romcom Tagged Articles at Cinematical
What If You Had to Live Inside 'The Proposal'?
Filed under: Romance »
There's a script to be written, hopefully by someone with talent, in which a character from the real world gets dropped into a romantic comedy. Sort of like Enchanted in reverse, or the middle part of The Last Action Hero -- a reg'lar Joe or Josephine suddenly finds themselves having to survive in the Rom-Com Universe, forced to adapt their normal-human skills and behavior to an alternate reality where almost nothing is like they know it.
Take The Proposal, for example. Ryan Reynolds' executive-assistant character makes a coffee run for his boss -- but there's no coffee in the cups! Seriously, you can tell from the way he's juggling them in one hand that, as in most movies and TV shows, they're completely empty. Unless, of course, normal physics don't apply in Rom-Com World, which is a distinct possibility. Naturally, when he gets the coffee all the way back to the office, the first thing that happens is that he slams into a co-worker, and coffee cascades from the now-full cups all over his shirt.
See, this is one way that it would be hard to live in a romantic comedy. For starters, when I buy coffee, the cup's almost always full of coffee. I like that. And if I was constantly running into people and spilling my magical drink all over myself, I'd need to keep multiple changes of clothes in my car and at my office. I imagine that people in rom-coms must have overnight bags stashed all over the place, given how often they spill stuff, fall down, and have messy things flung at them. It would be hard on the wardrobe.
Jay Roach Goes 'Off Strategy'
Filed under: Comedy », Romance », Deals », Sony »
Although Rob Vlock's first novel, which is set on Madison Avenue, is still making the rounds at lit houses in New York City, it's already been optioned for a feature treatment -- which should help its publishing possibilities just a little. The Hollywood Reporter has posted that Jay Roach, the director behind both the Austin Powers and Meet the Parents films, has optioned Off Strategy. He will produce it at Sony, and has set up Jon Poll as the director. Poll worked as an editor on many of Roach's films, and has his first directorial feature, Charlie Bartlett, getting released next February.The two comparable titles that are floating around this project are, believe it or not, You've Got Mail and The 40-Year-Old Virgin -- just a bit of a contrast. Basically, the studio wants it to be the modern AOL-named romcom, but THR sources say the humor is similar to Virgin. The story centers on relationships and romance, but from a male perspective. Specifically, it's about "an ad copywriter who falls for a woman who turns out to be a client with whom the copywriter already has an acrimonious phone relationship." So that's where the Mail comes in -- that acrimony through the invisible nature of technology.
Now the question remains: what sort of humor from Virgin will the piece have? Is the guy a virgin? Does he have friends who play videogames while playing the "You know how I know you're gay?" game? And who would star? Personally, I'd love to see someone like Campbell Scott, but he doesn't have the huge pull necessary for romcom history, and I'm thinking they'll want to go younger. Maybe Jake Gyllenhaal?
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