On the Big Board |
| Position |
Staff |
In Brief |
| 140/214 |
Max Braden |
Eye candy for girls who like guys with accents, but little else noteworthy. |
Let’s say for example that your father is the leader of your country, the equivalent of a prime minister. There is no way for you to perform an equally impressive feat in your 20s, right? I mean, come on. The dude determines the laws of the land. The only way to top that would be performing some accomplishment like, say, writing a book that becomes an international best seller by the time you are 21. I mean, that’s impossible. Well, it should be, but some overachieving woman named Cecelia Ahern somehow did just this. The daughter of Bertie Ahern, the Taoiseach (read: prime minister) of Ireland, this author wrote PS: I Love You, her first novel, when she was barely into her 20s. Within a year, it had become the most popular Irish novel of its time, staying at #1 for a J.K. Rowling-esque 19 straight weeks. It also became a bestseller in several other European countries as well as the United States…and again, she did this at the age of 21. Don’t you just hate a show-off?
Given the international success of PS: I Love You, a theatrical adaptation appeared certain. The only questions would be who would star in it and how long it would take to go into production. The latter answer is only a couple of years after American release. The former answer is Hilary Swank. She re-joins director Richard LaGravenese on the project. The two of them previously worked together on the early 2007 feel-good production, Freedom Writers, a $36.6 million hit for Paramount Pictures.
The two-time Academy Award-winning actress will portray the story’s heroine, Holly Kennedy. She is a recently widowed woman who was married for seven years before her husband, Gerry, developed a brain tumor and died. Given the methodical nature of his illness, Gerry managed to figure out a way to speak to his beloved wife from beyond the grave. He mails out a package to his wife that will not be received until after his death. Included in the package are a series of ten letters that are intended to lessen his wife’s suffering and give her the strength to carry on in his absence. Holly is instructed to open one letter a month, giving her a reason to want to carry on for a few weeks at a time. If she chose to end her life, she would never know what the rest of the letters said.
PS: I Love You is considered to be one of the most romantic novels since Bridget Jones’ Diary. That’s the type of potential appeal this project had before filming began. The only problem was that Swank’s male lead actor was no Hugh Grant or Colin Firth. He was an unheralded whose biggest role to date had been as Dracula in the mediocre performer, Dracula 2000. Then, he landed a role in a comic book adaptation named 300, and Gerard Butler suddenly went from complete unknown to beefy superhero star of a $208 million blockbuster. His presence as a romantic lead here is still something of a gamble, but it also elevates P.S. I Love You into the “potential blockbuster” category. (David Mumpower/BOP)
Vital statistics for P.S. I Love You |
| Main Cast |
Hilary Swank, Gerard Butler, James Marsters |
| Supporting Cast |
Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Lisa Kudrow, Gina Gershon, Kathy Bates, Harry Connick Jr., Dean Winters, Mike Doyle, Marcus Collins, Tony Devon, Sal Longobardo, Stephen Singer, Chris Edwards, Eliezer Meyer, Madalyn McKay, Don Sparks, Bryan Webster, Richard Wallace Smith, Roger Rathburn |
| Director |
Richard LaGravenese |
| Screenwriter |
Richard LaGravenese, Steven Rogers |
| Distributor |
Warner Bros. |
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Talent in red has entry in The Big Picture |
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