Though What To Expect When You’re Expecting has barely scraped its budget back at the box office, that isn’t putting Lionsgate off pushing ahead with another film based on an advice book. John Gray’s Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus has been making its way through development since at least 2010, but now it has a director in ads man Bryan Buckley and a star, with Reese Witherspoon signing on.
Gray’s 1992 book about how to find common ground between the sexes to make relationships tick along more smoothly has been a massive bestseller, shifting more than 50 million copies and continuing to dominate self-help shelves.
Last year, Summit (before its merger with Lionsgate) hired Leap Year writing team Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan to adapt it as a romantic comedy. As for what they’ve come up with? That’s anyone’s guess, though we figure Witherspoon will be a singleton looking for love that has to deal with troublesome blokes who all have some particular quirk that keeps them from being her ideal man. Until she meets Mr Right. Cue a currently popular singer-songwriter crooning over a montage! Ahem...
Buckley will be making his film directorial debut with the project, but he’s already carved out quite a high profile name for himself in the commercial world, working for the likes of American Express and Apple. He also directed Somali refugee short film Asad, which scored an award at Tribeca. Men Are From Mars should be shooting next January.