As bizarre as it is to think that Gabrielle Muccino, the serious minded dramatic helmer of the two Will Smith character pieces The Pursuit of Happyness and Seven Pounds is currently filming a broad, soccer mums comedy starring Gerard Butler as a school team’s coach who has a past for womanizing and a current penchant for sleeping with the mum’s of his players, I can’t help but be intrigued by it.
In fact, I might be ready to go against my original summation of Playing The Field two months ago and maybe it won’t be as small minded as I presumed. According to 24 Frames, Stuart Blumberg, the Oscar nominated co-screenwriter of The Kids Are All Right has just been brought in to sharpen Rob Fox’s (So I Married An Axe Murderer) original screenplay and perhaps make it play deeper with more on it’s mind, i.e. more Muccino like.
Now usually re-writing scripts when filming is already underway is a huge ‘deer in the road’ warning and you would be advised to swerve and miss it to avoid a car crash situation, but I’m wondering whether Muccino, who perhaps was originally hired to direct a Joe Popcorn friendly, slapstick romantic comedy, can’t but help himself explore something a bit deeper.
The movie is being described as “a dramedy about soccer, the suburbs and sexual attraction” and “a kind of Shampoo set amid American manicured lawns”, and well, when was the last time you heard of a broad rom-com cite Hal Ashby?
Surrounding Gerard Butler’s troubled father and former semi-pro professional who attempts to make up for lost time by coaching his son’s team to success is his long-suffering American ex-wife Jessica Alba (who he has cheated on whilst playing in Europe and who is now engaged to somebody else) and the various soccer mom’s he gets entangled with, including Uma Thurman (who plays the wife of Dennis Quaid’s rival team coach character in the film) and the newly cast Catherine Zeta Jones (newcaster) and Judy Greer (housewife).
I’m just starting to get a feeling about this one, perhaps it’ll be a Gerard Butler movie post-300 that works.
Playing The Field already has European distribution but is still trying to work out a deal for U.S. distribution.
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4 Comments
While I can’t, despite how much my wife twists my arm, bring myself to watch romantic comedies, I don’t begrudge Leonidas this niche. Who am I to say he’s not a ladies man? I’d just prefer that an actor capable of roles like his “Law Abiding Citizen” embraced action more often. However, if I were billed below both Matthew McConaughey and Batman in a dragon movie, AND the Fast and Furious’ Paul Walker in a time travel movie, I too might give a little more love to the hopeless romantic crowd, regardless of how inconsequential these films are.
P.S. – Even though you don’t do romantic comedies, give “The Ugly Truth” a try. It’s quite crude, (rated R for content and language) but it’s also very, very funny. According to user reviews I’ve read, both women AND men enjoyed it because it presents both sides of the dating equation. As for me personally, the first time around I deleted it from my Tivo after about 5 minutes because it WAS that crude, but I’m glad I re-recorded it gave it another chance. It’s become one of my favorites.
Hang in there Edgar. Hopefully “Coriolanus” will get released in the states, and “Machine Gun Preacher”, scheduled for release this fall, does well. Both of those films appear to be the type that would allow Mr. Butler to put his considerable acting talent on display. Take it from a “Butlerphile”, he’s most definitely “ladies man” material, but he’s got SO much more range than that, and he likes to take risks when it comes to films.
Leave it to Gerry. This man can do 360′s in acting like no other. 300 was not the start. A little 15 minute movie called Please sold me on this flexible star. Check it out on You Tube..
I’ll bet this is another top selling movie and the director will draw all the magic out of this movie and Gerry will prove yet again that he can really ‘play the field’ with his versatile acting talent.
Joan (HUG) xxx