Screen Gems’ upcoming romantic comedy starring Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis will retain its original title, “Friends With Benefits,” after one of two other gestating projects sharing exactly the same name had threatened legal action.
To be directed by Will Gluck, the film follows a headhunter (Timberlake) who recruits an editor (Kunis) to run a men’s magazine, with the two eventually agreeing to sleep together with no strings attached. Of course, things get complicated when the guy falls for the girl, who’s dating someone else. The script was written by Keith Merryman and David Newman with Gluck, who helmed the upcoming Emma Stone comedy “Easy A,” rewriting.
With legalities now cleared, the project will now seemingly go head to head with the similarly-themed Ivan Reitman-produced “Friends With Benefits” starring Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman scribed by Fempire member Liz Merriweather, as well as the NBC series “Friends With Benefits” starring Ryan Hansen (“Party Down”), Jessica Lucas and Danneel Harris from writers Michael H. Weber and Scott Neustadter (“(500) Days Of Summer”).
This really takes the trend of similar, rival films to a whole new level.