Deadline Hollywood Daily columnist Nikki Finke explains Hollywood’s problems with Eat, Pray, Love, in the context of reporting that the production of the big screen version of Elizabeth Gilbert‘s memoir is possibly about to shift studios from Paramount to Sony, with Ryan Murphy (the director of Running With Scissors) set to guide Julia Roberts through the screenplay. Would Paramount be letting a hit slip through their fingers, or would Sony be saddled with “a chick flick that should cost only $25 million to make, is currently budgeted at $60 million, sends out 15 percent of the gross off the top, would have to earn $150 million worldwide to make money, and ends up with a 1-quadrant movie starring a has-been actress helmed by a mediocre director”? Finke runs down the arguments for both cases.
If the movie does turn out to be a flop, it probably won’t worry Gilbert too much: Back in 2000, when her debut novel, Stern Men, was coming out at the same time as Coyote Ugly (which was based on an article she wrote for GQ), Gilbert told Beatrice.com, regarding her relationship to that film, “It was about the most hands-off thing that ever happened. The whole thing to me is just funny. It was such a weird thing to have happen, and I never once believed that it would happen. I didn’t believe they’d buy the option, I didn’t think they’d write a script, I didn’t think they’d get a director, I didn’t think they’d shoot it, I didn’t think they’d release it…”