The 1939 classic, The Women, (partially written by an unaccredited F. Scott Fitzgerald) follows a group of ladies who find out through beauty salon gossip that one of their friend’s husbands is cheating on her. Eventually, a whole host of seedy affairs and debaucherous lost weekends occur as each woman tries to deal with their individual problems. This film is notable for quite a few reasons. During filming, Rosalind Russell bit Paulette Goddard so hard that she left her with a permanent scar. There’s also no male actors in the movie, and tensions on the set got so heated that reportedly neither Joan Crawford nor Norma Shearer would leave their limousine first for the publicity shoots. They eventually were screamed at by director, George Cukor, until they both quietly exited. How deliciously rancorous.
For the last ten years, everyone from Julia Roberts to James L. Brooks has been involved in remaking this. It was widely assumed that it was doomed to eternal production hell; however, after the decade long struggle, it now appears it may be getting off the ground. According to Variety, former ‘Murphy Brown’ writer Diane English will direct a star studded cast of starlets including Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Eva Mendez, Debra Messing, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Candice Bergen.
Shooting has yet to begin; however, executives have pegged it for a release sometime early to mid next year. No word yet on whether these vixens will be able to eclipse the epic cattiness on the original set; however, we here at Cinema Blend have full confidence in their bitchy abilities.
