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Report now20 years after "The Devil Wears Prada", the sequel has been in cinemas for a few days. With Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep in the leading roles. But it almost didn't make it that far.
Now that the devil is wearing Prada again in Swiss cinemas, the 20-year wait by countless fans of the comedy for a sequel has finally come to an end.
It's pointless to try and explain the hype surrounding "The Devil Wears Prada", as with every cult film, but the two leading actresses Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep certainly played a huge part in the film's popularity.
I wonder what its fate would have been if they hadn't been in it? It almost happened that way, with part one and the sequel.
Both Anne Hathaway and even more so Meryl Streep were a cause for concern here and there. Both actresses were not originally intended for their roles in "The Devil Wears Prada".
Hathaway was not even second on the producers' wish list - nor was she third, fourth, fifth or sixth.
As she once said, she was only the ninth person to be offered the lead role of the gray mouse Andy Sachs, after Scarlett Johansson, Natalie Portman, Kirsten Dunst, Claire Danes and Rachel McAdams.
Fortunately, Hathaway was not vindictive. It was also good that all the hurdles surrounding problem child Meryl Steep could be overcome. There were plenty of them. The Oscar-winner also first had to assert herself against rivals such as Michelle Pfeiffer and Glenn Close in "Prada".
In addition, some in the production expressed concerns that the master of drama was not funny enough for a comedy. Producer Wendy Finerman still remembered the reservations in 2023. "I got calls from people saying, 'Have you lost your mind? She's never been funny in her life," Finerman said on the "Hollywood Gold" podcast.
Meryl Streep and not funny? Apparently the skeptics hadn't seen "Death Suits Her" (1992) with Bruce Willis, Goldie Hawn and the no less funny Meryl Streep.
Or the comedy "Rendezvous in the Afterlife" (1991) with the witty Streep as an angelic woman with whom a deceased businessman (Albert Brooks) falls in love.
Well, they certainly saw "The Devil Wears Prada" in the end, and they will have seen the performance of the ludicrous Miranda actress as a middle finger point.
Meryl Streep received an Oscar nomination for her performance. An Oscar nomination in a comedy, mind you, that doesn't happen very often.
Good that the supporters had the upper hand. And apparently they were so convinced by Streep, especially director David Frankel, that they were prepared to overcome the difficulties that the actress herself had caused them.
Meryl Streep was unhappy with the salary she had originally been offered, two million US dollars, and it was only when the fee was doubled that she agreed. The risk paid off.
In the end, the production costs of "The Devil Wears Prada" came to 41 million dollars - a fraction of the film's worldwide box office takings of 326.5 million dollars.
Meryl Streep also turned out to be a troublemaker in "The Devil Wears Prada 2". According to reports, she initially had no interest in a sequel.
Her disappointing experience while working on part one is cited as an explanation. In order to credibly portray the cold, ruthless fashion magazine boss, Streep consistently kept away from the rest of the crew on set in method acting style and repeatedly retreated to her caravan.
That was "terrible" for her, she told Entertainment Weekly in 2021, and since then she has never tried "that method thing" again.
