Mannequin is a 1987 movie about a department store display window designer (Andrew McCarthy) falling in love with one of his mannequins when she (Kim Cattrall) suddenly comes to life. The catch? She can only take human form when they're alone together. Whenever anyone else comes along she reverts right back to being a mannequin, which results in plenty of "No, I swear she was just here"/"Oh, honey, you need to get out more" jokes.
By virtue of its soundtrack, particularly the closing Starship song "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now," and the way it seemed to be in steady rotation on HBO in the late 80s, if you are of a certain age you absolutely know and likely love or hate this movie. If not, it might still hold some appeal, at least as a time capsule of the 80s and a peek into a time when gay characters on film used to look like this:
Honestly, it's been years since I've seen the movie, but the How Did This Get Made? podcast people (Paul Scheer, his wife June Diane-Raphael, Jason Mantzoukas and guest host Steve Agee) checked it out recently. June, an actress you might know from Grace and Frankie, actually has several screenwriting credits to her name ( Ass Backwards, Bride Wars), and she argued there was no compelling reason to actually make another Mannequin movie without the original stars unless they switched the genders. Why not make it about a female department store employee who falls in love with a male mannequin who comes to life?
As she explained, she loves the first Mannequin, but there's something about the way the sequel continues to play to the male fantasy which she finds a tad upsetting. Are males subconsciously drawn to the notion of a perfectly still, completely silent, physically perfect woman who only becomes animated when they are around? You got away with that in the first movie because there was something about McCarthy which seemed so innocent and inoffensive, and Cattrall was such a compelling presence, even though she's now pretty clearly a Manic Pixie Dream Girl. However, there's no such chemistry and charisma in the sequel. If they'd switched the gender roles they could have made a far more interesting movie.
Initially, June's suggestion was met with jokes from her fellow hosts, mostly riffs on what they'd call it, either "Male-equin" or "Manneqhim." However, as their conversation progressed they collectively became convinced that a gender-switched Mannequin movie is not actually a bad idea. They even threw out casting suggestions, like Zac Efron as the Male-quin and either someone super obvious like Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt 's Titus Burgess as Hollywood or someone totally unexpected like Hannibal Buress as Hollywood.
They weren't entirely sure who'd play the girl, although they liked the idea of Kim Cattrall reprising her original role, parlaying her infamy into some sort of career as a department store maven (or something) and now getting to experience the whole thing from the opposite side of the equation. I'd alternately throw out Fifty Shades of Grey 's Dakota Johnson as a possibility, with maybe Cattrall and/or McCarthy around for a cameo.
Get on this, Hollywood. A gender-reversed Mannequin movie, either sequel or remake? I'd watch that. What about you?
Of course, Mannequin will probably just end up being remade as a Disney Channel Original Movie with someone from Girls Meet World as the star.
Cue Mannequin montage scene:
Source: How Did This Get Made?
