It's one thing to base a movie on a novel that everybody loves-- people who read The Da Vinci Code knew exactly what to expect from the movie version, and as much as the Harry Potter movies may need to condense the lengthy books, they're still basically the same idea. But when it comes to adapting reference books, they're literally operating off nothing but name recognition. He's Just Not That Into You was a sprawling rom-com spinoff very loosely from the original advice book, and now the mini-trend is repeating itself for What To Expect When You're Expecting, the upcoming romantic comedy from Lionsgate.
Now Kirk Jones, the director behind Waking Ned Devine, Nanny McPhee and more recently the Robert De Niro family dramedy Everybody's Fine, will be tackled with turning the pregnancy reference book into a movie worth watching. Deadline reports he's been brought on direct the script adapted by Heather Hach and Whip It writer Shauna Cross; the story follows five different couples as they figure out, well, what to expect when expecting a baby. Cross's participation had been pretty much the only thing keeping me from dreading this project, but Jones doesn't seem like such a bad choice either. I'm not expecting the salvation of the romantic comedy genre here, but it if winds up being less irritating than He's Just Not That Into You, we're at least headed the right direction.
