Congratulations! It's a Maybe Shower!

Kelsey Thomas, Megan Simon, and Rachel DeRouen ponder their future in Maybe Shower, the upcoming rom-com from Austin director Lex Lybrand (Image courtesy of Greenless Studios)

After a banner year for Austin filmmakers, the first local title of 2018 has dropped its trailer: Maybe Shower, the latest comedy from filmmaker Lex Lybrand.

Maybe Shower reunites several Austin micro-budget fixtures: The Trolls writer/director Lybrand is back with his Summer League star Kelsey Thomas, and Megan Simon from his 2014 follow-up, Meet Me There: along with Rachel DeRouen, they play three women pondering what they hope are near-misses with maternity.

The trailer opens with an autobiographical moment from Lybrand's own life. A few years ago, he and his wife had what he called "a close call" with pregnancy: "During our 'oh awesome it's not happening!' refractory period, we were walking around a Target in Austin and overheard a small child threaten to beat up his mom. She told him he couldn't have an action figure he wanted to buy and he quipped back, 'If you weren't my mom, you'd be on the ground right now.' That moment rocked both of us, and that stone-cold kid's delivery of that line stuck with me. I knew I'd use it in a film at some point."

Two years ago, while he was studying at the Vermont College of Fine Arts, pondering the subject matter for his MFA thesis project, "That horrifying kid kept popping into my head."

Even though that inspiration could have easily spawned a male-front paternity comedy, Lybrand said the decision to make the story female-led was "an easy choice. I've seen tons of single-night-in-the-life-of stories like this, but it's always from the male character's perspective. Maybe Shower is an ensemble film, and we definitely do spend some time alone with the guys, but the women definitely have the most interesting vantage point for a story like this, so putting them front and center was a given."

Aside from a cast drawing heavily on Austin regulars, eagle-eyed locals will recognize that much of the action is set around UT-area favored hangout Spider House. Lybrand said, "They were insanely hospitable, and we literally couldn't have made the film without their help. Literally two-thirds of the movie takes place in their ballroom."

Expect a world premiere in early 2018, but for now here's a first look at Maybe Shower.