You know I am no Judd Apatow fan. I think he really talks down to the ladies and that he makes crappy boy bromance films that perpetuate the cycle of crappy boycentric movies that inundate our screens most weekends.
It seems that now Mr. Apatow wants to get into the lady business and has signed on to produce Business Trip a film written by Stacey Harman that will star his wife Leslie Mann. Cinematical says its going to be a female version of The Hangover.
The logline is:
“a group of women who go on a corporate trip but wind up doing anything but business while on company time.”
Now I am all for a funny movie about women especially one that will focus on women who work, but just because The Hangover worked with guys as the leads doesn’t mean that the same premise will work for women. It’s the same crap that’s been going on with scientific studies for decades. Study men and then just extrapolate to include women.
Just want to remind folks that women are not small men. We are different.
Judd Apatow to Produce Female Version of ‘The Hangover‘ (Cinematical)
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Writing, as a woman, I think it’s a dangerous, binary opinion to take — “we are different.” There are many different tastes and opinions that fall into the female experience, some of which are polar opposites of the Apatow theme, others that are completely in line with it, and many in-between.
Except ‘Knocked Up,’ I enjoy many of Apatow’s films, though I do think he needs to expand his horizons when it comes to female characterizations.
But as for this feature, as a female version of the Hangover, it doesn’t mean that it will be the same movie using “male” humor in female bodies. (Though I don’t see that as a problem since it’s ridiculous to gender-separate comedy.) We don’t know what specifically will happen, and nothing about the premise suggests anything that couldn’t or won’t appeal to a female audience. It was conceived from business trips taken by Benderspink leads, so it’s not exactly taking The Hangover and changing the sex of the stars.
I love Leslie Mann, she is fricken hilarious and uber talented.
A woman wrote the script and if he’s producing it, it has comedy timing, I’m pretty sure of it.
Sign me up and thank goodness for a comedy with female comedic actors on the big screen!!! Woohoo!
A female version of The Hangover sounds great! I’m very surprised that you have a problem with this. It’s not like Judd Apatow is creating/writing the female characters.
“just because The Hangover worked with guys as the leads doesn’t mean that the same premise will work for women. ”
They won’t know until they try though, will they? Just like they won’t know how many people would see a top-notch Jason Bourne-type action movie with a female lead until they make one. And how many people would flock to a good superhero movie with a female lead. And on and on. I wish the movie studios would take this approach more often, tbh.
Not a huge fan of Leslie Mann. But mabye it’s the harpy-ish characters male writers/directors are always having her play.
I wrote the post from a place as a person who wanted to like The Hangover but didn’t. I just would love for Hollywood to remember that the same premise might not work for women as it did for men. Just even the whole need to compare a film to a male film pisses me off. If it’s a funny premise, and well written and well done it will probably work. I just wish that it was ok for us to acknowledge that women don’t always need to be compared with men to be seen as legitimate.
I’m developing a cynical cist in the back of my throat hearing about this. It seems people have troubles completely associating a bunch of women playing comedic roles as a film that’s truly, purely a comedy. It needs to be put in comparison with other comedies, because other comedies involve men, and so when a film comes out that is “with women, or about women, or that includes the presence of at least one prominent female character” then the natural thing must follow that it is to be compared to some other well-known or well-liked comedies so people can compartmentalize the idea of women and comedy for easier viewing pleasure.
I’d be curious to see what would happen if a real comedy (centered around women) came out that didn’t need to explain itself by linking the story with other comedies (centered around men) and just went out with the real aim of making people laugh with a good script, cast and vision… who knows.
There’s no way they’ll do a Hangover for women. Diversity of characters? Nope. Not a chance they’ll have chubby woman and funny unkempt woman on the trip. Fun without punishment for women. Not a chance. And it’s never a good thing when a wife stars. Sorry this almost never is a great idea.
Here’s the trailer:
characters:
uptight bitch, expansive “fun” girlie, somewhat “Hollywood plain” glasses wearer chick – probably a “mom”
chubby hairy dude, good looking dude, no good-looking man whores with a heart of gold unlike the Hangover
Girlie scream
Girls in car
Shot of fashion/shoes
Girlie flustered scream
Comment about eating
Comment about getting a dude
Shot of woman in underwear/nude getting surprised by another character and she screams and hops up and down
Now, when it comes out, I predict an 85% hit on my predictions.
