Several months have passed since the 25th anniversary of the launch of FRIENDS, the cast of the iconic comedy series is expected to have a reunion special. Apparently. this project will boost the launch of the upcoming streaming platform HBO Max, where the show’s library is one of the main attractions.
Reports say that Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc, and Matthew Perry are in “final negotiations” with series’ producer Warner Bros. TV. The reunion special is believed to be an hour long.
There are no verifications yet but the six celebrities will allegedly be paid in the $3 million-$4 million range for appearing in the special.
After some early back-and-forth between the cast’s representatives, WBTV and HBO Max last fall, the negotiations came to a standstill at the end of 2019, with the actors and Warner Bros. TV far apart on money. The impasse lasted several weeks, prompting HBO Max’s Chief Creative Officer Kevin Reilly to be very cautious when asked about the status of the special on January 15 during TCA.
“There is interest all around, and yet we can’t get the interests all alighted to push the button on it,” Reilly said at the time. “Today it’s just maybe.”
Even Perry posted a cryptic tweet about it.
Big news coming…
— matthew perry (@MatthewPerry) February 5, 2020
The special, in which co-creators/executive producers Marta Kauffman and David Crane are expected to have some involvement, is designed to help launch Friends reruns on HBO Max.
“We will not be doing a reunion show, we will not be doing a reboot,” Kauffman said. “The show was about that time in life when friends are your family,” she explained, adding that life changes when your family becomes your family.
And a reboot? No. “It’s not going to beat what we did,” Kauffman said.
Added Crane: “We did the show we wanted to do. We got it right, and we put a bow on it.”
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