No, no, no to Friends feature says Warners
Thanks to the success of the Sex and the City movie — and talk of more to come — the rumor mill has been bubbling with other TV shows making the leap to the big screen. In the case of Arrested Development, it sure sounds like the truth.
However, the Friends feature is a rumor that has no legs. Warners owns the property and on July 4th, even though all U.S. offices were closed for the holiday, denied the rumors via the London office.
Jayne Trotman, Warner’s director of publicity, said of the Friends movie, “(There’s) no truth in the story.”
Just to be sure, Matthew Perry’s press rep also denied the rumor. She told the BBC that nothing is happening and the rumor is just that, a shred of news with no value attached to it.
So, where are the affirmatives that have made the media think there was a chance for a Friends big screen production? MailOnline.com started it. The web site posted on July 2nd that all the Friends, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer and Matthew, were willing to reprise their roles for a picture to be filmed within the next 18 months.
In what can only be called a fanciful — unsupported by named sources — story, the writer went on to say that Jennifer and Courteney had been talking about what they wanted the feature to be about and how to get it done. Whether they ever really talked about a movie or not remains uncertain.
What is certain is this: if Warners says it’s not happening, it’s not happening. Not any time soon, anyway.
But even if Warners was hot to make the film, would a Friends feature really be such a great thing? I don’t think so. As it was, the series probably should have ended in 2000, when Monica and Chandler proposed to each other.
I know it may seem like heresy to some, but for me, that was the last, great Friends season. A feature film might be a real let down, when you think about it.
Friends: The Movie (Cross Your Heart)
Not sure how old I was, but I remember reading EW’s “TV Preview,” drinking Barq’s on the couch, and I came across a new show called Friends. In that kid way, off one picture and a “skeptical” description, I knew it was going to be a hit. “Arm-chair executives,” we were labeled later. God, I hope this effing movie doesn’t happen.
A British tabloid reports that a big-screen version of Friends is indeed happening within “18 months,” due to the success of Sex and the City. Hey, 40-year-olds can still be friends in a genuine way, right? [koff] As long as everybody stays out of law school and blogs. The inside source provides a verbal mudslide of choice quotes, like this one…
‘What’s held back a Friends movie so far is that people were worried that Jennifer [Aniston] had simply become too famous to play Rachel again. …It really comes down to money, and I don’t think Jen has a problem with all of the Friends getting huge paydays for the movie.”
The Rembrandts await the call, as do a couple million people on exercise machines, and coffee shops. And the monkey (not that monkey)! Ladies and gentlemen, if this is the post-9/11 Big Chill, I hope somebody blows up the set.
Ivy Grows on Sarah Jessica Parker
Now that Sarah Jessica Parker’s Big moment is behind her, it’s time to start thinking about her post-Sex life.
The actress who never met a funny hat she didn’t like is in talks to star in The Ivy Chronicles, a dramedy about a single gal making her way in New York.
If that sounds a little too familiar, this time around Parker would play newly divorced mom Ivy Ames, who loses her high-powered job and has to give up her uptown digs for an apartment more suited to…well, someone like Carrie Bradshaw.
Eventually, she totally rocks her new life in ways meant to both dazzle and inspire the largely female audience this film will be seeking.
If the deal goes forward, this would most likely mark Parker’s next return to the big screen after her massive success with the still-playing cinematic version of Sex and the City.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the 43-year-old mother of one had signed on to the romantic comedy The Late Bloomer’s Revolution (which, interestingly, sounds as if it could be about the same exact thing as The Ivy Chronicles) for New Line Cinema and HBO Films’ Picturehouse, but now that New Line has folded into Warner Bros., the future of the project is uncertain.
Whoopi for India.Arie’s Broadway Debut
India.Arie isn’t just the average girl from your “Video” anymore.
The neo-soul songstress is set to make her Broadway debut Sept. 8 in a Whoopi Goldberg-produced revival of the Obie Award-winning For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf.
The 1975 drama, by playwright Ntozake Shange, is a collection of 20 prosaic poems, each a reflection on modern American life as experienced by black women. The characters do not have names but are instead identified by monikers such as “Lady in Brown” and “Lady in Purple.”
Previews begin Aug. 19 at Circle in the Square.
Arie, whose tune “The Heart of the Matter” can be heard on the Sex and the City movie soundtrack, won two Grammys in 2003, including Best R&B Album for Voyage to India.