Film Legally Blondes ##BEST##
Legally Blondes is a 2009 American direct-to-DVD comedy television film. Filmed as a pilot to a cancelled television series, it is a spin-off of the Legally Blonde film series.[1] It was directed by Savage Steve Holland and co-produced by Reese Witherspoon, who played Elle Woods in the first two Legally Blonde films. The film stars Camilla and Rebecca Rosso as Elle's British twin cousins.
Film Legally Blondes
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has only two reviews, both negative.[3]David Nusair of Reel Film Reviews gave the film 1/4 and called it "As ineffective as direct-to-video sequels come" and "never quite able to justify its very existence."[4] David Cornelius of DVD Talk wrote: "Reimagines the franchise in the tone of a Disney Channel sitcom. Oh, my."[5]
Legally Blonde is a 2001 American romantic comedy film directed by Robert Luketic in his feature-length directorial debut, and scripted by Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith from Amanda Brown's 2001 novel of the same name. It stars Reese Witherspoon, Luke Wilson, Selma Blair, Matthew Davis, Victor Garber, and Jennifer Coolidge. The story follows Elle Woods (Witherspoon), a sorority girl who attempts to win back her ex-boyfriend Warner Huntington III (Davis) by getting a Juris Doctor degree at Harvard Law School, and in the process, overcomes stereotypes against blondes and triumphs as a successful lawyer.
The outline of Legally Blonde originated from Brown's experiences as a blonde going to Stanford Law School while being obsessed with fashion and beauty, reading Elle magazine, and frequently clashing with the personalities of her peers. In 2000, Brown met producer Marc Platt, who helped her develop her manuscript into a novel. Platt brought in screenwriters McCullah Lutz and Smith to adapt the book into a motion picture. The project caught the attention of director Luketic, an Australian newcomer who came to Hollywood on the success of his quirky debut short film Titsiana Booberini. "I had been reading scripts for two years, not finding anything I could put my own personal mark on, until Legally Blonde came around," Luketic said.
The box office success led to a series of films: a 2003 sequel, Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde, and a 2009 direct-to-DVD spin-off, Legally Blondes. Additionally, Legally Blonde: The Musical premiered on January 23, 2007, in San Francisco and opened in New York City at the Palace Theatre on Broadway on April 29, 2007, starring Laura Bell Bundy.
Screenwriters Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith spent two days on Stanford's campus in the spring of 2000 doing research for their screenplay based on Brown's novel.[9] Director Robert Luketic, an Australian newcomer who came to Hollywood on the success of his quirky debut short film Titsiana Booberini, was drawn to the project while looking for a breakthrough film. "I had been reading scripts for two years, not finding anything I could put my own personal mark on, until Legally Blonde came around," Luketic said.[10][11]
Luketic explained that when the studio first green-lit the project, they were not aware that the film would be structured as a progressively feel-good, women's empowerment movie.[12] "Initially, they thought it was going to be much more wet T-shirts and boobs than it actually turned out to be", said Luketic.[12] In fact, the first script for Legally Blonde was edgy and raunchy in a similar vein to American Pie. The murder trial was not part of the plot and the film ended with Elle getting into a relationship with a professor. "It transformed from nonstop zingers that were very adult in nature to this universal story of overcoming adversity by being oneself," said Smith. When it was decided to change the film's plot, McCullah and Smith finessed some details and added a few characters, like Paulette.[13]
Charlize Theron, Gwyneth Paltrow, Alicia Silverstone, Katherine Heigl, Christina Applegate, Milla Jovovich and Jennifer Love Hewitt were all considered for the lead role[12] but Luketic said he "knew on page five of the script that [he] wanted Reese to play Elle."[10] "I wanted someone with gravitas and brains," he explained. "There had to be more behind the face, and Reese just fit the bill."[12] Witherspoon was the first person who read the script, and it was not sent to any other actresses; casting director Joseph Middleton had also previously worked with Witherspoon in The Man in the Moon and A Far Off Place, so he strongly believed in her for the role when Platt brought up Witherspoon's name. Applegate turned down the role and Platt suggested at one point to cast Britney Spears, but McCullah convinced him to not cast Spears after her Saturday Night Live appearance.[13] Despite Luketic's enthusiasm for Witherspoon to be cast as the lead, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was not convinced.[14] Witherspoon's performance as Tracy Flick in Election put her at risk of being typecast by the studio heads.