By Sarah Sluis
The love triangle is complete: Adam Scott has been cast as Amy Adam's boyfriend in the upcoming romantic comedy Leap Year. Intent on taking advantage of an Irish legend that says a person cannot
turn down a marriage proposal on a leap year, Adams travels to Ireland to propose to her commitment-phobe boyfriend (Scott). She enlists an Irish innkeeper (Matthew Goode, from Watchmen and Brideshead Revisited) to help her track down her boyfriend when bad weather interferes with her plans. Presumably, rain, fog, and close quarters lead Adams and Goode to fall for each other. As I mentioned a few months ago, this film rips off the Powell & Pressburger film I Know Where I'm Going, a delightful romantic comedy that has one of the best first ten minutes of all time, economically setting up the characters and plot at a frenetic pace. Apparently, the similarity has only been noticed by two commenters (according to Google), but I hope the screenwriters give a nod to their inspiration, if only to draw attention to the work of the two talented filmmakers. Powell & Pressburger's films were embraced by many of the Hollywood film brats, like Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola, but many fans of Scorsese and Coppola haven't taken a close look at P&P's work, and how much these directors have borrowed from them.
Also on the romance-comedy front, Jeremy Garelick, writer of The Break-Up, successfully pitched a story about two best friends whose children fall for each other and are soon expecting a baby. The story will focus on how the romance (and baby) affects the two fathers' friendship. I like this concept, which seems very I Love You, Man (conveniently releasing this week), in that it focuses on male friendship, and doesn't shy away from a certain form of sentimentality. I imagine there will be a little Father of the Bride thrown into the screenplay as well. Because the story is based on Garelick's own life (he married the daughter of his parents' best friends), I'm sure there will be some of those gratifying tidbits that are so weird they could only be true.
Lastly, Adam Sandler's untitled high school reunion comedy has added more A(ish)-listers to its cast: Salma Hayek will play Sandler's wife, and Maya Rudolph will play Chris Rock's wife. Kevin James, David Spade and Rob Schneider are already on board. Colin Quinn was also cast, but his role was not specified. Given that the film revolves around five best friends who reunite after thirty years, my guess is that Quinn will play their mutual enemy, or a partner to one of the five men. The Fourth of July-set pic starts shooting this summer and is set to release March 2010. Not a moment too soon, in my opinion, as the rise of Facebook and other social networking sites throws a curveball into the "long-lost-friend" trope. At the very least, screenwriters should already be incorporating some lines that make oblique references to Googling people.
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