EXCLUSIVE: Mubi has acquired rights to Hal & Harper, the acclaimed indie TV series from actor-filmmaker Cooper Raiff (Cha Cha Real Smooth), for streaming in the U.S. and France, on the heels of its premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. The eight-episode family drama, co-starring Lili Reinhart and Mark Ruffalo, will premiere exclusively on the service this fall.
This marks another win for independently produced television at a time when the business model is still being tested. Other recent examples of indie series that have gone on to significant streaming deals include Shane Gillis’ hit comedy Tires, which just returned for a second season, as well as Mark Duplass’ Penelope, both of which wound up at Netflix.
Hal & Harper marks the latest acquisition in a notable expansion into series this year for Mubi, following recent acquisitions of Joe Wright’s Mussolini: Son of the Century and Wong Kar Wai’s Blossoms Shanghai, across multiple territories. Upcoming, Mubi will also be releasing David Lynch and Mark Frost’s Twin Peaks (1990) and Twin Peaks: A Limited Event Series (2017) in the U.S. and other select territories starting June 13, in honor of the franchise’s 35th anniversary.
Watch on Deadline
Recently screening at France’s Series Mania, where Reinhart won the award for Best Actress, Hal & Harper will next make its New York premiere at the 2025 Tribeca Festival on June 8.
The show centers on two codependent siblings Hal (Raiff) and Harper (Reinhart), who are facing big life changes. The pair’s intimacy is built on a lifetime of inside jokes and shared pains, portrayed via flashbacks where Raiff and Reinhart play the elementary school-aged versions of themselves. As their father, Ruffalo’s charm belies a chasm of guilt, which is at the root of all that Hal & Harper is trying to uncover.
Created and directed by Raiff, the show also stars Betty Gilpin (GLOW), Havana Rose Liu (Bottoms), Addison Timlin (Start Up), and Alyah Chanelle Scott (The Sex Lives of College Girls). Thomas Hartmann served as producer, with Raiff, Clementine Quittner, Reinhart, Daniel Lewis, and Addison Timli exec producing.
Said Raiff in a statement to Deadline, “MUBI is the perfect home for our very specific family show. They’re a singular platform that understands the art they’re putting out. I am in awe of what they’ve done recently, and am excited to be a part of the family.”