Nancy Meyers’ return to the director’s chair is now imminent.
Known for her upscale romantic comedies such as “The Parent Trap” (1998), “What Women Want” (2000), “Something’s Gotta Give” (2003), “The Holiday” (2006), “It’s Complicated” (2009), the 73-year-old director and screenwriter is poised to return to filmmaking after an eight-year absence since her 2015 feature film The Intern starring Anne Hathaway and Robert De Niro.
The project is attracting A-list talent, with Scarlett Johansson said to be a frontrunner for the lead role in Meyers’ upcoming feature for Netflix. Multiple sources have told The Hollywood Reporter that Penélope Cruz, Owen Wilson, and Michael Fassbender are also eyeing the project.
Netflix has no comment at this time.
Meyers will write, direct, and produce the comedy which is titled “Paris Paramount,” though it is unconfirmed if that’s the working title or a project code name.
Sources say the story centers on a talented young writer-director who falls in love with a producer, with the pair making several successful films before calling it quits romantically and professionally. The two are forced back together, however, when a great new project arises and they find themselves having to deal with high stakes and volatile stars.
Meyers’ films have always been inspired by her own experiences, and this appears to be no exception. Meyers had a long-standing romantic and professional relationship with fellow writer-director-producer Charles Shyer, with whom she shares two children. The pair married and churned out films such as “Private Benjamin,” “Baby Boom,” “The Parent Trap” and “Father of the Bride.”
After Meyers and Shyer divorced, she went on to write and direct movies. Such as “Something’s Gotta Give” and “The Holiday.”
The project is currently eyeing a budget in the $130 million to $150 million range, meaning it could be the most expensive romantic comedy to come out of Hollywood, with the studio and filmmakers going back and forth over costs, as first reported by Puck.
Romantic comedies have always been in the realm of the mid-budget. However, Meyers’ writing and aesthetics commanded prices on the higher end for the genre, as they boasted A-list stars and memorable sets worthy of Architectural Digest such as Diane Keaton’s character’s beach house in the Hamptons for “Something’s Gotta Give,” Cameron Diaz’s character’s Los Angeles home in “The Holiday,” and Meryl Streep’s “Santa Barbara abode in It’s Complicated.”
Following the 2015 feature film “The Intern” in which Hathaway and De Niro starred, Meyers produced Home Again, her daughter Hallie Meyers-Shyer’s directorial debut in 2017. After that, she announced she would be taking a break, remarking on the disappearance of midbudget comedies like hers from the marketplace: “The business has changed in a way that is somewhat unrecognizable to me.”