When you think of “phone sex,” do the names Emily Watson, Sandra Oh and Nia Vardalos come to mind? Not for me either, but then again we aren’t Peter Hewitt. The British director whose credits include Garfield and The Borrowers has tapped those three ladies and Melora Hardin (of NBC’s The Office) for an upcoming comedy that he’s putting together at the Australian shingle Tree. THR has the details.
The film, which will be called 33 Liberty Lane, has been penned by Canadian scribe Stephen Ayres and will begin shooting this July in Winnipeg – as soon as Oh wraps her commitment to the ABC drama Grey’s Anatomy. The story revolves around four down-on-their-luck women who turn to phone sex as a way of generating revenue. Of course, they’re four prudes – Oh reportedly plays a 40-year-old virgin, but not the funny kind – so they must recruit a hooker to train them how to properly seduce men over the phone.
Is phone sex still a thing? I realize that’s an ignorant question, but with free pornography invading every corner of the Internet do people still pay money to talk dirty to women on the other end of a phone? Hopefully Liberty Lane will address that.
I’m less concerned by the casting. These ladies, all talented, are exactly the types you’d hire to make an accessible yet still risqué comedy about phone sex that moms will feel comfortable seeing because, you know, it’s a little bit dirty but that girl from My Big Fat Greek Wedding is in it, so really, how bad can it be? And if Watson, Vardalos and Oh aren’t the first names you think of with phone sex, all I can say is that Robert Carlyle, Mark Addy and Tom Wilkinson were the last names I’d conjure for a male stripper movie, and The Full Monty worked like a charm. We’ll keep you posted on Liberty -- which would like to be in Sundance for 2013 – as details emerge.
