Beaks here...

It's hard to get up in arms over a remake of 1986's ABOUT LAST NIGHT... if only because the original was itself a defanged adaptation of David Mamet's SEXUAL PERVERSITY IN CHICAGO. I mean, it was fine: Edward Zwick gave the coarse material a little bit of warmth (with help from screenwriters Tim Kazurinsky and Denise DeClure), while the Rob Lowe/Demi Moore sex scenes were pretty much the Ali-Frazier of Brat Pack couplings. But overall it was just slightly above average compared to other romantic comedies of the day.

This is one reason why I'm looking forward to Steve Pink's ABOUT LAST NIGHT: romantic comedies for today's thirty- and fortysomething adults tend to be completely stale or directed by the inspiringly still-alive Garry Marshall. Another reason is Joy Bryant.

The dialogue in the trailer has a strange third-generation quality to it: it's Leslye Headland modernizing Kazurinsky & DeClure's softening of Mamet. But the actors are game, and Headland (who was on the staff of TERRIERS and wrote last year's underrated BACHELORETTE) seems to have penned some smart, sexy banter of her own. We'll have to wait until Valentine's Day 2014 to see if it works, but this actually looks promising.