In 1985, Sarah Jessica Parker and Helen Hunt starred in the now classic romcom Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.
In 2023, the 38-year-old film about an army brat with a stern father who wants to follow her passion for dance but has to hide it from her father with the help of her best friend will get the remake treatment.
Village Roadshow updates the story for a modern audience with Elizabeth Banks producing with her husband Max Handelman through the duo’s Brownstone Productions – which stems from the success of Cocaine Bear.
The L Word: Generation Q showrunner Marja-Lewis Ryan is co-writing the script with Allie Romano, one of the show’s staff writers.
In addition to Parker and Hunt, the original film also starred Lee Montgomery, Jonathan Silverman, Ed Lauter and Shannen Doherty.
Girls just wanna: In 1985, Sarah Jessica Parker and Helen Hunt starred in the now classic romcom Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. In 2023, the 38-year-old movie will get the Elizabeth Banks remake treatment
Based on: Based on Cyndi Lauper’s 1983 hit song of the same name, the film was banned from using her version of the song, which was itself a remake
Based on Cyndi Lauper’s 1983 hit of the same name, the film was banned from using her version of the song, which was itself a remake.
Instead, the filmmakers used Robert Hazard’s original version of the song from 1979, which tells the story from the man’s point of view.
According to the Hollywood reporterplans the remake to follow the original and dive into the “celebration of female friendship, the humor and the heart, plus the dance numbers.”
Banks and Handleman stem from the huge success of Cocaine Bear, which has grossed more than $64 million domestically and $85 million worldwide.
The unlikely comedy follows the adventures of an American black bear who goes on a killing spree after ingesting a duffel bag full of cocaine.
It is inspired by a true story in which a black bear found and consumed a multimillion-dollar package of cocaine smugglers dropped from the sky in a Georgia forest in 1985.
While they are an integral part of the film’s plot, Banks shared that she never really experimented with drugs.
“I took ‘Just say no’ to heart… played a goody-two-shoes into it,” the Hunger Games star explained.
Original role: Helen Hunt played Lynne Stone in the 1985 Chicago story
Early role: Sarah Jessica Parker played army brat Janey Glenn who had a very strict father in the original film
‘Personal safety played a major role in this. I was a cocktail waitress for many years. And I wasn’t interested in not being sober about the shit I saw.”
With its R-rated gore, eyebrow-raising title and off-the-wall storyline, Cocaine Bear is undoubtedly a huge shift for Banks, whose directorial resume includes the musical comedy Pitch Perfect 2.
“This could be the end of my career,” she confessed.
Cocaine Bear has a budget of around $30 million, much of which goes toward bringing the ferocious, drug-fueled bear to life via CGI.
New version: Elizabeth Banks and Max Handelman will produce the film, while Marja-Lewis Ryan, showrunner of The L Word: Generation Q, is writing the script along with Allie Romano, one of the show’s staff writers
The film’s script – written by screenwriter Jimmy Warden – was presented to Banks early in the pandemic after producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller struck a first-look deal with Universal Pictures.
Cocaine Bear began shooting in August 2021 in County Wicklow, Ireland and wrapped in October.
It stars Keri Russell, Margo Martindale, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and the late Ray Liotta.
Miller recalled that Banks’ original pitch deck was “gory” with “a lot of body parts and internal organs in it.”
Throwback Photo: Hunt, pictured here in 1993, played Parker’s character’s best friend
Producing Team: The husband and wife producing team stem from the unlikely success of the comedy Cocaine Bear