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The original is such a classic
film with great lines, good acting, top notch cast and most of all the
'bitchiness' which seems to have been cut out of this version according
to this article.
I will be seeing this and just hope it is half as good as the original!!
'The Women': 14 Years in Hollywood's No Man's Land
One movie! One zillion actresses! Inside director Diane English's
long, tortured trip to bring her remake of a 1939 classic all-gal comedy to the
silver screen
MEG RYAN AND ANNETTE BENING ''Every now and then, both
Annette and I would sort of interpret movie jargon for Diane,'' Ryan says of
English, first-time director of The Women
Annette and I would sort of interpret movie jargon for Diane,'' Ryan says of
English, first-time director of The Women
Claudette Barius
Missy Schwartz
Julia Roberts and
Meg Ryan. Fifteen
years ago, no two actresses in Hollywood had greater pull. They were bankable
powerhouses capable of generating $100 million-plus at the box office. They
collected paychecks upwards of $8 million per role, among the highest in town.
And in 1994 they decided to test their strength as a duo, signing on to
co-produce and costar in New Line's remake of The Women, the classic
all-gal comedy about betrayed wives and backstabbing friends, directed in 1939
by George Cukor. Diane English, the Emmy-winning creator of CBS' Murphy
Brown, would update the script. James L. Brooks,
the Oscar- and Emmy-winning filmmaker, would direct. It was a mid-'90s dream
team of talent that also included Blythe Danner, Candice Bergen, and
Marisa Tomei, whose
career was on the rise following her 1993 Oscar win for My Cousin
Vinny. When they all piled into a conference room on the Sony Pictures
lot one day in 1996 for the first table reading, the result was ''amazing,''
says Ryan. ''To be funny in a read-through is really hard, and those women were
great.'' Adds English: ''There was a point where Julia squeezed my knee under
the table because she was getting laughs — big laughs. You could see she was
having a blast.'' By the time they reached the last page of the script, everyone
was pumped up, sensing they had a potential hit on their hands. According to
English, the overall feeling was, ''Let's go! Full steam ahead!''
Unfortunately, the ship hit the rocks, and The Women fell apart. The
agonizing experience that followed stretched over more than a decade, and
involved innumerable script revisions and what seemed like the entire female
membership of SAG. Only English remained fully committed the entire time,
determined to prove that a movie with an all-woman cast wouldn't
be roadkill at the box office. ''I got plenty discouraged,'' says English.
''People would say, 'Just let go. It'll never get made.' When I heard the words
can't be done, it became a mission. I think that's what it takes for some
of these films, just one idiot who sticks with it for the whole duration,
refusing to back down.''
Now, all these years later, she's about to find out if her doggedness has
paid off. On Sept. 12, Picturehouse will release The Women, a $16 million
indie that English wrote, directed, and co-produced. True to Cukor's original,
it boasts not a single man on screen. Ryan stars as Mary, a rich housewife
forced to snap out of her pampered haze when she discovers her husband is having
an affair with a younger woman (Eva Mendes). Annette Bening plays Mary's best friend, Sylvie, an uptight, high-powered magazine editor.
Bergen appears as Mary's face-lift-happy mother, while Debra Messing, Jada Pinkett Smith,
and Bette MidlerMamma Mia!Sex and the
City. ''I keep telling women, 'You can't complain that there's nothing
to see! When a movie comes out that's for you, you've got to go vote with your
wallet.''' pop up
as various supporting characters. No question, it's a talented cast, but it
skews significantly older than the group that assembled in 1996. (At that first
table reading, Roberts was 28, and Ryan, 34.) The mature cast won't help attract
the much-coveted Facebook generation. Yet English is hoping that her movie will
bring in the same folks who recently made cash registers ring for
and
When Roberts and Ryan first announced that they were remaking Cukor's
classic, which starred Norma Shearer, Rosalind Russell, and Joan Crawford,
English immediately wanted in. ''I loved the funny conceit of no men,'' she
says. ''And because the original had a lot of old-fashioned ideas about women's
place in society, I thought, Okay, there's a reason to remake it.'' Everything
seemed to be on track for a 1996 start date — until Roberts and Ryan became
interested in playing the same role. To keep them both on board, English spent a
year revising the script, which caused the air to leak out of the project's
tires. Brooks went off to make 1997's As Good as It
Gets...and never came back. Other directors dropped in and out, and New
Line started going cold on The Women. As for Roberts, who eventually
became an Oscar winner with a
$20 million asking price, she too flew the coop. ''We kept in touch over all
those years,'' English says. ''But the timing was never right.''
