Indie distributor
Picturehouse has acquired all North American rights to
the long-gestating remake of The Women, a
project that will be produced by Mick Jagger.
Meg Ryan is in
talks to star in the film for writer-director Diane
English. Anne Hathaway, Lisa Kudrow, and Candice Bergen are
among the other actresses being mentioned. Ryan would
play a contemporary Martha Stewart-style TV
personality who, as in George Cukor's 1939 original,
discovers that her husband is cheating on her.
English said
Cukor's adaptation of Clare Boothe Luce's all-female comedy
was "a poison-pen letter to society women," whereas her take
"is more of a love letter."
Jagger will serve
as a producer, along with his Jagged Films partner,
Victoria Pearman. "The Women is a very exciting
project for our company," Jagger said. "It's a very
funny and incisive script."
Budgeted in the
$18 million range, the project is slated to begin
production in March in New York and Connecticut for release
during next year's holiday season or spring 2008.
Picturehouse president Bob Berney said he plans to
market the film as a broad comedy with a wide release.
The project has
been in the works since 1995, when Ryan and Julia Roberts
independently asked New Line Cinema about doing a remake.
The studio hired English, creator of CBS's Murphy
Brown, to write a new screenplay for the duo, but
they then moved on to other projects.
Directors such as
James Brooks and Oliver Parker also were involved at
various points. "[New Line cochairman and co-CEO] Bob Shaye
finally suggested that I direct about three years ago,
which I always secretly hoped he'd do," English said.
In January,
English bought back the rights to her screenplay along with
certain remake rights for a price in the low seven figures.
In moving to Picturehouse, the project remains within
the New Line family, as Picturehouse is jointly owned
by New Line and HBO, both owned by Time Warner.
(Reuters/The Hollywood Reporter)