Why? Seriously, why?
Of all the '90s studio comedies that could use a remake, Warner Bros., under David Ellison's IP-hungry leadership, has decided the one that needs redoing is Nora Ephron's "You've Got Mail," a movie that won audiences over in 1998 thanks to the effortless chemistry between Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.
Per Deadline, Jason Orley ("Big Time Adolescence") will direct. He's also writing the current draft, working from an earlier script by Deborah Kaplan & Harry Elfont, the duo behind "Can't Hardly Wait" and "Josie and the Pussycats." Nobody's saying what the new angle is.
Sure, "You've Got Mail" was itself a remake of Lubitsch's "The Shop Around the Corner," updated for the AOL dial-up era. I gather Orley will update it again, this time for the TikTok era.
"You've Got Mail" had Ryan and Hanks playing rival booksellers: she runs a small independent children's bookshop on the Upper West Side, and he's the heir to a big-box bookstore chain opening around the corner and threatening to put her out of business. What neither knows is that they've already fallen for each other as anonymous online pen pals. The film came out as email became mainstream, years before dating apps, and chain superstores squeezing out indie shops.
Warner Bros. released "You've Got Mail" in December 1998, and it made more than $250M worldwide. It was Hanks and Ryan's third movie together, after "Joe Versus the Volcano" and "Sleepless in Seattle," and their last with Ephron.
Orley's next movie is for Amazon: "Close Personal Friends," a comedy with Brie Larson, Jack Quaid, Lily Collins and Henry Golding. Orley isn't technically a hack. At least not yet. "Big Time Adolescence" was a sharp, sweet indie debut, and "I Want You Back" was a better-than-average streaming rom-com.
Casting is currently underway for "You've Got Mail" 2.0, but it's yet another sign that Warner Bros., under David Ellison, will be leaning hard on IP, which means tons of remakes, reboots, sequels and spin-offs. Just look at what's piled up since Ellison took over Paramount in August 2025. There's "Top Gun 3," a "Call of Duty" movie, "Rush Hour 4," and reboots of "A Nightmare on Elm Street" and "G.I. Joe." Then come new "Star Trek" and "Transformers" movies, a "World War Z" sequel, "A Quiet Place 3," and more "Paranormal Activity" and "Longlegs." And that's not even counting the treasure trove of Warner Bros. IP that's about to get milked.
Of all the '90s studio comedies that could use a remake, Warner Bros., under David Ellison's IP-hungry leadership, has decided the one that needs redoing is Nora Ephron's "You've Got Mail,"