[14] "They thought I was a shrew," Witherspoon told The Hollywood Reporter. Witherspoon had been passed over for several other post-Election roles. "My manager finally called and said, 'You've got to go meet with the studio head because he will not approve you. He thinks you really are your character from Election and that you're repellent.' And then I was told to dress sexy."[14] Witherspoon went through several rounds of auditions for the part, even meeting with executives in character with a Southern California accent. "I remember a room full of men who were asking me questions about being a coed and being in a sorority," Witherspoon recalled. "Even though I had dropped out of college four years earlier and I have never been inside a sorority house."[14] Luketic remembered meeting with her to discuss how she'd approach the role. "We met at a hotel on Sunset Boulevard and discussed the film...we were both concerned about some aspects, like how can the audience feel sorry for a rich girl driving a Porsche; and she had to dress in a very particular way that wasn't distracting or off-putting...And every decision came from a certain innocence [of the character]."[10]
The final product came after "something like 10 drafts of the script. I worked with the writers (Kirsten Smith, Karen McCullah Lutz, working from Amanda Brown's novel) who stayed on after we started shooting," Luketic explained. "And we'd have re-thinks and re-writes, often in the middle of the night."[10] An unused idea for the finished film included having a cameo appearance of Judge Judy during Elle's Harvard video essay in which Elle and her friends chased down the show's host, but the scene was cut when Judge Judy Sheindlin could not get on board. Alanna Ubach suggested instead to cast Witherspoon's then husband Ryan Phillippe for the part, rewritten as a male character, but Witherspoon did not feel the idea would play out.[13]
The film's costume designer, Sophie De Rakoff, became fast friends with Witherspoon on the set, bonding over Dolly Parton. "It was that simple. We just liked each other, and geeked out on Dolly," De Rakoff said.[20] The dominant color palette for Elle's outfits in the film is pink. "The backstory is, Reese and I, and maybe the production designers, went to visit some sororities [in downtown Los Angeles]. We knew that she needed a signature color, and we were like, 'Do we really want it to be pink? It's so on the nose. It's so feminine. Could we do lavender? Could we do light blue? Is there another color that we could do?' When we met all the sorority girls, it had to be pink."[21]
Witherspoon sported 40 different hairstyles in the film.[22] "Oh my God, it became known as 'The Hair That Ate Hollywood,'" Luketic said. "It became all about the hair. I have this obsession with flyaways. It would annoy Reese a little bit because I would always have hairdressers in her face. But really the most time and research and testing on the set went into getting the color right, because 'blonde' is subject to interpretation, I found."[12]
Luketic said he was "terrified" on his first day of filming. "I come from making a ten-minute short with a crew of ten people to a crew of 200 and having enough trucks and trailers to wrap around a city block."[10]
Both the University of Southern California and Stanford refused to allow the producers to use their college names in the film.[23] "[The producers of the film] asked if they could set the film at USC, but the images of her as an undergraduate and being in a sorority ... we felt there was too much stereotyping going on," says Elijah May, campus filming coordinator at USC. The production settled on having Elle go to a fictional college called CULA.[23]
Although the film was primarily set at Harvard University, campus scenes were filmed at USC,[24] University of California, Los Angeles,[25] California Institute of Technology, and Rose City High School in Pasadena, California.[26] Production initially lasted from October to December 2000.[27][28]
Later, while brainstorming at a bar in Los Angeles, McCullah Lutz came up with a solution: "What if Elle shows [Paulette] a move so she can get the UPS guy?" On the spur of the moment, Smith invented a move, standing up and demonstrating what would become the bend and snap. Smith explains, "It was a spontaneous invention. It was a completely drunken moment in a bar." Director Robert Luketic later adapted the "bend and snap" move into a dance number for the film.
"... It was a fully choreographed number by Toni Basil, and she was awesome," Witherspoon recalls. "She did the whole dance."[30] "I remember just reading it and thinking it was the most hysterical thing ever," she added. "That is still the most asked request I get from people. Even this past year, when I have been giving speeches or talking about whatever, they always ask me, 'Will you do the bend and snap?' I have a feeling I will be doing the bend and snap until I am 95".[30] While filming the courthouse scenes, Raquel Welch requested cinematographer Anthony B. Richmond special lightning for her scenes as Mrs. Windham Vandermark due to her obsession with light and dressed on her own accord to look better.[13] 041b061a72