this is one of the great literary hoaxes of all time” as the trailer draws to a close.

The film, written and directed by Michael Maren, also stars Peyton List, Adhir Kalyan and Aja Naomi King, and will hit Digital and On Demand on March 3.