Is The Roommate a remake of Single White Female?
This Friday (Feb 4) sees the release of The Roommate. On first glance it looks a helluva lot like the Barbet Schroeder-directed 1992 film Single White Female, about a psycho Jennifer Jason Leigh attempting to emulate and then control Bridget Fonda. In a lot of ways, the perfect movie, right?
Well, Sony Pictures must think so, because The Roommate has a very similar plot, this time with Leighton Meester (Gossip Girl, Country Strong) playing the psycho chick and Minka Kelly (Friday Night Lights) the hapless victim. But apparently the new movie, directed by Danish filmmaker Christian E. Christiansen, isn’t a remake at all but based on an “original” (scare quotes ours) screenplay by producer (The Strangers, The Lake House) Sonny Mallhi.
Scene from The Roommate (2011).
Single White Female itself was based on a John Lutz novel called SWF Seeks Same. According to IMDB, “After the release of Single White Female… Francine Pascal released a book called The Roommate which was heavily inspired by SWF. With the exception of minor changes, the plots are almost identical.”
Leighton Meester in an action packed scene from the new movie The Roommate.
We’ll see when The Roommate hits theatres this Friday. In the meantime, maybe it’s time to catch up on Single White Female – or maybe its 2005 direct-to-DVD sequel, Single White Female 2: The Psycho (we’re not making this up!):
Straight-to-DVD! Can you believe it?
Francine Pascal like SWEET VALLEY HIGH Francine Pascal?
Hmmm… Sweet Valley High, huh? That’s quite possible… btw, your song is up!