According to Variety, Clare Boothe Luce's mordant comedy The Women may be headed for the big screen for the third time in 65 years. With New Line as the potential distributor, the new remake would be the feature-film debut — as writer-director — of Diane English, best known as the creator and writer of the TV series Murphy Brown. [Photo: Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell in the original The Women (1939).]
Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Sandra Bullock, and Ashley Judd are currently in negotiations to star in the film, while Uma Thurman has been mentioned as a possible addition to the cast. (Bening is supposed to take over the old Norma Shearer role, all sweetness and light; if so, that would mean Meg Ryan would be playing against type, as a scheming husband stealer.) Mick Jagger, of all people, will co-produce with Victoria Pearman and Christopher Eberts.
The Women was first filmed in 1939, with director George Cukor guiding the likes of Shearer, the Queen of the MGM Lot, and her archrival Joan Crawford, plus Rosalind Russell, Mary Boland (The publicity! La publicité!), Paulette Goddard, Joan Fontaine, Lucile Watson, Virginia Weidler, Phyllis Povah, and Marjorie Main. Even though all the women do in that film is talk about men, not a single male specimen is to be found on-screen. The Women was a solid box-office success, but due to its high production costs the picture ultimately lost money.
A musical remake, The Opposite Sex, came out in 1956, with David Miller directing June Allyson, Joan Collins, and Dolores Gray, who replaced Shearer, Crawford, and Russell, respectively. The remake flopped despite the presence of the renowned female cast that also included Ann Sheridan, Ann Miller, Joan Blondell, Agnes Moorehead, and Charlotte Greenwood, in addition to several up-and-coming male actors, among them Leslie Nielsen and Jeff Richards.
A recent Broadway staging of The Women was directed by Scott Elliott. It starred Kristen Johnston, Rue McClanahan, Cynthia Nixon, Jennifer Tilly, Mary Louise Wilson, and Jennifer Coolidge. That production was broadcast on PBS stations in the United States as part of the "Stage on Screen" series.
"The original was funny but very mean-spirited. It was Luce's attack on her gender," English told Variety. "The catalyst of the story is still one of the women discovering her husband is having an affair, and the reaction of her friends. Unless I screw it up, there's a built-in audience for this movie."
The Women is indeed ripe for a remake. Well, as long as the "mean-spiritedness" of the original is not softened so as not to offend the braindead politically correct.
I enjoyed the remake. It was an interesting take and filled with humor. The original still ROCKS and is part of my film collection. Norma Shearer was fantastic as Mary Haines. I do have to add that the Opposite Sex with June Allyson was not bad either. Once again a different take of the movie.
I just saw the trailer for the new the women movie. I have to say I am amazingly disappointed. The movie was cast all wrong. Meg Ryan for Mary Haines?????? Are you serious? The Women is probably my favorite movie of all time, and leave it to new Hollywood to screw up an amazing movie! So what's next Gone With The Wind set in Modern Day Virginia? Write some new original stuff would you please, and leave my classics alone. A perfect example…Rear Window and Disturbia. I walked out of the movie. This should have been a movie for women who could really act, and give it the grace and off the cuff meanness it deserves. Not try to make it into a fluff piece with absolutely no imagination for people who's careers are in the toilet.
I love t he original. Not sure what I think of the fact that the film is being remade. Should I jump for joy or break all the furniture in my house?