Another day, another millennial-nostalgia-baiting sequel to a classic late 1990s or early 2000s movie. This year alone we’ve had The Devil Wears Prada 2 and Practical Magic 2—and now there are rumors of another afoot. Over the last week, it was reported that the 2003 rom-com How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, starring Kate Hudson and Matthew McConnaughey, may well be returning to screens for a part two.
In the original movie, Hudson plays Andie, a journalist writing an article about the most off-putting things women can do in relationships, while McConnaughey is Ben, an advertising exec who, for convoluted professional reasons, bets his colleagues that he can make any woman fall in love with him. Hijinks, as we know, very much ensue.
While the film received mixed reviews from critics upon release, it’s since earned its place in the rom-com pantheon, largely because of Hudson and McConnaughey’s irrepressible and electric chemistry—so while nothing is confirmed yet, you’d hope that they’ll be back to reprise their roles. Otherwise, however, the slate is clean and anything is possible, so here are my suggestions and predictions. @Hollywood, if you use any of my ideas, I will need two things only: a check and an invite to the Oscars one time only. (I would really like to see what’s in the goodie bag.)
Andie has a podcast
Among people who write for work, it’s a long-running joke that if Carrie Bradshaw were starting her career in the 2020s, there’s absolutely no way that she would be able to sustain a living (let alone a Jimmy Choo habit) as a freelancer writing one column a week for one publication. Make it three or four, plus a bit of copywriting work for a random eco-deodorant start-up, and then we might be getting somewhere. This changing media landscape is why she was given a podcast in And Just Like That (at least there’s YouTube ad revenue to be had there).
Like Carrie before her, then, I’d assume that by the late 2020s, Hudson’s Andie is probably also broadcasting to the world via the medium of podcast. At the end of How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, she’s intercepted by Ben on the way to a job interview in Washington DC. If I had to guess what happened next, I’d wager that she eventually got herself there, wowed the panel, was offered the role on the spot, rose through the ranks, and became a respected name in political journalism—only to be fired from her publication in a mass redundancy executed over video call in the mid-to-late-2010s, due to a company-wide pivot to video, described by the CEO as “unfortunate but necessary.” Of course she has a podcast.
There will be dating apps
Maybe Andie is single again (a will-they-won’t-they storyline before an inevitable reunion with Ben might be fun); maybe she’s writing an article coaching younger women through their own singledom, or there’s a daughter, niece, or colleague in need of some assistance. Either way, I want to see some dating app commentary. I want ghosting, I want breadcrumbing, I want love-bombing, I want that thing where you arrange a drink with someone even though you really can’t be bothered and would rather be at home eating a posh ready-to-eat lasagna for one (representation matters).
This is because I think we are yet to see a great dating app movie. Despite the fact that a lot of people do now actually meet their partners on these things, they don’t really get interrogated in movies much, used instead as punchlines or underwhelming comparisons for the kinds of meet-cute that don’t actually happen as much in real life anymore (I’m not saying that this is a good thing, but it is, sadly, true). How to Meet a Guy in 10 Swipes? Needs work, I’ll admit, but hey, we’re workshopping here.
