Women are ruling Hollywood with gender-swapping movie remakes

In “What Males Need,” in theaters Feb. 8, Taraji P. Henson performs a profitable sports activities agent who feels cheated by the alternative intercourse professionally and has hassle regarding them personally. After a bachelorette social gathering involving a wacky tarot card reader (performed by Erykah Badu) with a particular tea and a head damage on the dance ground, she awakens with the flexibility to learn males’s minds. If the premise sounds a bit acquainted, that’s as a result of it’s. The movie is a re-imagining of 2000’s “What Women Need,” directed by Nancy Meyers and starring Mel Gibson, and it’s the most recent in a string of gender-swapping remakes and re-imaginings of beloved movies. “Women are [the ones] who go to the films, and I feel Hollywood is lastly getting hip to that,” Henson tells The Put up. The movie comes on the heels of two large hits starring all-female ensembles — 2016’s “Ghostbusters” and 2018’s “Ocean’s 8” — alongside with final 12 months’s “Overboard,” which options Anna Faris within the Kurt Russell position and was additionally a box-office success. There’s extra to return with a re-imagining of “After the Wedding ceremony” premiering at Sundance earlier this month, a female-led “Soiled Rotten Scoundrels” reboot hitting theaters in Could and a “Splash” with Channing Tatum taking part in a merman supposedly nonetheless within the works. [embedded content] Insiders say these initiatives simply make sense from a advertising standpoint. To get individuals to go to the theater, “you want the movie to be acquainted sufficient that they’re , however distinctive sufficient that they really feel the necessity to go,” says a analysis govt who works with main Hollywood studios. However these female-centric movies aren’t solely motivated by box-office potential, says “What Males Need” producer Will Packer, who made the 2017 smash “Women Journey.” (Henson can be a producer of the brand new movie.) “[Women’s] tales are the attention-grabbing tales that we haven’t heard,” Packer tells The Put up. ‘Women are [the ones] who go to the films, and I feel Hollywood is lastly getting hip to that.’ Paramount first got here to him simply over a 12 months in the past with the concept for redoing “What Women Need,” a title the studio owns and an enormous success that introduced in additional than $374 million on the worldwide field workplace. “They had been excited about redoing it they usually stated, ‘Possibly we’ll gender swap it, put a girls on the heart,’ ” Packer says. “I stated, ‘To begin with that’s good’ . . . after which I stated, ‘Hear, there’s no one apart from Taraji P. Henson that may play this position.’ ” He and Henson had labored collectively on “Assume Like a Man” and different movies, and he flew to Chicago, the place she was capturing the TV present “Empire” to signal her on. The Golden Globe-winning actress, who acquired an Oscar nod for “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” was burnt out on severe roles, telling Packer, “I’ve cried each manner you may cry in a task. I’ve ugly-cried and smile-cried.” “I wished to do a comedy so unhealthy,” Henson says. And, “I really like the unique [movie].” Director Adam Shankman admits he wasn’t initially excited when his agent instructed him somebody was remaking the Gibson flick. He thought, “Oh, actually, good for them.” Then he heard the phrases Taraji P. Henson, and he had his agent ship the script over. Whereas the Gibson movie and the brand new movie share a central conceit, they’re fairly completely different. Good factor, says the director, as a result of the 2000 movie and its essential character would possible come throughout as offensive by 2019 requirements. “I don’t assume that movie could be made at this time . . . [with] his degree of chauvinism and misogyny,” Shankman says. Whereas Gibson’s womanizing protagonist is the villain of the movie, within the new movie, Shankman says, “the tradition is the villain and [Taraji’s character is] simply working actually laborious to navigate [it].” Stylistically, he says the brand new movie borrows lots from the fast-talking comedies of the ’30s and ’40s that featured stars resembling Rosalind Russell. Henson says she seemed to the physicality of Lucille Ball and Carol Burnett, notably Burnett’s Mrs. Wiggins character, for her efficiency. Henson and Shankman bonded over their deep data of outdated comedies and musical theater. “Earlier than he would get out of his seat,” the actress says, “I used to be like, ‘I do know what you need, Adam, let me give it to you.’ ” The star believes that whereas the completely different sexes assume in another way, their primary wants and wishes are the identical. “[Women are] extra complicated in pondering. [Men are] extra like, ‘Lower to it,’ ” Henson says. “However I feel on the core of women and men, we would like the identical factor so far as relationships are involved, except you’re a swinger and also you simply need all the things.” And she or he has her personal concepts for gender-swapping remakes. “I wouldn’t thoughts doing ‘Fairly Lady,’ however make it a man, like a male escort,” says Henson, who says, with a cackle, that she’d “completely” be up for taking part in the Richard Gere position. “That’s empowering for girls!” [embedded content] Share this: https://nypost.com/2019/01/31/women-are-ruling-hollywood-with-gender-swapping-movie-remakes/ The post Women are ruling Hollywood with gender-swapping movie remakes appeared first on My style by Kartia.