Taglines: What’s the story?
Local news producer Becky Fuller (Rachel McAdams) has finally landed her dream job in the big city – taking the reigns of the national morning news show “Daybreak” in New York. However, from day one, the dream threatens to become a nightmare. She’s got all the spunk, grit and skills a girl could ever need for success but one huge obstacle stands between Becky and her rise to the top: the legendary Mike Pomeroy (Harrison Ford), the cranky, cocky, completely uncooperative anchorman who is about to become her biggest curse… and her only hope for turning around the fate of the last-place morning news program in America.
When Becky arrives at “Daybreak,” even the network has given up on the desperately downward-trending show, which has a reputation for eating up and spitting out even the most seasoned producers before the sun even rises. Even though she doesn’t have any national news experience, Becky is determined that she will be different. Setting in motion a hilarious battle of wits, she decides to try something new: merging the gruff, self-serious style of former evening newsman Pomeroy with the babbling banter and diva-esque confidence of long-time morning host Colleen Peck (Diane Keaton.)
It has all the makings of a major disaster – as egos clash and Pomeroy purports to be above doing any weather, celebrity gossip or, heaven forbid, cooking – and soon Becky is struggling to save her reputation, her job, and the blossoming romance with a fellow producer (Patrick Wilson) she thought she’d never find. Yet, the more Becky faces off with the cynical and the jaded, the more she begins to believe in herself, and in the potential for “Daybreak.” The result is a smart, sexy comedy about a working girl’s first taste of triumph, as she discovers that no matter how impossible the people might seem to be around you… anything is possible if you put your heart into it.
Morning Glory is an American comedy film directed by Roger Michell, written by Aline Brosh McKenna and produced by J. J. Abrams and Bryan Burk. It stars Rachel McAdams, Harrison Ford, and Diane Keaton, with Patrick Wilson, John Pankow and Jeff Goldblum appearing in supporting roles. The plot revolves around young and devoted morning television producer Becky Fuller (Rachel McAdams), who gets hired as an executive producer on the long-running morning show DayBreak, at a once-prominent but currently failing station in New York City. Eager to keep the show on air, she recruits a former news journalist and anchor (Ford) who disapproves of co-hosting a show that does not deal with real news stories.
Love In The Afternoon
While Becky Fuller is devoted 100% to her job, she experiences a major distraction in the midst of it: namely Adam Bennett, the uber-hot news magazine producer who becomes the first man in her life who’s willing to do battle with her insane, no-room-left, life schedule.
Playing Adam is Patrick Wilson, an actor best known for his more dramatic roles including his Golden Globe®-nominated performance in HBO’s Angels in America, his role as the comic book character Nite Owl in Watchmen and as a lovelorn husband in the acclaimed Little Children, as well as several Tony-nominated performances in Broadway musicals and for his recent comic turn in The Switch.
Morning Glory was a chance for Wilson to step out into romance. He plays Adam as the yin to Becky’s yang, as the amused calm to her frenzied storm. “This was really a new adventure for me,” muses Wilson. “This is the kind of comedy that appeals to me because it’s about great story-telling and characters.”
He also had an intriguing personal connection to the subject matter: both Wilson’s father and brother are real-world television anchormen. In fact, his father has anchored the nightly news in Tampa, Florida for the last 25 years and Wilson has memories of family dinners with his father in full TV makeup with bits of tissue stuffed in his collar to keep it fresh.
Knowing the news world so intimately, Wilson also was keenly aware of how authentic the depiction of it was in the screenplay. “I was amazed by how spot-on Aline was in capturing the inner-workings of a news show,” Wilson says of the script. “I not only found it very, very funny, I found it really, really truthful.”
He also found that Adam’s relationship with Becky was refreshingly honest and adult. “They’re two people with completely different kinds of energy, but that’s what Adam likes about Becky,” he says. “Becky’s got this amazing frenetic energy and Rachel played that so well and so skillfully. All that Adam can do is try to keep her as grounded as anyone can.”
It isn’t, of course, an error-free process, but that just adds to the fun… and the building heat. “I think Becky and Adam are dealing with something a lot of people can relate to – trying to get a romantic relationship going while your career is seemingly life consuming,” Wilson observes. “You have this incredibly driven woman who’s trying to walk that thin line of common ground between an all-consuming career and an actual personal life. It’s messy, it’s awkward and it sometimes leads to major misunderstandings, but they’re both willing to keep trying again and again.”
Says Abrams: “Patrick took on the equivalent of the ‘girlfriend character’ in this movie, but he made it something special: heartfelt, sweet, funny and self-deprecating. I think he’s a terrific actor.”
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Morning Glory (2010)
Directed by: Roger Michell
Starring: Rachel McAdams, Harrison Ford, 50 Cent, Patrick Wilson, Jeff Goldblum, Noah Bean, Vanessa Aspillaga, Linda Powell, Patti D’Arbanville, Mario Frieson, David Fonteno, Steve Park
Screenplay by: Aline Brosh McKenna
Production Design by: Mark Friedberg
Cinematography by: Alwin H. Küchler
Film Editing by: Dan Farrell, Nick Moore, Steven Weisberg
Costume Design by: Frank L. Fleming
Set Decoration by: Alyssa Winter
Art Direction by: Alex DiGerlando, Kim Jennings
Music by: David Arnold
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some sexual content including dialogue, language and brief drug references.
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Release Date: November 10, 2010