The movie will star the trio as a now-disbanded singing group that must join forces once again, three decades later — and it’s clear it was not an amicable split. But the reunion may prove positive: Deadline reports that it is both “tense” and “cathartic” as the group figures out what led to their success so many years ago.
The script was written by Lisa Addario and Joey Syracuse, and the movie will be produced by Brad Fischer, James Vanderbilt, and William Sherak of Mythology Entertainment. Alan Nevins will also serve as a producer, and Tracey Nyberg as executive producer. A director has not yet been sourced, nor a date to start filming.
Interestingly, this won’t be the first time Midler, Keaton, and Hawn appear together in a movie: the three also acted in The First Wives Club some 20 years ago.
Seventy-year-old Hawn has been absent from the acting scene for quite a few years, last appearing as the voice of Peggy McGee in one episode of Phineas and Ferb in 2013. Her heyday as an actress came in the ’70s and ’80s with movies like Foul Play, Private Benjamin, and Wildcats after getting her start as the ditzy/hippy character in Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In in the late ‘60s.
By contrast, the almost-70 Keaton has been consistently active on the acting scene through her lengthy film career, most recently in the 2014 movie 5 Flights Up. She will soon appear as a voice on Finding Dory, the follow-up film to Finding Nemo, and will star in HBO series The Young Pope with Jude Law.
Also 70, Midler hasn’t done much on film sets of late, but the actor/singer headlined a successful show in Las Vegas at Caesar’s Palace from 2008 through to 2010. Chances are, given her famous voice, that she’ll be playing the part of lead singer. (It would be a travesty otherwise.)
The feature film is the latest release from Netflix’s budding movie studio, which already includes titles like Beasts of No Nation — which has been nominated for several Golden Globe awards — and Adam Sandler’s comedy The Ridiculous Six. Netflix is also working on multiple other projects, like an adaptation of Kent Haruf’s novel Our Souls At Night starring Robert Redford and Jane Fonda, and Brad Pitt’s military farce War Machine.
It’s clear from this small sampling, along with Divanation, that Netflix aims to be a force to be reckoned with in movies as well as TV, across every genre.
