Wes Anderson to redo ‘Mon meilleur ami’?

From Variety.

Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment has set Wes Anderson to write “My Best Friend,” a remake of the 2006 Patrice Leconte-directed French comedy “Mon meilleur ami.” Anderson is also eying the project as a directing vehicle.

Brian Grazer and Agnes Mentre will produce. Rosalie Swedlin will be executive producer.

The French pic starred Daniel Auteuil as a cranky antiques dealer who learns at a dinner with his closest acquaintances that none of them really like him because of his harsh manner and selfishness. When his business partner bets him a valuable vase that he can’t produce a best friend, the dealer tries to get an amiable cab driver to pose as his buddy.

Pic marks Anderson’s first collaboration with Imagine, which releases the Ron Howard-directed “Frost/Nixon” on Dec. 5 and the Clint Eastwood-directed “Changeling” on Oct. 24 through Universal and “Angels & Demons” on May 15 through Sony.

Anderson just completed directing an animated adaptation of Roald Dahl novel “The Fantastic Mr. Fox” with 20th Century Fox Animation.

UTA reps Anderson and sold remake rights on the film to Universal.

Credit: Loraxaeon (Yankee Racers thread)

3 Replies to “Wes Anderson to redo ‘Mon meilleur ami’?”

  1. So… Bill Murray as the antiques dealer? Or is that just too obvious, at this point?

    This sounds like it could be very funny. UTA sold the remake rights to Universal? So I suppose the project originated with Anderson, rather than with the studio. When it comes to remakes, in my book (which has no value), that makes a difference.

  2. Rumor has it he’s probably not going to be the one directing it despite the fact that this article says that he apparently is “eying the project as a directing tool”. But who knows I guess.

    I’m personally not too excited about this one, but maybe it will surprise me I don’t know. I think that I’m more into the originality of Wes’s scripts than anything else and although I’m thrilled that he’s doing an adaptation of The Fantastic Mr. Fox, I would hate to see him keep continue down a path of adaptations.

    And this is in no way me saying that I think that this movie won’t be good, I just hope that this isn’t leading to an end of his writing scripts like Rushmore and The Darjeeling Limited.

  3. I have a feeling if he does tackle this project as director, he’d be retaining only the basic premise and maybe the broadest of plot points. I’m sure he’d make it as much his own as anything else he’s done.

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