Jennifer Aniston has been rumored to be circling starring role in the comedy Mean Moms for quite a while now. The comedy, set up at New Line Cinema, echoes the spirit of the successful 2004 teen comedy Mean Girls, focusing its story on parents instead of teens. Mean Moms concerns a happily married mother of two who moves from a small town to a high class suburban neighborhood and is thrust into the cutthroat world of competitive modern parenting. Both Mean Girls and Mean Moms derive from advice books penned by Rosalind Wiseman. Today, via Deadline, comes word that Mean Moms has found a director in Sean Anders, who recently worked with Aniston on the 2014 comedy sequel Horrible Bosses 2.
Mean Moms is based on Wiseman’s Queen Bee Moms And King Pin Dads: Dealing With The Parents, Teachers, Coaches, And Counselors Who Can Make — or Break — Your Child’s Future. Anders, a comedy veteran, wrote the most recent draft of the script with writing partner John Morris. Anders and Morris have received writing credits on number of successful recent comedies including Hot Tub Time Machine (2010), We’re the Millers (2013), Dumb and Dumber To (2014), and Horrible Bosses 2 (2014). The duo also recently co-directed the upcoming comedy Daddy’s Home, which reunites The Other Guys team of Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell. Separately, Morris directed the critically panned 2012 Adam Sandler vehicle That’s My Boy.
While Mean Moms may only have a surface connection to the Lindsay Lohan comedy released over a decade ago, there’s certain logic to the appeal of adapting another Wiseman advice book for the screen. With a slim budget and a smart screenplay by a pre-30 Rock Tina Fey, Mean Girls became an instant hit at the box office and an even bigger one in the following years, thanks to re-runs on cable. Mean Girls was adapted from Wiseman’s Queen Bees and Wannabees.
Aniston, while rumored for the leading role for some time now, isn’t officially confirmed and is apparently still fielding offers for her next project. The actress most recently starred in the independent feature Cake, for which she earned Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations, sparking Oscar talk that didn’t pan out. Aniston will next been seen on screen in She’s Funny That Way, new comedy from Peter Bogdanovich, which also stars Owen Wilson (Midnight in Paris), Imogen Poots (That Awkward Moment), and Kathryn Hahn (Our Idiot Brother). For now, we will stay tuned.
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