The Devil Wears Prada (film)
The Devil Wears Prada is a 2006 American comedy-drama film directed by David Frankel and produced by Wendy Finerman. The screenplay, written by Aline Brosh McKenna, is based on the 2003 novel by Lauren Weisberger. The film stars Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Stanley Tucci, Simon Baker, Emily Blunt and Adrian Grenier.
The Devil Wears Prada
- Fox 2000 Pictures
- Wendy Finerman Productions
- Dune Entertainment
- June 22, 2006 (Los Angeles)
- June 30, 2006 (United States)
109 minutes
United States
English
$326.7 million[1]
In 2003, 20th Century Fox bought the rights to a film adaptation of Weisberger's novel before it was completed for publication; the project was not greenlit until Streep was cast in the lead role. Principal photography lasted 57 days, primarily taking place in New York City from October to December 2005. Additional filming was done in Paris, France.
After premiering at the LA Film Festival on June 22, 2006,[3] The Devil Wears Prada was theatrically released in the United States on June 30. The film received positive reviews from critics, with Streep's performance receiving widespread critical acclaim, thus earning her numerous awards and nominations, including the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical and nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role. Hathaway and Blunt also drew favorable reviews and various nominations for their performances. The film grossed over $326 million worldwide, against its $41 million budget, and was the 12th highest-grossing film worldwide in 2006.
Although the film is set in the fashion world, and references well-known establishments and people within that industry, most designers and other fashion notables avoided appearing as themselves for fear of displeasing US Vogue editor Anna Wintour, who is widely believed to have been the inspiration for Priestly.[4][5] Wintour later overcame her initial skepticism, saying she liked the film and Streep in particular.[6]
Plot[edit]
Andrea "Andy" Sachs is an aspiring journalist who has recently graduated from Northwestern University. Despite her unfamiliarity with the fashion industry, she is hired as a junior personal assistant to Miranda Priestly, the editor-in-chief of Runway magazine. Andy plans to put up with Miranda's excessive demands and humiliating treatment for one year in the hopes of using her connections from Runway to find a job more focused on journalism.
Andy initially fumbles with her job and fits in poorly with her gossipy, fashion-forward co-workers, especially Miranda's senior assistant, Emily Charlton. After a dress trial meeting in which Miranda berates her in front of the entire team, Andy approaches Nigel, Runway's art director, to teach her about the fashion industry. He helps her select stylish clothes to wear to work.
Noticing Andy's changed appearance and commitment, Miranda begins to give her more responsibility and complicated tasks to handle. Slowly but surely, Andy becomes more glamorous and absorbs the Runway philosophy. She gradually outperforms Emily, who is consumed with the thought of attending Paris Fashion Week as Miranda's assistant and, in preparation for the event, attempts extreme diets that are dangerous to her health.
When Emily shows up to work while sick and forgets important details about the guests at a charity benefit, Andy steps in to save Miranda from embarrassment. Miranda then selects Andy to be her assistant at the Paris Fashion Week instead of Emily. When Andy calls to inform her, Emily is hit by a car. While visiting her in the hospital, she informs her of Miranda's changed plan, which infuriates Emily. Andy's boyfriend, Nate, is angered that Andy has become what she once ridiculed, and they break up.
In Paris, Miranda reveals to Andy that her husband has filed for divorce. Later that night, Nigel tells Andy that he has accepted a job as creative director with rising designer James Holt. She spends the night with an attractive writer, Christian Thompson, who tells her that Jacqueline Follet will replace Miranda as editor of Runway. Andy attempts to warn Miranda; to Andy's shock, Miranda dismisses her.
At a luncheon later that day, Miranda announces Jacqueline as the new creative director to Holt, leaving Andy and Nigel stunned. Later, she explains to Andy that she already knew of the plot to replace her and sacrificed Nigel to keep her job. Andy is repulsed, but Miranda alleges that Andy already did the same to Emily by agreeing to go to Paris. Not wanting to become ruthless like Miranda, Andy abruptly leaves and quits her job. When Miranda tries calling her, Andy tosses her phone into a fountain.
Some time later, Andy meets up with Nate, who tells her he has a new job as a sous-chef in Boston, and they agree to keep in touch. The same day, she has an interview at a major New York publication company. The editor recounts that when he called Runway for a reference, Miranda told him that Andy was the biggest disappointment she ever had as an assistant, but he would be an idiot not to hire her.
After getting the job, Andy calls Emily and reconciles with her by offering her the clothes she obtained in Paris. While walking past the Runway office building, Andy makes eye contact with Miranda and waves at her. Although Miranda does not acknowledge Andy, she smiles to herself once she is seated in her car.
Pre-release and marketing[edit]
Originally intended just to convince Fox to fund some shooting in Paris, Frankel's sizzle reel led the studio to put a stronger marketing push behind the movie. It moved the release date from February to summer, scheduling it as a lighter alternative audiences could consider to Superman Returns at the end of June 2006, and began to position it as an event movie in and of itself.[9]
Two decisions by the studio's marketing department that were meant to be preliminary wound up being integral to promoting the film. The first was the creation of the red stiletto heel ending in a pitchfork as the film's teaser poster. It was so successful and effective, becoming almost "iconic" (in Finerman's words), that it was used for the actual release poster as well. It became a brand, and was eventually used on every medium related to the film—the tie-in reprinting of the novel and the soundtrack and DVD covers as well.[8]
The studio also put together a trailer of scenes and images strictly from the first three minutes of the film, in which Andy meets Miranda for the first time, to be used at previews and film festivals until they could create a more standard trailer drawing from the whole film. But, again, this proved so effective with early audiences it was retained as the main trailer, since it created anticipation for the rest of the film without giving anything away.[8]
Gabler credits the studio's marketing team for being "really creative". Fox saw the film as "counter-programming" on the weekend Superman Returns was released. While they knew that the material and Hathaway would help draw a younger female audience that would not be as interested in seeing that film, "[w]e didn't want it to just seem like a chick flick coming out."[7]
In other media[edit]
The success of the film led to a proposed, but unrealized, American dramedy series that was in contention to air for the 2007–08 television season on Fox. It was to be produced by Fox Television Studios, with the premise adjusted for the confines of a traditional half-hour or one-hour dramedy with a single camera set-up. However, it never reached the point of even producing a pilot episode.[115]
With the video release came renewed interest in Weisberger's novel. It ranked eighth on USA Today's list of 2006 best sellers[116] and was the second most borrowed book in American libraries.[117] The audiobook version was released in October 2006 and quickly made it to third on that medium's fiction best seller list.[118]
Themes[edit]
Beauty standards[edit]
University of Houston gender studies professor Andrew Joseph Pegoda notes that the film never challenges the arbitrariness and unfairness of female beauty standards, rather presenting them as unchangeable and unchallengeable, even where the women in the film seem to chafe at them. He sees this in the beginning, with Tunstall's "Suddenly I See", its lyrics celebrating the ideal of a beautiful woman over images of Andy and the other women working for Runway getting dressed ("When have we ever seen a movie play a song where standards for male beauty are described?" he asks). Even Miranda is framed by the male gaze when seen for the first time with only her legs visible. He reads the film as suggesting that Andy gets her job at the Sun at the end in part due to her improved attention to her appearance.[139]
Future[edit]
In 2013, Weisberger wrote a sequel, Revenge Wears Prada. However, it does not seem likely that a film version of it, or any sequel, will be made, as two of the film's stars are not eager to do so. Streep has reportedly said that she is not interested in making a sequel for this film, and while Hathaway admits she would be interested in working with the same people, it would have to be "something totally different".[9]