"The Women" remake, finally

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After a good eleven or twelve years of trying, Diane English will begin shooting her remake of George Cukor's The Women in early August. Picturehouse, a partial financier, will distribute it sometime next year -- probably in the fall, I would guess. Variety's Michael Fleming is reporting that the costars are likely to be Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Eva Mendes, Jada Pinkett Smith, Debra Messing and Candice Bergen. This cast would have felt right maybe six, seven years ago...but not now, sorry to say. Ryan is over -- is there anyone who disputes this? -- in part because of those collagen-balloon lips she paid for three of four years ago. If the lips are repaired (i.e., de-ballooned), there's a chance she won't get in the way of English's film working out. If not, forget it.

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on June 2, 2007 at 4:12 AM

comment #1

Rob says ...

The even-worse news is that they're updating it to the present day and making it "less relentlessly catty."

Uh, no. English should be staging the original script with barely a word changed and should have cast people like Parker Posey, Elizabeth Banks, Amy Poehler, Judy Greer, Leslie Mann, Wanda Sykes, Lisa Kudrow. It's camp - embrace it.

And everyone knows that Ryan is impossible to look at thanks to the botched face work. It distracts from everything she says and does onscreen. So why does she have three or four movies on the way?

Posted by Rob at June 2, 2007 4:59 AM

comment #2

Jayne Gacey says ...

Well they're explaining that away by saying Ryan's character had a massive stroke and was also hit by a car, hence the less relentlessly catty dialouge- poor girl can't keep up.

Hopefully your dream cast can appear in Death Proof 2, starring Peter Strauss as Stuntman Mitch.

Posted by Jayne Gacey at June 2, 2007 5:15 AM

comment #3

alero says ...

Keep Annette Bening and Candice Bergen only.

Posted by alero at June 2, 2007 7:05 AM

comment #4

p.Vice says ...

Yeah, you're remaking The Women and this is your cast? Gay men won't even want to see this.

Posted by p.Vice at June 2, 2007 7:30 AM

comment #5

Deege says ...

Enough with the remakes. Leave this classic alone. Debra Messing? Eva Mendes? "Less cattiness"?

I picture a tepid sitcom.

Posted by Deege at June 2, 2007 7:56 AM

comment #6

dangovich says ...

I'm pretty sure this is the Seventh Sign of the Apocalypse.

Posted by dangovich at June 2, 2007 10:21 AM

comment #7

The Winchester says ...

It's been 12 years in development, is there any way this can be good?

PS- Rob's dream casting would actually get me to see this movie.

Posted by The Winchester at June 2, 2007 11:14 AM

comment #8

Pelham123 says ...

This is a loser right out of the gate. Who the hell wants to see a remake of "The Women"? They got it right the first time.

Posted by Pelham123 at June 2, 2007 11:34 AM

comment #9

lipranzer says ...

Quite frankly, as far as women ensemble comedies of the 1930's go, STAGE DOOR kicks THE WOMEN'S ass, in my opinion. It's funnier, the characters are more interesting, the story is better, and as far as the cast goes, I'll take Katharine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers over Norma Shearer and Joan Crawford any day. The cast for the remake doesn't sound great either, but Diane English is talented, so we'll see.

Posted by lipranzer at June 2, 2007 1:07 PM

comment #10

D.Z. says ...

Haven't seen the original, but it'll probably be dumbed down to a typical chick flick like "Friends with Money".

Posted by D.Z. at June 2, 2007 1:12 PM

comment #11

Joshua Mooney says ...

That's easily the worst casting imaginable. Except for Bergen. Then again, Diane English thinks she's Cukor? I don't know why I'm bitching about a movie I'll never see. Except I love Cukor.

Posted by Joshua Mooney at June 2, 2007 2:06 PM

comment #12

Rob says ...

I honestly can't believe D.Z. considers Friends with Money a dumb-downed, typical chick flick. Must not have seen it.

Posted by Rob at June 2, 2007 3:38 PM

comment #13

D.Z. says ...

Rob: No, I didn't see it, since I usually avoid "indie" films with celebrities, since they tend to appeal to elitist yuppies.

Posted by D.Z. at June 3, 2007 4:52 AM

comment #14

Jayne Gacey says ...

So then why are you using it as an example to offer a blanket criticism of an entire genre? Enough!

Posted by Jayne Gacey at June 3, 2007 6:13 AM

comment #15

malibugigolo says ...

"Rob: No, I didn't see it, since I usually avoid "indie" films with celebrities, since they tend to appeal to elitist yuppies."

DZ: you are being too kind. More like mediocre people that think they are great.

Posted by malibugigolo at June 3, 2007 11:15 AM

comment #16

malibugigolo says ...

Wasn't Tom Ford going to direct this?

Posted by malibugigolo at June 3, 2007 11:19 AM

comment #17

Cadavra says ...

It's Diane English, and she's been trying to do this for ages to the exclusion of anything else, so I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt and looking forward to it.

Posted by Cadavra at June 3, 2007 10:30 PM

comment #18

MoroccoMole says ...

I sense stinkburger, but I'll be happy to say I'm wrong if it isn't. And incidentally, this isn't even Hollywood's first attempt to remake this property -- MGM made a fairly ridiculous movie in the '50s called The Opposite Sex that added men, music, and MetroColor, to little avail. (The leading ladies are played by June Allyson and Joan Collins -- and they're fighting over Leslie Nielsen!) The one thing that makes it worth seeing is Dolores Gray's deliciously catty portrayal of Sylvia Fowler, the only performance in the remake that could stand anywhere close to the original.

Posted by MoroccoMole at June 4, 2007 11:49 AM

comment #19