Taglines: Getting even… this fall.
The First Wives Club movie storyline. After years of helping their hubbies climb the ladder of success, three wives have been dumped for newer, curvier models. But the trio is determined to turn their pain into gain. They come up with a cleverly devious plan to hit their exes where it really hurts – in the wallet! Sit back and watch the sparks fly as The Wives get mad, get even and get it all. Justice has seldom been so sweet. Or so much fun.
The First Wives Club is a 1996 American comedy film, based on the best-selling 1992 novel of the same name by Olivia Goldsmith. Narrated by Diane Keaton, it stars Keaton, Goldie Hawn, and Bette Midler as three divorced women who seek revenge on their ex-husbands who left them for younger women. Stephen Collins, Victor Garber and Dan Hedaya co-star as the husbands, and Sarah Jessica Parker, Marcia Gay Harden and Elizabeth Berkley as their lovers, with Maggie Smith, Bronson Pinchot and Stockard Channing also starring. Scott Rudin produced and Hugh Wilson directed; the film was distributed by Paramount Pictures.
The film became a surprise box-office hit following its North American release, eventually grossing $181,490,000 worldwide, mostly from its domestic run, despite receiving mixed reviews. It developed a cult following particularly among middle-aged women, and the actresses’ highest-grossing project of the decade helped revitalize their careers in film and television. Composer Marc Shaiman was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Music Score, while Hawn was awarded a Blockbuster Entertainment Award and both Midler and Parker received Satellite Award nominations for their portrayals.
The film project originally belonged to Sherry Lansing, who bought the unpublished manuscript of the novel in 1991, after many publishers had rejected it, and handed it over to producer Scott Rudin when she became CEO of Paramount Pictures in 1992. “It was one of the single best ideas for a movie I’ve ever heard,” she said in a 1996 interview with The New York Times. “The situation of a woman getting left for a younger version of herself was far too common. But we didn’t want a movie about women as victims. We wanted a movie about empowerment.”
Rudin consulted Robert Harling to write the screenplay, whose script was reworked by Paul Rudnick when Harling left to direct 1996’s The Evening Star, the sequel to the 1983 drama Terms of Endearment. Rudnick, however, felt the final script was “incomprehensible” “To figure out the structure of that movie would require an undiscovered Rosetta Stone,” he told The New York Times.
Principal photography took place over three months at the Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens, New York City between December 4, 1995,[13] and March 19, 1996. Among the 60 sites showcased on screen are Christie’s auction house, the Bowery Bar, a suite at The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, Café des Artistes, the King Cole Bar at the St. Regis Hotel, Frank E. Campbell’s funeral home, and Barneys. Other familiar sites include the Chrysler Building, the NoHo neighborhood, both 5th and 7th Avenues, Riverside Drive, and Central Park.
Production designer Peter Larkin took much inspiration from Hollywood’s romantic comedies of the 1930s, incorporating a post-Great Depression view on style and luxury, widely popularized through these films. “Those sets looked better than real New York penthouses and nightclubs ever could,” he said upon creation. “In this film I wanted settings that had that kind of striking nature.”
The First Wives Club (1996)
Directed by: Hugh Wilson
Starring: Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn, Diane Keaton, Maggie Smith, Dan Hedaya, Bronson Pinchot, Marcia Gay Harden, Stockard Channing, Elizabeth Berkley, Jennifer Dundas
Screenplay by: Robert Harling
Production Design by: Peter S. Larkin
Cinematography by: Donald E. Thorin
Film Editing by: John Bloom
Costume Design by: Theoni V. Aldredge
Set Decoration by: Leslie E. Rollins
Art Direction by: Charley Beal
Music by: Marc Shaiman
MPAA Rating: PG for thematic elements, some mild language and sensuality.
Distributed by: Paramount Pictures
Release Date: September 20, 1996
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