Big Business (1988 film)
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| Big Business | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Jim Abrahams |
| Produced by | Michael Peyser Steve Tisch |
| Written by | Dori Pierson Marc Reid Rubel |
| Starring | Bette Midler Lily Tomlin |
| Music by | Lee Holdridge |
| Cinematography | Dean Cundey |
| Editing by | Harry Keramidas |
| Distributed by | Touchstone Pictures |
| Release date(s) | 1988 |
| Running time | 97 min. |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Big Business is a 1988 farcical comedy film starring Lily Tomlin and Bette Midler. Its premise was two pairs of identical twins who were mixed up as babies. One Midler-Tomlin pair ends up in a rich urban family, while the other pair ends up in a poor rural family, and coincidentally the rich twins seek to strip mine the small town, called Jupiter Hollow, in which the poor twins live. Both pairs run into each other at the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan in this comical farce.
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[edit] Cast
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To meet Wikipedia's quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup because it is in a list format that may be better presented using prose. You can help by converting this section to prose, if appropriate. Editing help is available. (February 2008) |
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Bette Midler | Sadie Shelton/Ratliff |
| Lily Tomlin | Rose Shelton/Ratliff |
| Michael Gross | Dr. Jay Marshall |
| Barry Primus | Michael |
| Michele Placido | Fabio Alberici |
| Fred Ward | Roone Dimmick |
| Seth Green | Jason |
| Daniel Gerroll | Chuck |
| Edward Herrmann | Graham Sherbourne |
[edit] Production
The movie was originally written for Barbra Streisand (Midler's role) and Goldie Hawn (Tomlin's role), and the structure was based loosely on The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare. The plot is a coincidental and playful combination of two previously recognizable stories: Aesop's The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse, and Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper; except in the 1988 film, the fictional protagonists are female, and actual twins instead of two look-alike characters. The production company couldn't get the rights to film at the actual Plaza Hotel in New York City, so it had the hotel re-created on sound stages. To recoup construction costs, Disney built a sitcom called The Nutt House around it. It was an expensive flop. Jim Abrahams said he staged one of the boardroom scenes based on an experience he had when a large agency used many employees to get him to sign with them. Fred Ward and Michael Gross (best known for his role on Family Ties) both star in this movie; both actors previously starred together in Tremors. The song at the end is the 1986 song, Higher Love by Steve Winwood.
[edit] References
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[edit] External links
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