The director of Netflix’s canceled $150 million rom-com explains the title, but not why it needs to cost so much

When word emerges that a romantic comedy has somehow gathered an estimated production budget of $150 million, the first question on any right-minded person’s lips would be how on earth a frothy romp can rack up the same sort of tab as an effects-heavy action blockbuster. Unfortunately, that’s a question writer and director Nancy Meyers has no intention of answering.

Sure, the genre titan will no doubt be seeking fair compensation for what would be her first feature since 2015’s The Intern, which is fair enough when her list of iconic contributions to the rom-com realm includes Father of the Bride, The Parent Trap remake, Something’s Gotta Give, What Women Want, The Holiday, and It’s Complicated.

A cast set to feature Michael Fassbender, Owen Wilson, Penelope Cruz, and Scarlett Johansson doesn’t come cheap, either, but $150 million seems nuts. In fact, it was deemed too expensive even for Netflix and its bottomless pit of cash, which was strange enough in and of itself when the streaming service was happy to splurge $130 million before the price went up.

Warner Bros. is reportedly circling the project despite David Zaslav’s desire to shave billions off the studio’s running costs, but when Meyers finally broke her silence on the headline-grabbing cancellation, she ignored any of the things people actually wanted to know in favor of explaining the title instead.

Not to dump even more blood in the water, but the last big budget movie about the inner workings of Hollywood was Damien Chazelle’s Babylon, which cost almost 50 percent less than Paris Paramount‘s estimated budget and ended up staring a $150 million loss right in the face. Your move, Zaslav.