How Rob Reiner and Larry David nearly made a movie together — and why it never happened

Rob Reiner and Larry David nearly worked on an unproduced screenplay together, but it never happened, according to a new book.

Blake J. Harris’ new biography, Emperor of Nothing: The Making of Larry David, is a portrait of the man behind Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm, and details how Reiner nearly helped David produce a screenplay in the 1980s.

Harris recalls in the book that David had been working on the 1983 unproduced screenplay Prognosis: Negative. The script follows protagonist Leo Black, a fictionalized version of David when he lived in New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen.

The author wrote that David had one name in mind when it came to finding a producer: Rob Reiner, who was “at an interesting crossroads.”

At the time, Reiner was known for his Emmy-winning performance as Michael Stivic in All in the Family.

“One would imagine that after 180+ episodes as a top-tier supporting actor, Reiner’s next step would be to find a TV show of his own to star in. But he had something else in mind,” Harris wrote, according to Entertainment Weekly.

Ultimately, Reiner was working on his directorial debut, the acclaimed mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap, about a fictional aging British heavy metal band on tour in the U.S.

Harris wrote: “And the project he wound up working on — his directorial debut — was a pretty risky venture: a fake documentary about a fictional rock band that Reiner co-wrote with three friends and then filmed over the course of only five weeks.”

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“Even riskier, the so-called script that Reiner and his friends had written didn’t actually contain any set-in-stone dialogue; rather, it was just a series of scene outlines that were then brought to life through improvisation,” the author continued. “All this to say, there was a lot of uncertainty around Reiner’s upcoming mockumentary, This Is Spinal Tap.”

The mockumentary ended up being a huge success for Reiner, who went on to direct acclaimed films Stand By Me, The Sure Thing, The Princess Bride and When Harry Met Sally.

Harris wrote that Reiner read the script and told David he had the perfect person to direct the film – it just wasn’t him.

“Sadly though, the lesson that Larry would ultimately learn with Prognosis was hardly a new lesson at all,” wrote Harris. “Rather, it would just be the latest twist on what he already knew to be true: Good things are never as good as they appear to be.”

Reiner and Seinfeld’s connection ended up serving another outcome in 1999, when Cheryl Hines was auditioning to play David’s wife in Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Hines had gotten the offer because she had been working as a personal assistant to Reiner and his wife Michele, who died in December 2025. Reiner’s production company Castle Rock Entertainment had produced Seinfeld.

Hines’s responsibilities included running errands for the Reiners and helping them organize social events. Harris wrote that David would often attend those events.

“‘Because I [had been] Rob’s assistant for a while, there were certainly times when I remembered writing Larry’s name for an invitation,’” Hines says in the book. “‘So I knew he was an important person.’”

Hines went on to receive two Emmy nominations for her role in Curb Your Enthusiasm.