It's a druggy, Jakey morning. We brought you Prince of Persia and Mr. Nice, and now we bring you Love and Other Drugs, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway, and directed by Ed Zwick.
Rather different drugs than Mr. Marks' though, since this is an adaptation (by The Interpreter's Charles Randolph) of Jamie Reidy's light-hearted 2005 tell-all Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman.
The book is about Reidy's experiences as a rep for the giant pharmaceutical company Pfizer, and his expertise at achieving great personal results for as little effort as humanly possible. His realisation that judging each situation on a personal level worked better than sticking to a corporate shpiel got him fired from Pfizer, and the publication of his book got him fired from his next job as a rep trainer at another company.
Presumably the names will be changed to protect the guilty, but Gyllenhaal is on hand as the protagonist, and Hathaway as the Parkinsons Disease sufferer who turns his head. Josh Gad, a semi-regular correspondent on Jon Stewart's Daily Show, has also just been cast as Jake's annoying dot-com entrepreneur brother, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Hathaway's character would appear to indicate a comedy drama that finds a heart later on: selfish guy in awful pharma company falls in love with sick girl. We've seen drama and emotion from Zwick on any number of occasions (Glory, Legends of the Fall, Blood Diamond, Defiance) but it's a long while since we've seen him do funny (About Last Night, 1986). But if the book's humour falls by the wayside, this should still be left with enough in the way of character, moral issues and authority-questioning to keep Zwick interested. Filming starts in September.