Recent attempts to recapture the lightning-in-a-bottle success of Mean Girls, from the direct-to-video sequel Mean Girls 2 to this month’s Vampire Academy, have met with varying degrees of catastrophic failure, but it’s understandable that studios want to keep trying, given the zeitgeist feel of the original. One such project gathering over at New Line actually sounds like it may have a pretty decent chance of finding success. Titled Mean Moms, it shares a few significant similarities with Mean Girls and just gained a huge star, with news that Jennifer Aniston has entered negotiations for a lead role.
The film will focus on a happily married mom who moves with her two kids from a small town to the wealthy suburbs. After moving in, she’s confronted with the vicious world of competitive parenting and finds herself surrounded by hostile soccer moms.
Like the 2004 Lindsay Lohan comedy, Mean Moms is based on an advice book by Rosalind Wiseman. Mean Girls was adapted by Tina Fey from Wiseman’s Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends, and the New Realities of Girl World, while Mean Moms is based on Wiseman’s Queen Bee Moms and King Pin Dads: Dealing With the Parents, Teachers, Coaches, and Counselors Who Can Make — or Break — Your Child’s Future.
New Line hasn’t given the official go-ahead yet, but if Aniston’s deal is finalized, it’s expected that Mean Moms will move forward very quickly. Prolific TV director Beth McCarthy-Miller (Saturday Night Live, Modern Family) is already attached to helm the flick, and six different writers, including We’re the Millers scribes Sean Anders and John Morris, have been hard at work adapting Wiseman’s book.
Though Aniston’s involvement is not yet official, I could definitely see her as a character similar to Lohan’s Cady Heron, and Mean Moms sounds like it could be a very smart, funny comedy in the right hands. For the past three years, ABC’s Suburgatory has been taking shots at the competitive parenting present in American suburbs to great success. The same network’s Trophy Wife has also been dealing with similar themes. However, I’m hard-pressed to think of a recent film that’s taken on the culture successfully, and Mean Moms seems primed to do just that.
Tell us, does Mean Moms sound like a good idea for a comedy? And are you happy to see Aniston climbing on board? Let us know below!
