George Clooney and Julia Roberts and their families are spending the holidays in Australia, as the two have been at work for over a month now working on Ticket to Paradise. And it looks like there’s no break in the production schedule for Christmas – the two were seen on set yesterday, just after Christmas weekend, to resume filming. It’s a location shoot, after all. Every extra day off is money when your big stars have travelled around the world to make this happen. 

 

As previously mentioned, Ticket to Paradise is about a divorced couple going to Bali together to stop their daughter’s wedding. Is it just me or does this feel like this could have also been a Nancy Meyers movie? Maybe I have Nancy Meyers on my mind because we just passed the one year anniversary of Rachel Handler’s excellent Vulture series, Nancy Meyers Week which I re-read recently after watching The Holiday on Netflix. It’s that time of year.

Of course it’s not The Holiday that’s the closest comparison to Ticket to Paradise. Not that the storylines are the same, but it’s more the demographic – Something’s Gotta Give and It’s Complicated, two movies about people in their 50s and 60s. Both movies made over $200 million; in the 2000s, did people actually care about middle-aged movie stars in romantic comedies? It was Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson (plus Keanu Reeves) and then Meryl Streep, Steve Martin, and Alec Baldwin. The cashmere was everywhere, the kitchens were beautiful, the food was amazing. 

 

And now it’s George and Julia’s turn to test that market, if the market is still there. I’m the market. If any of what I’ve just written above makes sense to you then you’re the market. I’m specifying because I’m pretty sure none that of made sense to Anastasia, the youngest on our team, who keeps us all updated on whatever’s happening on TikTok – and the point is, I’m not sure this movie is for TikTok, the audience that so much content is being targeted at right now, which is not what Ticket to Paradise seems to be doing. Instead, the movie is reuniting two of the biggest movie stars in a rom-com and appealing to a millennial and older adult crowd. And that’s considered a gamble in these times, lol. I’m so curious to see how this movie performs. 

Also attached – Julia with Danny Moder just after Christmas.