Rachel Weisz and Toni Collette are two fine actors who should have made a deeper impression in Hollywood by now. Both bring their A-game to each film they are in, but they do not always pick the right projects. Occasionally though, we see a masterful performance (Weisz in The Deep Blue Sea, Collette on Showtime’s The United States of Tara) that reminds us of their talents. Now, both actresses are attached to Miss You Already, a drama following two best friends going through an emotional crisis.
Collette has been linked to this project since 2012, when Jennifer Aniston was signed on. Weisz, however, is only now coming on board to take Aniston’s role, as one of the forty-something friends who gets diagnosed with breast cancer, while Collette is a woman who becomes pregnant for the first time and starts a family. Both are lifelong friends torn apart by the changing world around them. The story brings to mind a modern-day updating of Beaches. That comparison will either make you really excited or groan in despair, depending on your love for the melodrama classic with Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey.
Thirteen director Catherine Hardwicke has taken over the reins as Miss You Already‘s director, replacing the film’s co-writer, Paul Andrew Williams (Unfinished Song). Miss You Already is based on a personal experience of Williams’ co-writer, actor Morwenna Banks, who co-wrote the script with Hardwicke.
“This is something she lived through,” Hardwicke says of her writing partner. “She managed to take real life and turn it into a powerful, laugh- and cry-out-loud screenplay.”
Miss You Already will likely begin shooting this fall. The production will be at Cannes this May with the hopes of getting financing, sales and general interest. Even if the story sounds schmaltzy, the combination of Weisz and Collette, plus a great director returning to a tale of conflicted female camaraderie, should offset any worries.
