Exclusive: Paramount Remaking Soapdish
By Dustin Rowles | Posted Under Trade News | Comments (29)
Update: We have also now learned that it will be a Latino remake.
According to the Hollywood Cog, Paramount Pictures is remaking the very minor 1991 hit ensemble comedy, Soapdish, which starred Kevin Kline, Sally Field, Robert Downey, Jr., and Whoopi Goldberg, among many others. Despite an impressive cast, the original — directed by Michael Hoffman (One Fine Day) — didn’t do outstandingly at the box office, racking up $36 million, but it was popular with critics. I haven’t seen it since its theatrical release, so I can’t offer much in the way of opinion and I doubt I was old enough to appreciate the satire at the time.
My first instinct upon hearing this news was to think that Paramount was using Soapdish to get into the superstar ensemble game, a la Valentine’s Day and She’s Just Not That Into You, as the story leaves that possibility wide open. The remake will center around a telenovela, although I’m not entirely sure why using a telenovela instead of a soap opera makes much sense, except that telenovelais a bigger buzzword?
Writer/producer/director Rob Reiner is producing the remake, though so far as I can tell, he had nothing to do with the original. However, his co-producer Alan Greisman did produce the original Soapdish and has past production connections with Reiner (Alex and Emma, The Bucket List), so the pairing makes sense there. The project was recently announced internally and is now out to writers. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that Reiner is producing the remake with an eye toward directing,
The original Soapdish was about Celeste Talbert (Sally Field), who had been the queen of the soaps for over two decades. Co-star Montana Moorehead (Cathy Moriarity) needed to get her out of her way before she could move on. She hired an old boyfriend of Celeste to be on the show and had Celeste become a murderer in the script, but each attempt had unforseen consequences.
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Comments
Posted by: krolowonder at May 25, 2010 11:33 AM
I caught Soapdish on cable maybe 6 months ago. It was definitely funnier than I'd remembered. Of course RDJ owns....but Kevin Kline is pretty fantastic as well. Don't know how a remake would fare.