‘Swimming With Sharks’ Reboot Reminds Hollywood Viewers Can Be As Cute As It’s Sexy

Kathleen Robertson is no stranger to Hollywood horror stories.

Robertson, a veteran actor, former screenwriter of “90210”, has been in the industry since the age of 10. Her husband, producer Chris Cowles, worked for Scott Rudinpowerful movie producer and cinema, who faces multiple allegations of violence and abuse against its employees.

But Robertson’s new show, “Swimming With Sharks,” isn’t just about Hollywood’s toxic nature. The series – which premieres Friday on Roku – is a reboot of the 1994 film of the same name, starring Kevin Spacey and Frank Whaley.

But this time, the story is driven by women. Robertson wrote the program; the main roles, studio chief Joyce Holt (Diane Kruger) and assistant Lou Simms (Kiernan Shipka), are gender-swapped; and the story focuses more on the complicated relationship between them than on the chaos of the industry itself.

Robertson said of Hollywood: “I had a lot of things close to this world. It was space and the natural world for me to explore.” “But I’m not really interested in rebooting the movie as the female version and having the same theme.”

Themes from the original film are “more about a young man starting a business and taking over, wanting to outdo his male counterpart,” she said.

“That doesn’t interest me. … I want to discover a woman’s strange love story. That has always been my entry point. ”

That is also what drew Shipka and Kruger to the project.

“I like women’s stories written by women… [and] I’m a hottie for a sassy young girl,” said Shipka, who is best known for playing Don Draper’s daughter, Sally, in “Mad Men.”

Her character, Lou, does whatever it takes to climb to the top of the studio ladder. And as the show unfolds, her motives become clearer.

Kruger said she would love to play a woman in a position of power in the industry.

The fictional Holt terrorizes her staff. For example, she makes them a specific tea – then fires them if they make a mistake. In one scene, she even stops her car in traffic and forces a development employee who hasn’t kept her promise to get out.

But behind the scenes, Holt struggles to get pregnant as she waits for her boss and her own terrible, aging abuser, Redmond (played by Donald Sutherland), to die so she can call the scene. close.

“We women have been fighting for years, trying so hard to get to these positions of power,” says Kruger, adding that she is interested in portraying “what it takes to get to the top,” says Kruger. peak”.

Women in power, regardless of industry, “still have to grapple with other jobs going on,” she said.

As for whether Hollywood is as toxic as when the original movie was made, the women behind the reboot say a few things changed for the better after the #MeToo movement.

But Hollywood as an industry is still as fascinating as it is seductive.

“It’s still a place where everyone thinks they can reinvent themselves and be a part of this dream,” says Robertson. “I think it’s ultimately one of the hardest industries to succeed in. … That’s why it’s gone bad and rotten. It’s definitely dark.”

at Blogtuan.info – Source: nbcnews.com – Read the original article here