There’s good news and there’s bad news with this story, folks.
The good news is that Anna Faris, one of the brightest and funniest young actresses around, has signed on to star in two new comedies, which will hopefully build on the success of The House Bunny.
The bad news is, though it was successful, The House Bunny was utter bobbins, and was elevated to two-star status purely on the strength of Faris’ committed and deftly comedic performance. So it’s with some dismay that we note that one of the two films will see her reunite with that movie's writers, Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith.
In fact, in a virtual action replay of The House Bunny, the new movie – which is not a sequel – will be produced by Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison, who snapped it up after hearing a pitch from Faris, Lutz and Smith.
That pitch concerns two estranged sisters who team up to find a husband, which certainly sounds promising. And, given that Lutz and Smith also wrote Legally Blonde and 10 Things I Hate About You, there’s always the chance that they were just having an off day (or 60) with The House Bunny.
Paramount will release the currently untitled movie.
Meanwhile, the second Faris vehicle – over at Columbia – not only has a premise, but a title, too.
20 Times A Lady sounds like a bit of a raunchfest, as Faris delves into her sexual history in the hopes of finding Mr. Right in amongst all the Mr. Right Nows.
Jennifer Crittenden and Gabrielle Allan adapted the screenplay from Karyn Bosnak’s novel, which also examines the importance and relevance of the number of sexual partners a person has. (Empire learned a long time not to worry about this too much, although we're still hoping to break into single figures one of these days...)
No word yet on which of the two projects will start shooting first, but our money’s on 20 Times A Lady. And, even though we might have gone off on one about The House Bunny, we’re keeping our fingers crossed that one or both of these movies might further consolidate Faris’ position as the new Cameron Diaz.