By 2001, English decided that she might as well direct the picture herself,
even though she'd never helmed so much as an episode of Murphy Brown.
''It was intimidating, but I thought, This is the only way to get this made,''
she says. A few years later, she bought back her screenplay from New Line for a
''low seven figures.'' All she needed was a studio to float the budget, which
she'd slashed from $30 million to $20 million. ''I would go from studio to
studio with my list of female ensemble movies that have made a ton of money,
like 9 to 5, First
Wives Club, and Steel Magnolias,''
English says. ''And always the response was, 'Well, that was a fluke' and 'No,
it doesn't pencil out for us.' The feeling was, because it will attract one
quadrant — women over 25 — that wasn't enough.'' Ryan was still on board (though
no longer as a producer), but her drawing power had taken a hit after her affair
with her Proof of Life costar Russell Crowe in 2000. And English still had to build the rest of the
cast, which, at various points, was rumored to include Sandra Bullock, Ashley Judd, Uma
Thurman, Whitney Houston,
and Queen Latifah.
(None were ever officially attached.)
Finally, after being turned down by every single studio in town, English
pursued the last possible option: develop The Women as an indie. She
teamed up with producer Victoria Pearman, the president of Mick Jagger's
production company, and rounded up a stable of actresses willing to take a pay
cut. This included the three-time Oscar nominee Bening. ''Annette lent a great
credibility to the project,'' English says. The actress had never been a fan of
the catty, sexist undertones of the original play, written by Clare
Boothe Luce. (That's what made it a classic!!!) "But I liked that the retelling of the story was different,''
Bening says. ''It's really about female friendship.'' More important, she says,
''I just thought it was funny.'' When English pitched The Women to
Picturehouse president Bob Berney in fall 2006, he saw the all-female cast as an
asset. ''The unique idea of not having any men in the film was a great publicity
hook,'' he says. ''There's always a risk involved with movies like this — like
Diane hadn't done a feature before. But hopefully, it was a smart business
move.''
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DIANE ENGLISH ''I think that's what it takes for these
films,'' says the Women director, ''just one idiot who sticks with it and
refuses to back down''
films,'' says the Women director, ''just one idiot who sticks with it and
refuses to back down''
Claudette Barius
The note of caution in Berney's hopefully isn't something you often
hear in Hollywood, where the order of the day is spin, spin, spin. But
the movie is far from a sure thing. During production in Boston last summer,
rumors circulated that Ryan and Bening often had to step in when English's lack
of experience behind the camera became an issue. ''Every now and then, both
Annette and I would sort of interpret movie jargon for Diane,'' Ryan says
diplomatically. (English denies any on-set crises, but admits being grateful for
her two leading ladies' ''very strong presences.'') The movie came in on time
and on budget, but when executives at Warner Bros. (which had absorbed
Picturehouse) saw a cut earlier this year, they were reportedly not impressed.
''I'm not privy to all the conversations that took place,'' says English. ''But
I don't think it was their cup of tea.''
That is, until a cosmo-swilling gal named Carrie Bradshaw changed their
minds. After Sex and the
City opened to a record $57 million in May, Warner Bros. gave
Picturehouse an extra $25 million to market The Women to the same crowd.
They also bumped up the number of screens it would appear on from 500 to 2,000.
All summer long, the Women trailer has been playing with Sex and
Mamma Mia! to positive response, which Berney takes as a good sign.
''Obviously ours is an older audience compared to Sex and the City,'' he
says. ''But even if The WomenThe Women, the movie's very existence is a triumph for her. ''I don't
know what I'm going to do with this big chunk of time now!'' she laughs.
Actually, she's already begun developing an adaptation of Erica Jong's 1973
feminist best-seller Fear of
Flying. ''It might be as tough to get made as The Women,'' she
says. Fortunately, she's one determined director. Mark your calendars for
2022. does a small percentage of what they did,
it's great. I'd love it if we did $9 or $10 million opening weekend.'' That's a
long way away from the blockbuster-in-the-making English once had her heart set
on.
For me,wish that they had better women for this.
I am not a Meg Ryan fan,Annette I like.
We will see.Good post my man.
Good Luck.