A sequel to the hit romantic comedy ‘How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days’ is being developed at Paramount, more than two decades after the original film brought Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey as one of Hollywood’s memorable rom-com pairings.
Variety reported on Tuesday, Aug. 25, that Hudson is attached to produce the sequel through her production banner, with the studio hoping to reunite her with McConaughey as Andie Anderson and Benjamin ‘Ben’ Barry, respectively.
The outlet noted that the project remains in its early stages, and the two actors’ return has yet to be finalized. Paramount is also still looking for a writer to work out the story.
Directed by Donald Petrie, the 2003 film follows Andie, played by Hudson, a women’s magazine ‘How to’ writer who decides to date a man and deliberately drive him away within 10 days as a reference for one of her articles.
And that man is advertising executive, Ben (McConaughey), who’s also on a mission to make a woman fall in love with him in 10 days to prove that he can successfully lead a major diamond advertising campaign.
The movie was a commercial success, earning about $177.5 million worldwide against a reported $50 million budget. It opened with $23.8 million in North America and ultimately earned about $105.8 million domestically.
The pair reunited onscreen five years later for the 2008 romantic adventure comedy ‘Fool’s Gold,’ in which they played a divorced couple searching for a lost treasure. The film opened at No. 1 in North America and went on to gross more than $110 million worldwide.
Before ‘How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days,’ Hudson had her breakout role as Penny Lane in Cameron Crowe’s ‘Almost Famous’ (2000). Her performance earned her the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress.
She went on to headline other popular comedies, including ‘Raising Helen,’ ‘Bride Wars’ and ‘Something Borrowed.’ More recently, she starred in the Netflix comedy series ‘Running Point,’ where she plays a reformed party girl unexpectedly placed in charge of her family’s professional basketball team. The series has since been renewed for a third season.
McConaughey, meanwhile, rose to fame after his breakout performance as David Wooderson in Richard Linklater’s ‘Dazed and Confused’ in 1993. He then starred in the 1996 legal drama ‘A Time to Kill,’ and the romantic comedies ‘The Wedding Planner’ and ‘Failure to Launch.’
He later shifted into more dramatic roles, appearing in ‘Dallas Buyers Club,’ which earned him the Academy Award for Best Actor in 2014. After a five-year hiatus, he returned to the big screen in the 2025 crime thriller ‘The Rivals of Amziah King,’ where he plays a beekeeper and musician who reconnects with his former foster daughter.