Rebel Wilson has revealed the official title and release date for MGM’s Dirty Rotten Scoundrels remake co-starring Anne Hathaway. Wilson originally jumped aboard the project in August 2016, with Hathaway joining her in January 2017. The actresses reportedly play con artists from differing social backgrounds who team up to swindle a naive tech genius. Chris Addison (Veep) directs from a script by Jac Schaeffer (Black Widow).
Released in 1988, the original Dirty Rotten Scoundrels starred Michael Caine and Steve Martin as the titular grifting duo. The story kicks off when the rival con artists challenge each other to see who can swindle an heiress out of $50,000. Their con game reaches the height of silliness when Martin poses as a mentally challenged man named Ruprecht, who’s so messed up he has corks on his forks so he won’t poke his eyes out. Caine and Martin demonstrate unexpected comedic chemistry together as their intricate game of con-artist one-upmanship plays out. The late Glenne Headly matches the two stars as the dizzy heiress Janet Colgate.
This year, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels becomes the latest classic comedy to receive a gender-swapped remake. In a tweet, remake star Rebel Wilson has now revealed the new movie’s official title and release date. Originally called Nasty Women, the remake now goes by the title The Hustle. The film is set for release on June 29, 2018. Wilson’s tweet also includes a picture of herself and co-star Anne Hathaway looking anything but dirty and rotten. See the tweet below.
Announcing that our film together will officially be called THE HUSTLE and now will be released early on June 29th this year! Directed by @mrchrisaddison get ready for this beaut. The CON is ON xx pic.twitter.com/9uwQhNatBy— Rebel Wilson (@RebelWilson) February 21, 2018
The movie’s original Nasty Women name may have more resembled the original movie’s colorful title. In recent months however, the #nastywomen hashtag has become a call for feminist solidarity in light of certain political developments. Obviously MGM wanted to avoid the movie taking on any extra political baggage, hence the title change. The new title sounds appropriate enough but is arguably a little generic. By contrast, the original film had a great, memorable title that perfectly summed up its lead characters. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels stands today as a comedy classic, featuring one of Martin’s most outrageous performances.
Of course, things are always a little tricky any time you take on the task of remaking a classic. And that whole process becomes even more stressful when you switch the genders of the main characters. As the Ghostbusters backlash showed, not everyone appreciates their favorite old male-centric movies being recast with women in the leads. This year’s all-female Ocean’s franchise revival Ocean’s 8 has already come in for some of the same criticism that plagued Ghostbusters. (But don’t tell that to Sandra Bullock, who says she and her co-stars are ready to fight back.)
More: 15 Gender-Reversed Remakes We Want to See
We’ll see if Wilson and Hathaway can pull off the same comedic chemistry in The Hustle that made Caine and Martin so memorable in the original Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.
Source: Rebel Wilson
