Jennifer Aniston’s production company, Echo Films, are to reimagine classic comedy 9 to 5 for a modern day audience, according to reports first covered by The Insneider. The script is being written by Juno and Young Adult writer Diablo Cody.
No plot details have yet been revealed, but the 1980 original centred on three female colleagues in an office who team up to take revenge on their “sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot” boss. Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton and Dabney Coleman starred in the film, which was scripted by Patricia Resnick with Colin Higgins, who also directed. It was based on an idea by Fonda, who commissioned the film as a vehicle for herself and Tomlin before bringing Parton on board.
The film made over $100m and helped launch the acting career of Parton – whose theme song of the same name went to No 1 in the US for a fortnight and became one of the biggest tracks of the decade. The film spawned a five-series spinoff TV show, and a stage musical, featuring new songs by Parton, which opened on Broadway in 2009.
It also loosely inspired the 2011 film Horrible Bosses, which featured Aniston as the abusive boss of Charlie Day’s dental nurse, whom he attempts to have murdered. Aniston also collaborated with Parton on 2018’s Dumplin, for which they co-sang the song Push and Pull.
Since then, Aniston has starred in only two movies, 2019’s Murder Mystery and its 2023 sequel, both opposite Adam Sandler and for Netflix. She has also been seen in Apple TV’s The Morning Show.
A possible sequel to 9 to 5 featuring the three original leads had been mooted since the early 1980s, but was finally dropped in 2019. Three years later they appeared together in the final episode of Grace and Frankie.
