Benedict Cumberbatch, Olivia Colman to Star in 'War of the Roses' Remake for Searchlight

Roger Ebert said never remake a good movie, remake a bad one that could be improved.

"War of the Roses" requires no improvement.

"Woof"

Will the two posh British people be playing two posh British people?

At least Kathleen and Michael were attractive.

She's only three years older than him?

How would you make War of the Roses better? And why would you remake it starring these two dipsticks? Michael and Kathleen looked like they could beat the shit out of each other. These two are knocked unconscious by light snow.

This could be very funny, but I agree with r1 and Roger Ebert. The bar is very high for improvement.

A career low for both.

Colman needs to go back to BBC 3 television and disappear. She is so tragically banal.

The only way Hollywood will stop these shitty remakes is if people stop paying to watch them.

Nobody cares about two ugly people getting a divorce.

The only way to improve the movie is if Turner's character actually makes pate out of the dog.

Is this an April Fools' Day gag?

Does she play his mother?

Why? I mean, WHY???

I hated the first one. Hard pass.

Oliver Colman to you.

[quote] Will the two posh British people be playing two posh British people?

Olivia Colman is not from that posh a background. Her father was a surveyor; her mother was a nurse.

Hopefully it will incorporate some of the elements of the historical war of the roses 🌹 that disappointed British critics complained was a bait and switch back in 1989.

“Script by ChatGPT”

R5, it wasn’t just that Douglas and Turner looked like they could beat the shit out of each other but they also have that “fuck or fight” energy throughout the film, really up until the last frame of it.

They are more suited for a reboot of " Private Lives."

I might see it if Kathleen Turner played Danny DeVito's lawyer character.

[quote]Olivia Colman is not from that posh a background. Her father was a surveyor; her mother was a nurse.

And yet she attended a private school.

SOPHIE!

What r15 said.

The original WotR was well produced, written and acted but the subject matter wasn’t at all funny to me.

This sounds absolutely horrid. Unless they ratchet up the gore quotient -- dismemberment, acid in the face, gouged eyes, then maybe.

The ugly people version.

Now if it starred J. Lo & Ben Affleck, no rehearsing would be required!

I’d watch that shitshow r28 a fitting coda to Gigli

This is a movie you’d cast A-list stars for.

The first movie was so vulgar and 80s. Trash.

Just like Roadhouse, in a way — why are we getting this remake-nobody-asked-for of a crass 80s picture?

Oh but at least they’ve updated it for the ‘20s by stiffing two American actors out of work 👏

I didn’t care for the original, but yes, it was well-produced as someone upthread mentioned.

I think Gingiva Colman is better suited for the smaller screen format of television.

The title "The War of the Roses" was witty (and nobody in his right mind thought Michael and Kathleen Turner were starring in a British historical docudrama).

The title "The Roses" is utterly without wit, distinction, or clarification (who or what is this film about?).

I can only assume the entire project is as creatively bereft as its title change.

The Roses? Is the sequel to my movie? I'm available!

Trailer.

Also starring Andy Samberg, Allison Janney, Ncuti Gatwa, and Kate McKinnon.

She looks too old for that part

r36 The green screen at 0:11 is absolutely fucking foul. How a well-financed movie like this can't get Cumberbatch and Samberg to sit together in an actual seaside location for a couple of hours is beyond me. These people all live in L.A., there is ocean everywhere!

Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner had amazing chemistry together, as we all saw in 1984's Romancing the Stone and its 1985 sequel Jewel of the Nile.

That chemistry continued in War of the Roses. The chemistry made the anger between the characters that much more intense. It really helped make the movie work.

This remake sounds like a horrible idea all the way round. Benedict and Olivia don't seem to have any chemistry. They may be good actors, but just don't share any chemistry together.

Can O only play chefs these days? Tragic.

Reading background on Wolf Hall recently led me to the Plantagenets so I was disappointed that this wasn’t the real War of the Roses.

Hated the original movie. All that fighting was stressful.

Why the fuck these cunts fucking yo all my classics.

Which begs the question why?

The pitch: "Let's remake a nearly perfect, successful movie... with 2 unattractive British leads."

Wasn't the original a dark comedy? I remember being a bit traumatised by it as a kid, had a similar reaction to r41. This one seems so much lighter in comparison, there were no sinister undertones in that trailer whatsoever.

This looks pathetic, they’re not even slightly believable as a couple.

He should have been married to a man.

Why the fuck are SNLers in it?!

They both have British accents in the movie, yet they're forcing Ncuti Gatwa and Jamie Demetriou (a couple?) into doing an American one. So many strange creative choices.

I liked the trailer a lot. Looks like fun, funnier than the original was.

R5 a better idea would be to reset it on another age, maybe during the early Renaissance—when major family feuds over homes and land were common.

That would be completely anachronistic because women before the modern period had very little say over who they got to marry (much less divorce), a handful of powerful queens/regents notwithstanding. Even The Lion in Winter is pushing it when it comes to Eleanor of Aquitaine mouthing off left and right as she pleases.

Even setting it in a present-day regressive country wouldn't be believable. For the central conceit of this movie to work, both parties need to be on equal footing.

I admit the trailer looked better than expected. But the brilliance of the original was indeed the chemistry between the couple, which makes the later conflict all the more powerful (and sadder). It is a very dark comedy.

Also, in the original it was the wife who starts to go off the husband. Things escalate but you get the sense that he would take her back at any given moment (as evidenced when she removes his hand after they fall off the ceiling, in the final scene).

Here seems slightly different. Unlike a lot of you in here i love Colman, so will see this. But yeah, no obvious chemistry there.

Oscar nomination for Kate McKinnon?

Cumberbatch has never had any romantic chemistry with any female love interest. Watching the trailer, he and Colman come off as brother and sister instead of a married couple.

r52 Is she doing double duty... did she also compose the score or edit the film? Because her nomination won't be in the acting category.

I can not stand Olivia Coleman

I hate his fucking face so much, sorry

R48 = Searchlight executive.

Flop.

[quote] Also starring Andy Samberg, Allison Janney, Ncuti Gatwa, and Kate McKinnon.

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse.

Allison Janey deserves better.

Eh, she sold out a while ago.

Cumberbatch does it for me.

with facial hair

Beady pig eyes, non existent lips and tiny ears. Go away Benedict.

Not counting his off-putting face, there's that marquee-crushing name. For example:

Herbert Charles Angelo Kuchačevič ze Schluderpacheru shortened his name to Herbert Lom.

I think he's very hot in an offbeat way.