Novel new "chick flicks"

Read this interesting article yesterday about how the success of movies like The Help shows a new trend in “chick flicks” aka movies about women who don't blow things up.  The article says the chick flicks that are doing well nowadays aren’t rom coms but movies with substance…movies about female empowerment, friendship, and not just girl meets boy, girl loses boy.  While I think there are plenty of rom coms with substance, I agree that movies like The Help are certainly part of a popular (and positive) new trend.  The article points to an LA Times article that notes the success of other recent chick flicks of past years that fit this female empowerment/friendship mold: Eat, Pray, Love, Julie & Julie, The Devil Wears Prada…The Blind Side is also mentioned.

Is "The Help" helping to change chick flicks?

While the article touches on the themes and ideas these movies have in common and why they’re doing better as of late than Kate Hudson/Katherine Heigl-type vehicles…I think the article misses a chance to examine one other important thing that all these movies also have in common.

They’re all based on popular books.

Now, I’m not saying that it’s the marketing machine at work and not the subject matter that’s drawing audiences to these movies.  In fact I think it’s something else entirely.

A novel/book gives a writer a lot more space to explore and introduce a rich cast of characters (or just one great character) than a 100 page screenplay.  That’s not to say a screenplay, even a rom com, can’t have amazing characters or be an awesome character study, but I think sometimes rom coms get bogged down in their hook.  Not that hooky rom coms haven't made some awesome movies with characters that I love…Sleepless in Seattle…woman falls in love with a man she’s never met when she hears him on a radio show…You’ve Got Mail…a pair of rivals who loathe each other are unknowingly each others romantic online pen pals (this is actually based on a play).  I think the problem is that there’s probably only so many good original hooks out there and because of that, rom coms are starting to feel a little tired and derivative of one another (see No Strings Attached and Friends with Benefits...both did well by the way...but not Devil Wears Prada well).

I guess what I’m trying to say is that if you still want to write the type of hooky rom com that would star Kate Hudson while also taking something away from this new trend in chick flicks, maybe a good idea is to first imagine your screenplay not as a movie but as a novel.  Heck, maybe outline/write some of it first as a novel.  If nothing else, maybe that will help you think outside the rom com box, and give your characters more depth.  Or not.  I could be wrong.  Maybe rom coms in general are just "out" right now.  Something Borrowed (which yes, co-starred Kate Hudson) was based on a popular chick lit novel and domestically, The Help has already earned more than what that movie made in its entire run.