Anna Daniels
The First Wives Club members Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler, and Diane Keaton are calling another meeting to order with a silver screen reunion in the comedy Family Jewels. New Republic Pictures won the rights to Family Jewels, a multigenerational family comedy that will reunite Hawn, Midler, and Keaton 24 years after they co-starred in the 1996 comedy The First Wives Club.
Deadline reports that New Republic Pictures has won the rights for Peter Hoar’s pitch Family Jewels, which follows Hawn, Midler and Keaton’s characters as they “are forced to spend the Christmas holidays together, along with their kids and grandkids, after the man they were all once married to drops dead in a New York City department store.”
It sounds like a fitting follow-up to The First Wives Club, which first brought the comedy legends on the big screen together in a Hugh Wilson-directed comedy about three divorced women who seek revenge on their husbands who all left them for younger women. But this time in Family Jewels, they are all bosom buddies, having all been formally married to the same man. It doesn’t have quite the “women form a revenge super-team together” flair that The First Wives Club did, but will give us the opposite: the joy of watching Hawn, Midler, and Keaton snipe at each other.
“The chemistry of Diane, Bette and Goldie is unmatched and irresistible, and I’m thrilled to help reunite them on screen for generations of fans,” said New Republic’s Bradley Fischer, who produces the film alongside Brian Oliver and Alan Nevins. Tracey Nyberg will executive produce. Hoar will write the screenplay for the film, which is eying a production start this year.
There was nothing like watching The First Wives Club and seeing Midler, Hawn, and Keaton together at their comedy primes. The prospect of seeing them reunite and exert that same chaotic energy is exciting, though I hope it won’t be as phoned in as recent comedies starring older actresses. It’s sad that roles dry up so quickly for actresses in Hollywood as they age — the whole premise of First Wives Club was based around women who were supposedly “over the hill” wreaking their revenge — but this news does give hope that Midler, Hawn and Keaton can still get great roles.
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