Producer-director-writer Garry Marshall (Happy Days, Murphy Brown on TV; Pretty Woman, Runaway Bride) is blaming the dearth of romantic comedies on the inability of producers to find stars with the right “chemistry.” “You gotta find two stars who people want to see kiss,” he told Friday’s Wall Street Journal. Asked whether he can foresee a future movie pairing Julia Roberts and Richard Gere again, Marshall replied that he thought not. “It’s very expensive to put them together,” he told the newspaper. “Pretty Woman cost $14 million. And Runaway Bride cost $73 million. Next time, who knows, maybe it’ll cost $100 million! To spend that kind of money on a romantic comedy is kind of iffy.” Moreover, Marshall added, things were far simpler when Pretty Woman was being made. “He played the guitar, she found a dog, she petted the dog. But when we did Runaway Bride, she was on her cellphone booking Notting Hill into theaters, and he’s on his cellphone booking the Dalai Lama. They’re so busy now. Once in a while, I would say, ‘Can we do another take? We’re making a movie here!'”
