It’s been over a decade since Peter Bogdanovich directed a feature film. Since "The Cat’s Meow" in 2001, the filmmaker has helmed an episode of "The Sopranos," the TV sports drama "Hustle" and the documentary "Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers: Runnin’ Down A Dream." Now, he’s returned with a full length effort, "She’s Funny That’s Way" (formerly known as "Squirrel To The Nuts").
Noah Baumbach and Wes Anderson provided financial support for the film, and the cast includes Owen Wilson, Imogen Poots, Jennifer Aniston, Kathryn Hahn, Tatum O’Neal, Rhys Ifans, Will Forte and Lucy Punch. It’s a classic screwball yarn about a married Broadway producer (Wilson) who tries to convince a call-girl (Poots) to change her life. As Bogdanovich told us last year, he’s kicked this screenplay around for a good long while.
"We originally wrote the script back in 1998 around a difficult time in our lives but it kept us laughing. It was originally written for John Ritter and Cybil Shepherd and then John died and we put it on the backburner because we couldn’t think who to cast in that part," he explained. "Then I got to know Owen Wilson quite well and I thought he could pay the part, because he had to be likable and attractive and not threatening sexually, and Owen fit the bill. Then we sent it to Jennifer Aniston to play his wife and she preferred to play the therapist, which is a much showier part. And then we got the rest of the cast after that."
‘She’s Funny That Way’ is headed to the Venice Film Festival for its World Premiere where it will be screened Out Of Competition.