Meryl Streep and Tina Fey are 'Mommy & Me'

By Sarah Sluis

What? Is that another original project I'm hearing about? No doubt inspired by the success of Julie & Julia, Sony has put together another movie intent on replicating the success of the foodie, women-centered adaptation. Entitled Mommy & Me, the project will center on the ups and downs of the mother-daughter relationship. As a woman's film, specifically a female comedy, the movie, will have a narrower appeal than

Julie & Julia, which captured the attention of food-loving audiences. However, the movie will most likely appeal to both old, middle-aged, and young audiences, and have a long-tail run. Both Julia & Julia and Tina Fey's Date Night had small opening weekends compared to their eventual cumulative grosses, so pairing these two actresses together will likely lead to another robust run at the box office.

Stanley Tucci may be better-known to mainstream audiences for his roles alongside Streep in Julie & Julia and The Devil Wears Prada (oh--and for playing a rapist and murderer in The Lovely Bones), but for this film he will be behind the director's chair. He last directed Blind Date, in which he also had a leading role. Since he usually acts in the films he directs, I wouldn't be surprised to see him cast in a supporting role.

Provided the movie is quality--and older audiences and female audiences are both known for the attention to quality (Twilight notwithstanding)--Sony has a leg up on this movie from the get-go. Female audiences are underserved at the box office, a situation that has improved in recent years. Most "female" films are romantic comedies that focus on dating and stylized, artificial gag situations. Movies that are based in reality, and comedies that don't have a romance front-and-center are rare. For that reason, Mommy & Me has a built-in audience ready to see this "unusual" film that doesn't involve, say, a woman going to extreme lengths to get married (like Leap Year, which involved a woman running around Ireland, trying to find her boyfriend to propose to him on the "only" day she can, February 29th). Now when does it come out?