When you are a celebrated writer/director, like Nancy Meyers is, it can be tricky settling on your next movie. Having exited stage left from an untitled wedding project she’d re-written for Sony, Meyers will now write and direct The Intern – an original comedy she’d previously been attached to at Paramount, before it was placed into turnaround. Not only has she returned to resuscitate the project, but it looks like she’s bringing Academy Award winners Robert De Niro and Reese Witherspoon with her, too.
The Intern is the story of a powerful entrepreneur – Reese Witherspoon – who is the founder of a hugely successful fashion website. Her company moves to participate in a Senior Intern Program, through which she is assigned an elderly, retired businessman – Robert De Niro. Initially a clash between business strategies old and new, their relationship soon evolves into one of mentor and mentee, with grudging respect being established.
Generational contrast and gender dynamics are common themes in the work of Nancy Meyers, who burst onto the scene back in 1980 having written and produced Private Benjamin, and then powered through the next three decades making movies such as Baby Boom (1987), Father Of The Bride (1991), The Parent Trap (1998), Something’s Gotta Give (2003), and It’s Complicated (2009). With only her second directorial effort, What Women Want (2000), she became the most commercially successful female director at the time, when it made over $370 million worldwide.
Scott Rudin (Captain Phillips, Moonrise Kingdom, The Social Network) will be hoping for more of that magic, as he produces the film with finance for the modest $35 million budget provided by Worldview Entertainment. With anticipation high for any Nancy Meyers film, and a stellar cast circling, the future looks bright for The Intern.
