The value of a great title is almost incalculable when it comes to the box office success of a film; it’s the difference between “Jaws” and “Shark Night 3D,” between “Halloween” and “Valentine,” and between “Life is Beautiful” and “Jakob the Liar.” The new Ivan Reitman comedy had a great title when the script first made the Black List; “Fuckbuddies.” But obviously, network TV weren’t so keen on that, so it was swiftly changed to the more euphemistic “Friends With Benefits.” Except that’s also the title of both a forthcoming Justin Timberlake rom-com, and an NBC sitcom that’s just gone to pilot, so the Reitman project remains untitled.
Nevertheless, production starts any day now, with Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher starring as two friends, Emma & Adam, who meet up regularly for uncomplicated sex. Their relationship becomes strained when Adam starts to fall for Emma. A promising supporting cast was announced by Variety today, with Greta Gerwig, Kevin Kline, Ophelia Lovibond (the upcoming “London Boulevard”) and Ben Lawson (Aussie soap “Neighbours”) all coming on board.
Gerwig is the only one whose role has been announced, she’ll play a ‘brainy’ friend of Emma, a role that isn’t really in the draft of the script we have, suggesting some major rewrites have taken place.
Having said that, our guess is that Klein will be playing the father of Kutcher’s character, a successful actor, and that Lovibond and Lawson will play rivals for the hearts of the central characters. We have a real soft spot for the script, which is by Diablo Cody pal Liz Meriwether, so we hope it hasn’t been watered down too much in the rewrites; Reitman and Kutcher being on board doesn’t bode too well, but the casting of Gerwig, in her first big studio movie, has piqued our interest again.
