Well, that was quick.
Netflix is shutting down its Nancy Meyers movie because the writer-director wanted superhero movie money to make her romcom.
No, really, the film, which was supposed to be Meyers’ first directing vehicle in nearly a decade, could not come to an agreement on the budget.
Meyers is said to have asked for “at least $150 million”, but Netflix did not want to give her more than $130 million. Insanity. She can’t make do with $130 million?! It’s not like we’re talking about the next MCU or Jurassic Park here.
So, Meyers wanted to make a romcom with practically the same budget as “Dune” and Netflix were willing to give her most of the money, but she still said no?! We’re hearing at least $80 million from the reported budget was going to go to the cast’s salaries alone.
The romantic-comedy had Scarlett Johansson, Penélope Cruz, Michael Fassbender and Owen Wilson rumored to star.
THR says that if the project had been greenlit at $130 million, it would have still become “the most expensive romantic-comedy of all time”. Yeah, no shit. Rom-Coms tend to be mid-budget affairs, at most. I’m not sure why Meyers needed that much money.
The film would have centered on a young writer-director who falls in love with a producer. The pair make several successful films before breaking up, both romantically and professionally. They are forced back together when a new, great project arises, and they find themselves having to deal with high stakes and volatile stars.
The project would have been semi-autobiographical as it had parallels to Meyers’ own life. She and fellow writer-producer Charles Shyer had a longtime romantic and professional pairing, working on films such as “Private Benjamin”, “Baby Boom”, “The Parent Trap” and “Father of the Bride”.
Meyers was a very hot commodity in the early aughts with a crowd-pleasing formula that resulted in “What Women Want,” “Something’s Gotta Give,” “The Holiday,” “It’s Complicated” and “The Intern.”
Her last film was the 2015 Anne Hathaway, Robert De Niro feature, “The Intern.” The waiting for her next endeavour shall continue on.
Paul Greengrass’ "The Uprising," starring Andrew Garfield, opened to $3.2M from 2,068 theaters this weekend. Yikes. The budget hasn’t been disclosed, but is said to be in the $20-$30M range.