51Broadcast News (1987)
Written by James L. Brooks
You’d be hard-pressed to think of a better role written for a woman in a contemporary romantic comedy than the neurotic and driven TV producer played by Holly Hunter in Broadcast News. The character, James L. Brooks told Written By, was “written when there was that glut of feminist heroines in films. Just a glut, and I wanted to get a different kind of girl. I wanted to research who that 32-year-old woman was at that point in time and try and write her. I consciously wanted to not do that ‘femme’ character. Vying for Jane’s affections are two men representing the yin and yang of network news – Aaron (Albert Brooks) who shares Jane’s idealism about stories, and Tom (William Hurt), a handsome newcomer embodying looks over substance. The film neatly accomplishes a duality of tone, at once caustic about its world and caring about the people in it.
READ ALSO: James L. Brooks on writing romantic comedy and the origins of Broadcast News