Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks
‘YOU’VE GOT MAIL’ FILM PREMIERE, NEW YORK, AMERICA – 10 DEC 1998
In 1998, the sound of a dial-up modem and the words “You’ve got mail” became the soundtrack of one of the most beloved romantic comedies of all time. Twenty-eight years later, Warner Bros. is developing a new version of the film that made Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan fall in love through a computer screen.
In short
- Warner Bros. is working on a new version of You’ve Got Mail, as reported by Variety and relayed by the Argentine outlet Infobae.
- Jason Orley is set to direct and write the script, based on an earlier draft by Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont.
- No cast has been announced, and it is not known whether Tom Hanks or Meg Ryan will be involved.
The original: love at first email
Directed by Nora Ephron and released for the 1998 holiday season, You’ve Got Mail told the story of Joe Fox (Tom Hanks), an executive at a big bookstore chain, and Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan), who runs a small children’s bookstore in New York.
In real life, they are business rivals. Online, without knowing it, they are falling for each other through anonymous messages on AOL. The supporting cast included Greg Kinnear, Parker Posey, Jean Stapleton and Steve Zahn.
It was the third film pairing Hanks and Ryan, after Joe Versus the Volcano and Sleepless in Seattle. Made on an estimated budget of $65 million, it earned around $250 million worldwide, according to Infobae.
The Nora Ephron touch
You’ve Got Mail was the work of a rom-com master. Nora Ephron had written When Harry Met Sally, with Meg Ryan, in 1989, and directed Sleepless in Seattle, with Hanks and Ryan, in 1993. Her witty dialogue and love letter to New York became the film’s signature, and the reason many fans still rewatch it every holiday season.
A story that keeps being retold
You’ve Got Mail was itself a new version of an older story. It was inspired by Parfumerie, a 1937 play by Miklós László, which had already been adapted for the screen as The Shop Around the Corner in 1940, with James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan.
What we know about the remake
Jason Orley, who directed Big Time Adolescence and I Want You Back, will direct the new film and write the screenplay. Neal Moritz and Tania Landau are producing through Original Film.
The plot is being kept under wraps. It is not yet known whether the film will keep the original story or update it for today’s ways of communicating, from dating apps to direct messages. No dates have been announced for filming or release.
Why fans are so attached
For a whole generation, the film captured the excitement of the early internet and the charm of New York bookstores. Like the Hart to Hart couple or Katniss and Peeta reuniting years later, Joe and Kathleen are a duo audiences never really let go of.
Twenty-eight years later, the question on every fan’s mind is simple: can a new version recapture the magic of two strangers falling in love before they ever met?
