Big Business (1988 film)

Infobox_Film
name = Big Business


caption = Theatrical release poster
imdb_id = 0094739
producer = Michael Peyser
Steve Tisch
director = Jim Abrahams
writer = Dori Pierson
Marc Reid Rubel
starring = Bette Midler
Lily Tomlin
music = Lee Holdridge
cinematography = Dean Cundey
editing = Harry Keramidas
distributor = Touchstone Pictures
released = 1988
runtime = 97 min.
country = USA
language = English

"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.

Cast

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 would later star together in "Tremors".The song at the end is the 1986 song, Higher Love by Steve Winwood.

References

External links

*imdb title|0094739