More than two decades later, Paramount is finally trying to reunite Andie Anderson and Benjamin Barry. A sequel to “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days” is in early development, with original stars Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey approached about returning, according to Variety. A script is currently being developed, though neither actor has officially signed on yet, and no director or release date has been announced.
Still, both stars have repeatedly indicated that they would consider reuniting for the right idea. In 2024, on the “Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen show, Hudson said that she and McConaughey were “both totally open” to making a sequel, with one significant qualification.
“All that matters would be the script and if Matthew and I were into the script,” Hudson said at the time. “I think we’re both totally open; it has just never happened.”
The original 2003 romantic comedy starred Hudson as Andie, a magazine advice columnist assigned to make a man dump her in ten days, and McConaughey as Ben, an advertising executive who bets that he can make any woman fall in love with him over the same period. Naturally, neither knows about the other’s professional agenda.
Directed by Donald Petrie and written by Kristen Buckley, Brian Regan, and Burr Steers, the film grossed more than $177 million worldwide. It became one of the defining studio romantic comedies of the early 2000s. Hudson and McConaughey later reunited for 2008’s “Fool’s Gold,” but a second “How to Lose a Guy” outing has remained purely hypothetical until now.
The timing is especially amusing because McConaughey recently revealed that “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days” still produces more residual income for him than any other film in his career—even major successes like “Interstellar” and Oscar-winners “Dallas Buyers Club.”
“It still pays the best mailbox money of any film I’ve ever done,” McConaughey said on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast last week. “By far. By lengths.”
McConaughey called the movie “the gift that keeps on giving,” explaining that its enduring life on cable, streaming services, airlines, and perennial Valentine’s Day programming continues generating remarkably healthy checks. So, yes, Paramount’s interest in returning to this particular well makes plenty of financial sense for everyone involved.
Hudson, meanwhile, has remained busy between Netflix’s “Running Point” and upcoming projects such as the Ana de Armas-led erotic thriller “Palm Grove.”
The sequel remains in its earliest stages, meaning that the script will ultimately determine whether the love fern—and Hudson and McConaughey—actually return.
