In 2004, ABC Family premiered the TV movie I Want to Marry Ryan Banks. It stars a post-Alias Bradley Cooper as a talent manager who convinces his friend/falling star client Ryan Banks (Jason Priestley) to do a Bachelor-type reality show to rehab his image. The twist: The sane, likable contestant Ryan is supposed to choose, Charlie (Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘s Emma Caulfield), falls for Cooper’s character instead.
If you’ve seen the movie — penned by Chad Hodge, the future creator of NBC’s The Playboy Club who is currently developing the Twin Peaks-esque limited series Wayward Pines with M. Night Shyamalan for Fox — odds are you’ll be thrilled to hear it’s debuting on Hallmark this Saturday night at 9 p.m. ET. And after reminiscing with Hodge, we can confirm that you are not alone.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Are you aware of how much people love this movie, or did our interview request come as a complete shock?
CHAD HODGE: Your email was forwarded to me, and I laughed because I have had that conversation with so many people — people I know and people I don’t know. I’ll be out at a bar with friends, and they’re like, “That’s the guy who wrote I Want to Marry Ryan Banks.” And it’s like, “You wrote that movie? I’ve watched that movie 19 times.” I love that of all the things in my career, this is the thing that everyone’s obsessed with.
I imagine it’s women like me, in their mid-30s.
Totally. And women in their mid-20s: Girls who were in high school and sick with a cold for three days probably saw it, and they’ve just been watching it ever since. I don’t know. It’s so funny. Girls of every age. Or gay guys, of course. READ FULL STORY »
