AMERICAN BEAUTIES Annette Bening, left to right, Jada Pinkett Smith and Debra Messing work hard for all that glamor.

A year ago, Diane English had every reason to believe her modernized remake of the all-female film The Women was jinxed. Over a period of 13 years, she’d weathered cast changes (Julia Roberts lost interest), the bankruptcy of the film’s original payroll company and the reshuffling of her distribution companies (New Line and Picturehouse, both absorbed into Warner Bros.). But after years of stops and starts, English, the writer-producer behind Murphy Brown, finally had a film with a powerhouse cast (Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Jada Pinkett Smith, Eva Mendes, Debra Messing, Bette Midler)—and markedly unenthusiastic support from her studio.

Then along came the movie version of Sex and the City, and Hollywood discovered (as it does every five years or so) that there are women in the filmgoing public. Suddenly, folks at Warner Bros. had dollar signs in their eyes and a hunger for something to sell to the female demographic. They had slated The Women for a limited release with a light marketing campaign. After Sex, English asked the studio execs to do test screenings of The Women. “The response in the audience was excellent,” she says. “About two weeks later, we got our marketing budget tripled.”

It’s a strange twist for a remake of a 1939 film remembered mostly for its campy portrayal of women as catfighting bitches. English saw something more positive and gave the story a significant overhaul. “The original was all about women stabbing each other in the back over men,” she explains. “Our movie, in order to be contemporary, moves away from that. It’s not so much of a poison-pen letter. Women support each other and take care of each other, and when the men come and go, the women are going to be there for you.”

Of course, when English was preparing to direct the film (it’s her first feature in the chair), people told her to expect exactly the opposite from her famous ensemble cast. “It was predicted that I wouldn’t be able to get people out of the hair and makeup trailer, that I’d never be able to make the movie in 35 days because of that. It would be a nightmare of hurt feelings and competitiveness over wardrobe,” English recalls with a wry laugh.

The reality was quite different: “It was more like girls’ night out every day. There was a great feeling of camaraderie, like we were a band or a troupe. We were all proud of what we were doing—and very mindful of how long it took to get there.”

The Women opens September 12.

NEXT>>

Check out the other sections in our 2008 Fall Preview:

ART | BOOKS | CLUBS | COMEDY | DANCE | FILM | GAY & LESBIAN | KIDS | MUSEUMS & CULTURE | MUSIC | OPERA & CLASSICAL | RESTAURANTS & BARS | SHOPPING | SPORTS & REC | THEATER | TV & DVD