‘Friends’ Star Jennifer Aniston Taking on the Daunting Task of Recreating Dolly Parton

For more than three decades, Jennifer Aniston has been a pop culture staple. First as Rachel on the hit show Friends and now as Alex on Apple TV’s The Morning Show. 

Related: American Treasure Dolly Parton Suspends Her Public Appearances Indefinitely 

But Jennifer Aniston has always wanted more. In 2008, she started working as an executive producer on her film Management (2008), and she has continued in that role through her work on The Morning Show. 

Now, executive producer Jennifer Aniston is taking on her biggest challenge: reviving the Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dabney Coleman hit from the 80s, 9 to 5 (1980). 

This may be Friends star Jennifer Aniston’s biggest challenge. She is attempting to remake a classic film from the 1980s but also has to live up to the outsized expectations of Dolly Parton fans, of which Aniston is one.

The two sat down together for an interview in 2018 on Good Morning America. Aniston fawned over the country music superstar, who told Aniston that the request she most frequently receives is the title song 9 to 5. 

Related: Forget Retirement, Dolly Parton is Working on a Secret ‘Massive’ Project

A source close to Aniston’s said: 

At the center of all this is Jen’s extreme and longtime fandom of Dolly Parton. They’ve met, they’ve wanted to work together for years, but they never found the right project.

I guarantee Jen is going to make sure Dolly is involved in this new version and that her classic theme song gets another massive boost in the process.

Despite their mutual admiration, the job of remaking a classic can be daunting, especially after Lily Tomlin said it couldn’t be done.

Tomlin said that the trio of her, Dolly Parton, and Jane Fonda has started working on a sequel, but the script never came together. She also noted that the current mobile work environment, where people don’t see their bosses, could ruin the chemistry of the film.

But fear not, Dolly Parton fans, Jennifer Aniston is breaking out the big guns for her remake. Reports surfaced that she is working with Oscar winner Diablo Cody on the script. Cody is best known for Juno (2007) and Lisa Frankenstein (2024). 

Outside of Diablo Cody, none of the cast has been announced, but with her love of Dolly Parton, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Jennifer Aniston took on the Doralee Rhodes that Parton played in the original.

While this will be a remake, it will also hold faithful to the original. The source close to Aniston said: 

Keep in mind that more than 10 years ago, Jen made Horrible Bosses because it reminded her of 9 to 5 and stands as kind of a modern, albeit male-centric, update of that kind of story. Her movie Office Christmas Party also has pretty serious echoes of 9 to 5.

But what Jen is going for this time is much more similar to what Jake Gyllenhaal has done with his hit Road House remake for Amazon: she wants to update while also reminding people what they loved about the original version.

Let both movies coexist, because in the streaming age, you can watch them back-to-back and make a whole night of it.

Perhaps Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda, and Lily Tomlin will return in the remake and show Jennifer Aniston how it’s done.

Do you think remaking films from the 80s is a good idea? 

This post ‘Friends’ Star Jennifer Aniston Taking on the Daunting Task of Recreating Dolly Parton appeared first on Inside the Magic.