We certainly have the casting of the year.
The story is simple: Jennifer Aniston will produce the remake of a very cult black comedy from the 80s – well, especially popular across the Atlantic. A colorful pearl of American cinema which brought together quite a podium: Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton, legends of the time, sorry. One of the Friends star's favorite films by the way, which is called How to Get Rid of Your Boss. And like many American potacheries, it does not enjoy absolute notoriety here.
But that's not the most interesting thing.
The crazy part of it is the Olympic distribution that Jennifer Aniston imagines.
It's even one of the most intriguing “all-star” projects kept in Hollywood's drawers in recent years: because for this remake, and as successors to the original trio, Aniston intends to bring together… Sydney Sweeney, Zendaya and Ariana Grande. Three women of influence and generational emblems who each reign in their own way over the cultural industry today, from music to the seventh art. Just that? Just that, yes. But that's not all.
Sydney Sweeney in a colorful feminist satire? A very attractive project with the stars of a generation
Zendaya, Sydney Sweeney, Ariana Grande, we've already known less ambitious leading trios, haven't we?
-The idea is clear, probably: to decline the icons of yesteryear, because the sex symbol of yesterday (Jane Fonda, great activist figure) responds to that of today (Sydney Sweeney: read our long portrait) while the legends music like Dolly Parton easily see in their heirs an iconic Ariana Grande, who risks leaving her comfort zone with this film whose entire diabolical concept lies in the title. A promising one, especially since the latter is already a hit in theaters with the sororal musical comedy Wicked.
Diabolical, yes, because the pitch is indeed scathing: three women decide to unite to take revenge on a boss who is giving them a hard time. Behind the somewhat Hitchcockian synopsis, the story is intended to be a fierce attack against male domination, and in particular the balance of power in the professional environment, a reflection of our patriarchal society. Intriguing. And if you add to that a screenplay by Diablo Cody, the pen behind Jennifer's Body (a sharp neo-feminist horror film with Megan Fox as a demon), the project seems very solid, right?
Such a postulate seems most relevant in a post-#MeToo society. With an irony that could wink at acidic farces like the phenomenal The Substance.
As reported by our colleagues at Allociné, the original film was such a success at the global box office that an adaptation into a sitcom on the ABC channel was even spawned, but also… a musical on Broadway at the very end 2000s.”The film landed squarely on the American Film Institute's list of 100 funniest films.“, specifies the site.
We are especially impatient to see how the scathing performance of Zendaya (not devoid of humor in Challengers, a performance which could earn her an Oscar) and the score, much more nuanced than one might believe from a Sydney Sweeney (capable of slipping from pure horror to rom com) can unite on screen… Especially since the star of Everything except you is rarely hired for his derision, however phenomenal – notably when she enjoys her physique, and more precisely her chest.
Haste.
