For nearly 100 years, The Walt Disney Company has been making movies that have become a major part of film history. Many of those films are animated classics like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Dumbo, Pinocchio, Bambi, and Sleeping Beauty. More recent animated films like Frozen and Encanto have also made their mark. However, Disney isn’t just about animation, they also made many successful and iconic live-action films, including Mary Poppins, Enchanted, The Rocketeer, Newsies, The Parent Trap, and Freaky Friday.
Freaky Friday was originally released in 1976. It starred Barbara Harris as Mrs. Andrews and Jodie Foster as Annabel, a mother/daughter duo who unwittingly swap bodies and are forced to walk a mile in the other’s shoes. The film was such a hit that, in 2003, Disney released an updated remake that starred Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan.
Typically, fans tend to love the original more than the remake, but that was not the case for one major Hollywood director. In a recent interview, Mark Waters, who directed the 2003 remake, revealed that he was once approached by Quentin Tarantino. Tarantino is known for his violent and dramatic movies, like Pulp Fiction, Django Unchained, and Inglourious Basterds.
Waters said that Tarantino told him that he thought Freaky Friday had the perfect movie ending. As you may remember, throughout the 2003 film, Anna (Lohan) and her friends are practicing for the Battle of the Bands, which will be held at the House of Blues. Well, it will be difficult for Anna to perform if her mom is in her body, but Anna and her mom come together to make it happen.
“I love the House of Blues sequence just because it was kind of this big thing in my mind, building up to it, this thing I pitched about the Battle of the Bands. It was a lot of people, a lot of moving parts and to have it come together like it did was super cool. One time, I got cornered at a party by Quentin Tarantino, who outlined in great detail shot by shot that sequence of the House of Blues to me. He was like outlining why it was a genius scene and a perfect ending for the movie, and I was like, ‘This is cool man. Quentin Tarantino was like, fan-geeking me.”
It has been 20 years since Lohan and Curtis starred in the hit remake, but the movie remains as beloved by fans as ever. In 2018, Disney made the movie a third time, this time with Cozi Zuehlsdorff and Heidi Blickenstaff. However, that movie did not have the same impact as the 1976 or 2003 films. All three versions of Freaky Friday are available to stream on Disney+.
Fans can also head to theaters to see Jamie Lee Curtis in Disney’s Haunted Mansion, which was released on July 28. Curtis has also been campaigning for a sequel to the 2003 film. Curtis said she wrote to Disney, asking them to make a sequel, and saying that she would love to see Lindsay Lohan play a “hot grandmother.”
