Do you remember the 2008 Blacklist script, “Fuckbuddies” penned be Liz Meriwether (one of the “fempire” girls featured in a New York Times article centered on the up-and-coming female writing pals of Diablo Cody)?
The script was bought by Paramount in the summer of 2009 and now evidently has a new title and cast associated with it.
In a Vulture article about the woes of “Ghostbusters III,” which we just wrote about here, the writer says the film has now softened its title to “Friends With Benefits” and has Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher involved as the “guy and girl [friends who] struggle to have an exclusively sexual relationship as they both come to realize they want much more,” or, as the original logline read “an inverse ‘When Harry Met Sally’.”
However, as just mentioned, the project was greenlit with Ivan Reitman set to direct, presumably creating a conflict with the upcoming “Ghostbusters III.”
“Ghostbusters” is presumably his priority (unless he does drop out of the drama currently brewing with the project), so, Portman, Kutcher and a fuck-buddy comedy about friends who develop romantic feelings for one another eventually, in 2011? Or sooner if Reitman lets Columbia have their way and hire a younger director to helm the new ‘Busting generation? Time will tell, but surely this is all good news for screenwriter Meriwether either way this mess lands.
Updated: “Friends With Benefits” is going first. Variety says its currently untitled and it even has a release date set. January 7, 2011 which means Reitman will be shooting later this year. Variety doesn’t get into any of the “Ghostbusters” drama which is presumably being figured out while Reitman goes off to do this rom-com.
