Back in 1984, Charles Shyer directed a movie called “Irreconcilable Differences.” His wife, Nancy Meyers, wrote it with him. It was a romcom about a movie making couple — Ryan O’Neal playing Peter Bogdanovich and Shelley Long as his real life wife, Polly Platt — who split but have to keep working together. (The movie introduced Sharon Stone.)
Along the years, Meyers — who went on to make a movie about Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin living in a great kitchen — and Shyer split in real life. Now Meyers is going to make her first movie since 2015. It’s a rom-com about a filmmaking couple who split but must work together on a new film to save their careers. The film, revealed by the Puck newsletter yesterday, has no title. It’s just called “Paramount Paris.”
Is it is set in Paris? That would be important because Woody Allen, whose movies Meyers echo, had his biggest hit with “Midnight in Paris.” That movie starred Owen Wilson, who is one of the four main actors in Meyers’ new movie. The others are Penelope Cruz, Scarlett Johansson, and Michael Fassbender. Cruz and Johansson starred in another Allen hit, “Vicky Cristina Barcelona.”
The budget for “Paramount Paris” is said to be $130 million– which I guess makes sense if it’s shot in Paris. But Woody Allen’s new movie, “Coup de Chance,” was just shot in Paris for probably a quarter of that price. And the movies he made with the same actors, ditto. It’s all a little confusing. But years from now it will make a great theme night on TCM!