Sex and the City Reuniting the creators and cast in a feature film

Reuniting the creators and cast in a feature film seemed a natural next step in the story of the four women. For Sex and the City star and producer Sarah Jessica Parker, there was no question that anyone other than Michael Patrick King would write the story for the film. “Of course there would be nobody else to tell it, I knew he could do it,” she states. “He’s a really gifted romantic comedy writer, and I just felt like I couldn’t do it without him.”

“I got to fall in love with four women for many, many years, and hold them in my heart, even when we weren’t doing the series,” King continues. “I got to be in love with these four women for whom I actually created their voices. It’s rare to get that kind of a love affair going with people.”

The script that King ultimately wrote has a universal theme that touches Carrie, as well as her girlfriends. “The series was really about the search for love,” says King. “And I think the movie’s about what happens when you find it. It’s about women in relationships, and their friendships.”

John Melfi, who was a producer on the series and is also a producer on the feature film, describes the film as posing a question deriving from the classic fairy tale ending: “What is ‘happily ever after?’”

“Some love stories aren’t epic novels – some are short stories. But that doesn’t make them any less filled with love.” -- Carrie Bradshaw

Michael Patrick King’s script for the movie opens up in present day, four years after we last saw Carrie and her friends. And, as happens with time, their lives have all changed.

Still working out of her Upper East Side apartment, Carrie is no longer writing her newspaper column. “She is a sometimes contributor to Vogue,” explains Sarah Jessica Parker about her character. “She’s working on her fourth book – the three previous were best-sellers. So she’s experiencing New York City in a different way. It’s the first time she’s been wise and smart enough and prudent enough to save money. She’s much more of an adult.” Carrie’s new maturity extends to her love life; she is at last in a stable relationship with Mr. Big, played by Chris Noth.

“Sarah Jessica Parker is a phenomenal muse for a writer,” King says. “When you want her to be a star, she’s a star. And yet she also has the ability to be the one who wasn’t chosen. She can do the full range of what people tend to do in life. Sarah Jessica is also really smart; the character would never have worked if she wasn’t able to project that kind of intellect. Other than that, she is hilarious, really sensual and pretty, and with a deep well of emotion.”

Producer John Melfi has high praise for Parker’s abilities both in front of and behind the camera. “She has an absolute ability to be completely in the moment as an actor, and so she can literally jump between roles like I’ve never seen,” Melfi describes. “She can go from Carrie here. Then the camera stops rolling, and she’s focused on being a producer.”

Over on Park Avenue, Charlotte, played by Kristin Davis, is living her dream come true. After years of dreaming of love and motherhood, she and her mensch of a husband Harry (Evan Handler) are proud parents to Lily, a darling little girl they adopted from China. With her newfound happiness comes a change in Charlotte, according to Davis. “Because she has so much of what she wants, she’s kind of focused on other people.”

Surprisingly, Kim Cattrall’s Samantha, who once prided herself on her sexual conquests, is also in a committed relationship, though on the opposite coast. Having bravely battled breast cancer, Samantha has followed her actor boyfriend Smith (Jason Lewis) in his career move to Los Angeles. She now lives in a beautiful beach house in Malibu, but she misses her life back in New York. “Her girlfriends are getting married and having babies,” says Cattrall. “There is that feeling of being left behind, not just distance-wise.”

Back in Brooklyn, Miranda, played by Cynthia Nixon, also feels cut off from her beloved Manhattan. Having settled down with her husband, Steve (David Eigenberg), and their son Brady, Miranda is experiencing the pressures of modern life. “She’s just exhausted,” explains Nixon. “Just like a working mother, she’s extended in five different directions.”

Actress Candice Bergen also returns as Carrie’s chilly editor at Vogue, Enid Frick. “Enid is very, very professional, very careerist,” says Bergen, who played Enid in several episodes of the series. “She’s very devoted to her work, and very much in need of a life outside of her work, I would say,” the actress laughs. Bergen’s working relationship with Michael Patrick King dates from her hit comedy series Murphy Brown, where King started his writing career. “I love Michael so much,” she says. “It’s always a pleasure to get to work with him.”