Anne Hathaway May Get ‘Nasty’ with Rebel Wilson in ‘Dirty Rotten Scoundrels’ Remake
The 1988 caper comedy Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is a cracking good time, pairing Steve Martin and Michael Caine as a pair of no-good con men fleecing rich old ladies on the shores of the French Riviera. The mismatched duo — Caine’s the image of suave refinement, Martin’s an inveterate ham — team for one big score, but a mysterious rival con artist known as “The Jackal” complicates matters. Also a good time: the Broadway musical based on the film, the 1964 Marlon Brando picture Bedtime Story that inspired Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and now we can add to that list Nasty Women.
Back in August, the news broke that Rebel Wilson would star in a gender-flipped remake of Caine and Martin’s popular film, and today brings a double shot of updates to the project. It was easy enough to assume that galumphing goofball Wilson would play the Steve Martin role, but she still needed a debonair foil; Deadline has the exclusive that MGM is in the process of locking down Anne Hathaway to play opposite Wilson, though no ink has been put to paper. It’s a somewhat odd choice, considering that the age differential was the defining quality in the dynamic between Martin and Caine. (Hathaway and Wilson are 34 and 36, respectively.)
Better still is that retitling — no longer Untitled Dirty Rotten Scoundrels Gender-Flip 4 Ladies!, the project has now been deemed Nasty Women, an apparent reference to an off-color remark that President-Elect Donald Trump lobbed at opponent Hillary Clinton during one of the debates. It’s certainly a clever enough title, but now the question is whether Trumpites will outright boycott anything that bears even the slightest whiff of making fun of them. Can’t wait to find out!