Here’s a name I haven’t heard much of in a few decades.
These last 10 years there’s been a boom of female filmmakers in U.S. cinema, and it’s been refreshing to witness the varied and different voices that have emerged from it. It wasn’t always like that. Back in the ‘90s, you could count in just two hands the number of women who were directing mainstream movies behind the camera; Amy Heckerling was one of them.
Heckerling rose to fame as the director of “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.” She also helmed the massively popular “Look Who’s Talking” franchise. Her other notable film has got to be 1995’s “Clueless,” which she wrote and directed, gaining critical acclaim in the process.
Heckerling, 70, hasn’t directed a film in well over 13 years, and that’s coming off her last three critically panned films (“Loser,” “I Could Never Be Your Woman,” and “Vamps”). However, in a rare interview given to Empire, Heckerling says she’s not done with filmmaking, and is currently writing a fourth ‘Look Whos’ Talking’ movie.
Heckerling is writing the new script alongside her daughter Mollie, who was the inspiration for the original film back in 1985. She adds that she’s “not through” with the franchise, and looks forward to making another one.
Obviously, if a new film comes to be then it will have to happen with a newly revamped cast. Kristie Alley has passed away. Bruce Willis is dementia-stricken. John Travolta now stars in C-list fare. Roseanne Barr is persona non grata. A cursed cast.
The original “Look Who’s Talking” tackled a single woman who is left on her own to give birth to the child of a married man. Meanwhile, the point-of-view of the newborn baby is narrated through voice-over, and that’s really where the film’s wild popularity stems from. Combined, the three movies in the franchise grossed over $350M worldwide.