‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’ director, screenwriter on creating much anticipated sequel

[0:00] Congratulations to Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci they along with their co-stars Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep are the faces of the franchise but there are of course forces behind the scenes helping to bring the iconic characters from the Devil Wears Prada back to life. We sat down with creative team director David Frankel and screenwriter Aline Brush McKenna who came back for the highly anticipated sequel and what they say was the exact right time to return to the runway. [0:26] How much pressure did you feel to get this right considering this became so iconic and just such a cultural touchpoint 20 years ago? [0:37] Crushing. Yeah just. White hot panic I would say. Yeah just from the start. I mean that was our vow to the stars and to the studio is we're going to try and make something that at least fulfills the expectations of the audience. [0:58] for the first one which you know unfathomably large so it never felt like we were getting over it day after day after day but you know you go into the cutting room and I like the way it came together. [1:12] What made you to do the sequel? [1:14] We were inspired by the appearance by Meryl Annie and Emily on the SAG Awards and they came together and we said you know look at that chemistry and it felt like man if we could think of something to you know. [1:26] Well for me you know it was really seeing that the changes in the business what David's politely not saying was it's a lot of me pestering David and saying hey I had an idea what about this and him saying oh I don't know and I don't know how we're going to do that. [1:39] 20 years of that. Yeah 20 years of that. [1:40] 20 years of that. You know the memory and the impact that that movie for reasons we'll never know has on people you just didn't want to risk polluting that. [1:49] Sure right. But you know what's an interesting thing is that a lot of the sequels have come about because the studio asked for it. [1:56] This one is a little different in that we started talking and then Wendy Feinderman one of our producers talked to Meryl and Meryl said yeah if they have an idea I'd love to hear it. [2:06] So we went down to talk to her and Meryl said okay I'm interested and so it came from getting the band back together one by one and then we went to the studio to see if they were interested. [2:17] And I think that's a little different from other sequels and rubits I think that they wouldn't have touched it if it wasn't the same group. [2:24] Why do you think the original devil was such a success. [2:29] What's been interesting about it is it was it was quite popular in when it came out but then it it took on a life of its own as a piece the lines from the movie the looks from the movie the performances. [2:41] What do you think that the sequel says about success and how it seems to have evolved drastically in the last 20 years. [2:49] I think there there's definitely the media industry has has has been shrinking for the 20 years since we made the first movie. [2:56] And so the movie explores what it's like to be in an industry where it was once sort of peak white hot energy and money and now things have contracted dramatically. [3:06] The world is shifting beneath our feet and there is this you know on the horizon the tsunami of AI is coming and no one knows how that's going to affect us. [3:15] There are a number of Easter eggs here. Yeah people are going to recognize you can watch this movie without having seen the first one but you're definitely going to say oh I see what they did there. [3:25] If you've seen the first one how important was that to you that you give that kind of little reward basically for people who've seen the original. [3:35] Annie has a really good analogy she says it feels like we're a super band who you know a really successful band that got back together and and went into the studio and and you know wrote a new album. [3:48] Right. And we're out there we're playing all the new songs but we know you know we know really why you came. [3:54] And now we're going to make sure that we play all our hits too. [3:57] And that's a great analogy. Yeah we're going to play piano man but it's not you don't need to you don't need to know the first movie to watch this movie for sure. [4:04] They're I would say they're grace notes. That's how I thought of them. [4:08] I read that Meryl Streep was saying 20 years ago when you filmed the first movie that eating lunch and having spaghetti was very difficult because all of the clothes had to be returned because it wasn't so easy to get the fashion houses on board. [4:24] I imagine you had a totally different reception this time around. [4:29] Yeah I mean you know Molly Rogers our brilliant costume designer got a lot of support from every fashion house across the board. [4:37] We got the latest and the greatest. You'll be seeing things that really were on the runway five minutes ago and because this movie was made so quickly. [4:43] You know David calls it a Polaroid it was we were really like off to the races and then they moved our date way earlier and David just embraced the challenge. [4:52] And so it's really been done for just a hot second. [4:55] How fast did you get the movie together. [4:57] We were still mixing last week. [4:59] Last week. [5:00] Yeah. Yeah. [5:01] So I mean I just watched like the yesterday the the TV version of the you know the picture in the sound. [5:07] So we're just. [5:08] Which is great because I you know the fashion is really current which I love and Molly was so amazing at pulling things that were 25 26. [5:18] And so we have a lot of cutting edge stuff. [5:20] How did the cameos come about because there are so many scenes really like that's that's wait is that you know and and it just feels like you're full of like all the extras happen to be a list. [5:31] Can I tell you something. [5:32] It was a ton of work. [5:34] It was really really complicated and that funny. [5:37] It was like because so many schedules people in different cities coming for a certain day at a certain time and you know but it was yeah. [5:46] It was fun we have we have especially like the Hamptons lunch you know just to put together something that really felt like oh Saturday afternoon at Miranda Priestly's backyard you know. [5:55] And it would be people from all walks of life you know so it's John Batiste and it's Kara Swisher and it's Carl Anthony Towns and Tina Brown. [6:04] So fun. [6:05] And it feels really to me real. [6:07] I have to ask. [6:08] You already know what it is. [6:10] Will there be a number three. [6:12] It's not something that we talked about but I'm curious to see where these characters. [6:17] I would write a hundred of them if they let me. [6:19] Yeah. [6:20] And and let's see what happens with this one. [6:22] You know 20 years ago we said they'll never be a sequel. [6:25] And here we are. [6:26] The Prada doesn't end there tomorrow at 8 p.m. Eastern catch our latest all access featuring the stars of The Devil Wears Prada 2 and Hathaway Meryl Streep Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci. [6:37] And of course don't forget to see the highly anticipated sequel in theaters The Devil Wears Prada 2 hits the big screen tomorrow.