BPS 137: The Art & Craft of the Romantic Comedy with Charles Shyer

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We have on today, one of the best rom-com and comedy writers and filmmakers of all time a master at visual storytelling. I've been a fan of many of his films growing up, specifically, Father of The Bride. Now that I have two daughters of my own, it is fondly scary to rewatch it. Charles Shyer is an award-winning director, screenwriter, and producer whose work includes some of the best fuzzy-feel good films of all time. Shyer grew up in the film industry where his father worked with D.W. Griffith and was one of the founders of the Directors Guild of America. He is the director and writer of the 1991 comedy film, Father of the Bride starring Steve Martin, Diane Keaton, Kimberly Williams (in her film debut) in this remake of the Spencer Tracy classic, George (played by Steve Martin) and Nina Banks (played by Diane Keaton) are the parents of young soon-to-be-wed Annie (played by Kimberly Williams-Paisley). George is a nervous father unready to face the fact that his little girl is now a woman. The preparations for the extravagant wedding provide additional comic moments. Martin, a businessman, and owner of an athletic shoe company finds out his daughter is getting married, he finds himself reluctant to let go and goes on a spiral. It is one of those movies with a lot of smiles and laughter in it, and a good feeling all the way through. The film grossed $129 million and has had two sequels of it made in 1995 and 2020. He wrote and co-produced one of the most pivotal films in Lindsey Lohan’s career, The Parent Trap (1998). It captured the story of identical twins Annie and Hallie (played by Lohan), separated at birth and each raised by one of their biological parents, later discover each other for the first time at summer camp and make a plan to bring their wayward parents back together. People fell in love with the movie and Lohan’s exceptional performance, leading to an instant box-office success with a $92.1 million gross. In our conversation, Shyer tackled the making of some of his well-known films and the changing writing culture in Hollywood. It’s always a good fun day at the office when I can chat up with folks like Charles. Enjoy my chat with Charles Shyer.