Think Like A Man – Box Office Hit
One guy loves his girlfriend, but when is he going to grow up and propose?
One woman wants a man as successful as she is, but what about the up-and-comer right under her nose?
Then there’s the ladies’ man with his sights set on that smart beauty, but will her standards throw him off his game?
How about that sweet guy who can’t break free of his mother’s infantilizing affection to recognize the love he has with the cute single mom?
Sounds like these people need some words of wisdom, the kind that can only come from bestselling author Steve Harvey. The question is, how should they use that advice?
The sharp, funny and truth-telling romantic comedy Think Like A Man is an ingenious adaptation of comedian and nationally syndicated radio host Steve Harvey’s New York Times best-selling book, Act Like A Lady, Think Like A Man. In the film, four interconnected and diverse friends have their love lives shaken up after the women they are pursuing buy Steve Harvey’s book and start taking his advice to heart. When the band of brothers finds out that they have been betrayed by one of their own, they conspire to use the book’s teachings to turn the tables.
The romantic comedy stars Michael Ealy (Takers, For Colored Girls), Jerry Ferrara (“Entourage”), Meagan Good (Jumping The Broom, Stomp The Yard), Regina Hall (Scary Movie, Law Abiding Citizen), Kevin Hart (Death At A Funeral, Not Easily Broken), Taraji P. Henson (Hustle & Flow, Karate Kid), Terrence J (BET’s “106 & Park,” Stomp The Yard: Homecoming), Jenifer Lewis, Romany Malco (The 40-Year-Old Virgin, No Ordinary Family), Gary Owen (Little Man, Daddy Day Care), Gabrielle Union (Cadillac Records, Bad Boys II), and Chris Brown (Stomp the Yard, This Christmas). LaLa Anthony (Two Can Play That Game) and Arielle Kebbel (“The Vampire Diaries,” The Uninvited) are featured.
Tim Story (Fantastic Four, Barbershop) is the director. The film was written by Keith Merryman & David A. Newman (Friends with Benefits); based upon the book “Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man” by Steve Harvey. Will Packer (Stomp the Yard, Obsessed, Takers) produces via his Rainforest Films banner. Steve Harvey (The Original Kings of Comedy, “Family Feud”), Rushion McDonald (”The Parkers,” “The Jamie Foxx Show”), Rob Hardy (“Vampire Diaries,” Stomp the Yard: Homecoming), and Glenn S. Gainor (Friends with Benefits, Prom Night, Quarantine) are the executive producers.
THINK LIKE A PRODUCER
Part of Rainforest Films producer Will Packer’s job is to find new and exciting projects that can be tailor made for big screen adaptations. Steve Harvey’s New York Times best-selling self-help book Act Like A Lady, Think Like A Man caught his attention. “Everywhere I went I would see women with this book and it intrigued me, so I had to find out about it. I read the book,” says Packer. “I didn’t know Steve was giving away all the secrets. After my initial reaction of ‘Steve, what are you doing?’ – I thought that this would make a really good movie.”
Packer called Harvey and Rushion McDonald (executive producer for “The Steve Harvey Morning Show” and Think Like A Man) and he and his business partner, Rob Hardy (co-founder of Rainforest Films and executive producer on Think Like A Man), proposed a collaboration. For the man whose bestselling advice started it all, the prospect of a movie had never entered his mind. “I didn’t see it coming,” says Harvey. “They were so serious about it that they flew to my ranch in Texas. I had taken a few days off and I was over there fishing. Well they came to talk about buying the rights to the movie and I went ‘Wow.’ That’s how the deal happened.”
For Packer, including Harvey was paramount to getting an adaptation done right, something that would appeal to people beyond simply the book’s readers. “Steve was instrumental in the creative process because it’s his voice, so he wanted to make sure that it was something that wasn’t limited to any particular audience-any particular niche or any particular segment of people,” says Packer.
For Steve Harvey, it’s the ultimate dramatization of the mix of sage advice and laughter that made his book a bestseller. “This movie is dead on,” he says. “This is not some pie in the sky thing that can’t happen, hasn’t happen, no chance of happening. This really happens in real life. That’s the takeaway people are going to get from this movie. But now it’s a romantic comedy, which is really cool, and which is like my book. You’re going to laugh, you’re going to agree, you’re going to cry.”