I agree with Melissa — am not looking forward to this movie. I can’t stomach Apatow’s movies and what he stands for. He has gotten famous and powerful and rich from making gross-out humor movies where the humor often comes at the expense of women (their habits, their beings, their bodies), glorifies immature male behavior, and just… leaves female sensibility out of the story. Not Apatow’s fault is how it feeds into the bigger phenomenon, where now all comedy movies for by about men seem to have to match the gross-out, guy-humor factor. I mean… is anyone else sick of “vagina jokes” everywhere? My god, I am. What are those going to be replaced with, in the new movie? That’ll be interesting to see.
I’ve read in a few places that the script is “based on a pitch” by Stacey Harman. So who actually wrote it? That could make a BIG difference.
And can’t find a film that Stacey Harman’s written, so if she is the writer, she won’t be in a strong position. That could make make a big difference, too.
The big problem I see coming is that WOMEN HAVE ENOUGH PROBLEMS BEING SEXUALIZED IN THE WORKPLACE. A man making a movie about how they “enjoy” it. Is not going to help matters.
Sounds like an older version of The Sweetest Thing… which was not a good movie.
I hope it’s smart and funny and not essentialist about women and what they want. If it hits any of those marks I might give it a go.
I’m glad you clarified your “women are different” comment Melissa, because part of my problem with Hollywood is that so many creators treat women like an alien species, created for sex and cooking. I long to have a bunch of the movies that come out cast women instead of men in the leads with no big changes to the script. Then women would be playing complicated, goofy, leading roles, rather than girlfriends, mothers, or naked people. And that would be great.
In 100% agreement with sally’s post.
Melissa,
Did you hear John Stewart compare “Grown Ups” to the “Golden Girls ” last night? Brilliant.
Chris Evans,
What is the male equivalent for “harpy”? I don’t understand the derogatory term…are men “harpies” too or is that a special derogation just for us females?
Am I being a “harpy” when I ask questions like that?
K,
I would get in line to see the female equivalent of Bourne Identity!!!! Action is my favorite medium, but, there aren’t that many on my “favorite film” list because I require developed female characters in a film in order to fully enjoy it.
Worth remembering that all films are compared to other films in the Hollywood firmament, and comparing your film to one that did good business is one of the most important things you can do to ensure that your movie gets made and gets well distributed. In this case, sounds like “The Hangover” is the closest thing it’s like and, even if there were a female-centered comedy that it’s more like (which, racking my brain, I doubt), this would still be the best comparison because The Hangover is a RECENT film that did BIG business. Whether these comparisons are really valid is an open question, but it’s still the way things are done.
T, in terms of depictions on film, I don’t see men being portrayed as such, but then that was my whole point. I feel like this new batch of “male-friendly” romantic comedies specifically writes the female characters in a way that’s meant to be laughed at, not laughed with. Rashida Jones’ character in I Love You Man is the perfect antithesis to that, I think.
I undestand Melissa’s problems with this news but saying that the premise won’t work with women is the answer studio execs would give you if you were to ask them why many of the more popular film genres of the last three decades (action, sci-fi, fantasy, broad comedy)haven’t and still aren’t being consistently made with female leads.
The fact is if the guys in charge had been able to look beyond their outdated concept of female roles back then, post STAR WARS, and had never just consigned actressess to weepy, Oscar bait dramas that were considered ‘flukes’ if they did well commercially, romcoms or stuff that was or could be seen as demeaning we wouldn’t be having any issues in 2010 about why women don’t go to the cinema or about why actressess draw less than their male counterparts. I grew up with PRIVATE BENJAMIN, NINE TO FIVE, SIXTEEN CANDLES etc broad comedies starring women and we have a generation of boys now that can’t conceive of such a thing.
I would pretty much prefer we get back, and improve upon, the time when actressess weren’t completely left out in the dust so let them make the picture and if it’s A)good and B) successful we can start stopping the assumption that ‘women won’t work in this kind of movie’ because that belief was and is harmful to the continuing importance of women onscreen.
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