The blog Forty Days of Dating reads a lot like a Hollywood script: Two successful, good-looking designer friends in New York City with run-of-the-mill relationship issues (she falls in love too quickly, he too slowly) decide to date exclusively for 40 days and see what happens — and blog about the whole thing. So, fans were not too surprised when last week, after the blog went viral, the pair signed for representation with the talent agency CAA.
But Timothy Goodman, the site's male half, would like to make something clear: "We have no interest in making some bad rom-com movie."
Goodman said the pair is definitely intrigued by the idea of optioning the blog in some capacity, but that he and his co-creator Jessica Walsh will (rightfully!) be picky about handing over their project.
"Basically the idea of signing with CAA is we have so many inquiries and offers and all this stuff and it's super exciting," Goodman told BuzzFeed. "It's not our world, but hey, why wouldn't we be interested, of course?"
"We're evaluating next steps, whether it's a TV series, or a movie, or a book, or all of it, or two of the three," he explained. "We're not interested in just saying, OK, here, big studio, give us money and we'll just wipe our hands clean as you go make whatever you want with this concept."
Goodman said he and Walsh, if they go the Hollywood route, are less interested in imagining what A-list stars could play them than they are in finding writers and directors with whom they mesh well. (Still, he was amused by the suggestion on the part of internet commenters that Paul Bettany or Chris Pine should play him.) As for writers and directors, Goodman said they have a "dream list," but "that's between CAA and us."
While they won't simply cash out to the highest bidder, Goodman said he was confounded by anyone calling him a sellout.
"I think it's really funny actually, when people found out on the internet that we signed with CAA, all these people were just like, oh they're sellouts, or, oh, why does everything that's cool have to be made into a movie? I was like, I'm sure all you people watch movies right? I'm sure everyone has gone to a lot of movies that they really like."