{"id":288,"date":"2008-04-13T07:54:55","date_gmt":"2008-04-13T14:54:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2008\/04\/definitely-more-chick-flicks-please\/"},"modified":"2008-04-15T08:08:01","modified_gmt":"2008-04-15T15:08:01","slug":"definitely-more-chick-flicks-please","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/2008\/04\/13\/definitely-more-chick-flicks-please\/","title":{"rendered":"Definitely More Chick Flicks, Please"},"content":{"rendered":"

from the New York Times<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Wary Hollywood Plans More Chick Flicks (Hoping to Lure the Guys)<\/nyt_headline><\/h1>\n

<\/p>\n

TriStar Pictures<\/p>\n

A scene from \u201cMy Best Friend\u2019s Wedding\u201d (1997), a so-called chick flick that was a box office success.<\/span><\/p>\n

By MICHAEL CIEPLY<\/p>\n

Published: April 9, 2008<\/p>\n

LOS ANGELES \u2014 In\u00a0Nora Ephron<\/a>\u2019s\u00a0\u201cSleepless in Seattle\u201d<\/a>\u00a0a weepy\u00a0Rosie O\u2019Donnell<\/a>, watching\u00a0\u201cAn Affair to Remember\u201d<\/a>\u00a0with a sniffling\u00a0Meg Ryan<\/a>\u00a015 years ago, said, \u201cMen never get this movie.\u201d<\/span>The notion of the \u201cchick flick\u201d thus came into its own. And Hollywood has been fretting about it ever since, trying to recapture that box office magic yet chafing at a label that is increasingly viewed as a marketplace trap. In New York and other locations, two of the most successful directors of the form \u2014 Nora Ephron and P. J. Hogan \u2014 are currently shooting what might pass for a couple of next-generation chick flicks. But those involved seem determined to avoid having that classification hung on their films, even if it is rooted in honest observation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Hogan, who directed the 1997 hit\u00a0\u201cMy Best Friend\u2019s Wedding,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0starring\u00a0Julia Roberts<\/a>, is filming\u00a0\u201cConfessions of a Shopaholic,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0with\u00a0Isla Fisher<\/a>\u00a0in the lead role, for Touchstone Pictures, owned by the Walt Disney Company. The film is based on a literary series that began with the British publication of Sophie Kinsella\u2019s novel with that title in 2000, about a financial journalist with relationship problems and a penchant for overspending.But the movie is not just for women, the filmmakers insist. \u201cWe all have spending habits, a lot of us do,\u201d said\u00a0Jerry Bruckheimer<\/a>, one of the film\u2019s producers, speaking by telephone last week.\u201c<\/span><\/p>\n

If we do our job right, this could be another \u2018Wedding Crashers,\u2019\u00a0\u201d added Mr. Bruckheimer, best known for testosterone-fueled entertainments including\u00a0\u201cBad Boys\u201d<\/a>and the \u201cPirates of the Caribbean\u201d trilogy. He was referring to the 2005 comic hit that included Ms. Fisher, but actually starred\u00a0Vince Vaughn<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Owen Wilson<\/a>\u00a0as a couple of playboys who cruise weddings for easy sex \u2014 really not the stuff of chick flicks.<\/span><\/p>\n

But that could be a guy thing, right? \u201cWe hope this will be a movie for everyone who likes eating,\u201d said Laurence Mark (\u201cDreamgirls,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0\u201cWorking Girl\u201d<\/a>), one of the film\u2019s producers. He spoke briefly after conferring with Ms. Ephron, who declined to be interviewed for this article.In fact, both films are rooted in a phenomenon \u2014 widely styled \u201cchick lit\u201d \u2014 that has swept the publishing world in the last decade. The books are written for, and mostly by, professional women in their 20s. The covers are often bright and fluffy, with amusing illustrations. And narrative is often rooted in the first person singular.And the outlook is unabashedly feminine. \u201cThere were a lot of romans \u00e0 clef, from the young working girl\u2019s point of view,\u201d said David Kuhn, of Kuhn Projects, a New York literary agency.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Devil Wears Prada,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0Lauren Weisberger\u2019s 2003 novel about the travails of a young working girl in the cutthroat New York fashion magazine industry, spawned the genre\u2019s biggest movie hit, for 20th Century Fox, in 2006. The film, which was directed by David Frankel and starred Ms. Streep and\u00a0Anne Hathaway<\/a>, took in about $125 million at the domestic box office, and more than $200 million abroad.\u201cBridget Jones\u2019s Diary,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0based on\u00a0Helen Fielding<\/a>\u2019s novel about a British woman, made about $72 million at the domestic box office for Miramax Films in 2001.But\u00a0\u201cThe Nanny Diaries,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0based on a 2003 novel by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus, about the travails of a worker in the competitive New York child care business, did less well for the Weinstein Company last year. (Its domestic box office total came in a tad under $26 million.)<\/span><\/p>\n

At the same time, a run of recent female-oriented romantic films \u2014\u00a0\u201cThe Holiday\u201d<\/a>\u00a0with\u00a0Cameron Diaz<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Kate Winslet<\/a>;\u00a0\u201cCatch and Release\u201d<\/a>\u00a0with\u00a0Jennifer Garner<\/a>;\u00a0\u201c27 Dresses\u201d<\/a>with\u00a0Katherine Heigl<\/a>;\u00a0\u201cMusic & Lyrics\u201d<\/a>\u00a0with\u00a0Drew Barrymore<\/a>; \u201cP.S., I Love You\u201d with\u00a0Hilary Swank<\/a>; and\u00a0\u201cThe Jane Austen Book Club,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0with an ensemble cast \u2014 has stopped far short of the peaks established years before by films like\u00a0\u201cSleepless,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0\u201cMy Best Friend\u2019s Wedding,\u201d\u00a0\u201cRunaway Bride\u201d<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0\u201cNotting Hill.\u201d<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a>Trying to pin down what, exactly, constitutes a supposed chick flick is more of a parlor game than a science. \u201cAn Affair to Remember,\u201d in which\u00a0Cary Grant<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Deborah Kerr\u00a0<\/a>played star-crossed lovers, clearly makes the cut.\u00a0\u201cKnocked Up,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0in which Ms. Heigl and\u00a0Seth Rogen<\/a>\u00a0played a star-crossed couple of another sort, probably does not.<\/span><\/p>\n

[\u00a0click to read full article at NYTimes.com<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

from the New York Times Wary Hollywood Plans More Chick Flicks (Hoping to Lure the Guys) TriStar Pictures A scene from \u201cMy Best Friend\u2019s Wedding\u201d (1997), a so-called chick flick that was a box office success. By MICHAEL CIEPLY Published: April 9, 2008 LOS ANGELES \u2014 In\u00a0Nora Ephron\u2019s\u00a0\u201cSleepless in Seattle\u201d\u00a0a weepy\u00a0Rosie O\u2019Donnell, watching\u00a0\u201cAn Affair to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture-art"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}