It really seems to be the year of the long-awaited sequel. From The Devil Wears Prada to Practical Magic, Meet the Fockers and Legally Blonde, none of your favourite Y2K films are safe.
And while there’s a fair argument to be made about whether we actually need these sequels — or whether they’re simply the product of a creative drought and Hollywood’s increasingly shameless appetite for manufactured nostalgia — we can’t say we’re entirely mad about it. There’s something undeniably delightful about taking a trip down memory lane and seeing our favourite characters, and the stars who made them iconic, step back into their old roles.
Some of our favourite comforts in this cold, complicated world are a return to the simpler pleasures of the early aughts, when newfangled tech was thrilling, logomania was ubiquitous and magazine editors ruled the roost.
The next movie set to receive the sequel treatment? How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days. Filmmakers are reportedly planning for both Hudson and McConaughey to reprise their respective roles as magazine writer Andie Anderson and advertising exec Benjamin Barry.
According to Variety, the project is currently seeking a screenwriter and plot details are still being explored. However, Hudson had already floated a potential storyline when speaking to Elle in 2020, saying, “I’ve always thought about what Matthew and I’s characters would be now, if we were still together. It’s actually probably a good amount of time [that has passed] to make a movie about it. We probably would have gotten married with kids. We’re probably miserable right now!”
The original 2003 flick follows Hudson’s Andie, the resident how-to girl at her fictional, Cosmopolitan-adjacent magazine, Composure. In an attempt to prove her writing chops, she takes on the ultimate relationship assignment: make a man fall in love with her, then drive him away in ten days.
Enter Ben Barry, an advertising heartthrob with a wager of his own. He’s determined to prove that he can make any woman fall in love with him. What follows is a gloriously chaotic courtship complete with motorcycles, Knicks games, a tiny dog, faux therapy, a love fern, poker-night sabotage and spectacularly bad decisions.
Naturally, their carefully engineered romance begins to slip beyond the bounds of the game, and true love blossoms from the absurd circumstances.
While McConaughey has since drifted from his rom-com roots with roles in The Wolf of Wall Street, Interstellar and Dallas Buyers Club, Variety has reported that Kate Hudson is attached to produce the project, so it would only make sense for McConaughey to return alongside her.
In fact, Hudson was instrumental in his casting the first time around, and it seems McConaughey is still reaping the rewards. “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days is the gift that keeps on giving,” he told host Josh Horowitz on an episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast.
“I think it’s probably my favorite romcom I’ve done. A lot of people love that romcom.” “It still pays the best mailbox money of any film I’ve ever done,” he added.
Here’s hoping we get to see where Ben and Andie ended up after all these years, ideally with another love fern that is still flourishing.
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