Save your groaning until the end of the article please; Variety reports that Brooke Shields, Camryn Manheim, Daryl Hannah, Wanda Sykes, and Melanie Griffith have all signed on to star in The Hot Flashes, a basketball comedy to be directed by Susan Seidelman. Written by first-timer Brad Hennig, The Hot Flashes follows a group of middle aged Texas housewives who challenge the state champion high school basketball team to a game for charity. Naturally hijinks ensue as the women (all former state champions themselves) get back into basketball shape and accidentally become a media sensation. Shooting starts on February 13th in New Orleans and Lightning Entertainment will head to the European Film Market in Berlin to entice foreign buyers.
OK, now you can groan. The Hot Flashes sounds like your typical run of the mill underdog sports movie, but with the added bonus of poking fun as how cuhrazy middle aged women are. So expect your mom and her friends to see it opening night; this seems like a movie that attracts that demographic despite not having Katherine Heigl or the usual stars of female-specific movies. I’m not entirely excited to see this and will most likely skip it if it ends up in theaters (part of me thinks it won’t), but just so we don’t end on a negative note I am happy to see Wanda Sykes get some movie work. She’s hilarious. No, really. No, really.