Why Paul Feig Hopped Into The Thriller Genre With A Simple Favor

 

Paul Feig. He’s a director you likely associate with female-led comedies. After all, this is the guy who helmed such movies as Bridesmaids, Spy, The Heat, and even the Ghostbusters remake. As such, you’d be forgiven for mentally putting him in a box as an action-comedy director. But if you thought that’s all he’d be doing for the rest of his career, you’d be wrong.

About a month ago, a trailer dropped for his upcoming film starring Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively, and instead of a comedy, we got our first peek at a dark, Hitchcock-ian thriller. Well, for starters, it’s important to know that A Simple Favor isn’t just your typical thriller, as Feig himself revealed to Variety:

“It was a book [by Darcey Bell] that had been floating around, and there had been a big bidding war for it. Fox 2000 first brought it to us to produce because we have a deal at Fox, and [Fox 2000 president] Elizabeth Gabler was like, ‘I don’t understand — is this a comedy? Is this a drama?’ Because it’s so bananas. And so I read it, and I loved it so much I wanted to direct it.”

I’m both intrigued and disappointed. I was unfamiliar with the source material, but now that I know it isn’t really cut-and-dry as to what genre it fits into, I have two predictions: One, I will LOVE the movie, and two, other critics will HATE the movie. From what I’ve been able to gather from my time in the film journalism industry, critics love films to have a consistent genre, and I’m pretty much the exact opposite. But we’ll see if this ends up being true.

RELATED – Why A Spy 2 Is Unlikely, According To Director Paul Feig

Anyways, as I said above, Feig has a lot of experience in the realm of comedy, but nothing I thought would indicate he’d be one to take on a thriller. But, speaking with the same outlet, Feig made a good point regarding the genres of his films — they’re not just comedies:

“I love working in genres, and I’d always been looking to do a Hitchcock-ian thriller. I’d done the spy movie, I’d done the buddy cop thing, and then the wedding movie and then the sci-fi thing with ‘Ghostbusters.’ And then this movie just checked every box. If it had been a normal type of thriller, I don’t know if I would have done it.”

I’m very interested to see what kind of movie we end up with, though as much as I’d hate to say, I still think this one is bound to be a critical dud, even if I think I’ll love it.

What do you think? Am I on the level on this one or just full of hot air? Let us know your thoughts down below!

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SOURCE: Variety

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