Meg Ryan, Anne Hathaway and Lisa Kudrow are The Women

It’s one of those projects that has been living for so long in Development Hell that it should probably be drawing a pension by now. In fact, the remake of George Cukor’s 1939 comedy about women dealing with divorce, friendship and betrayal practically got started the week after the original came out.

It’s been in the works at least since the ‘90s, when Meg Ryan and Julia Roberts were attached as the leads. The most recent version was planned at New Line in 2004, and saw writer-director Diane English making her film debut by wrangling Ryan back in, alongside Annette Bening and Sandra Bullock.

Now with English and Ryan still clinging to the project, Anne Hathaway, Candice Bergen (who used to work with English on Murphy Brown) and Lisa Kudrow are the newcomers in the tale of wealthy women who spend their lives in beauty salons and fashion shows who find their happy lives at risk when one of their number has her husband pinched by a sexy shop girl.

Provided it all comes together, the movie should start filming next March.

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