Despite a buzz-killing 14-year turnaround time, the remake of MGM’s classic The Women opens this month, starring Meg Ryan as the society matron dumped by her husband for a shopgirl. While the original pitted Norma Shearer against real-life rival Joan Crawford, the drama this time around has been on the production end. The budget has shrunk from $65 million to $16 million, and the cast has lost a dozen stars, Uma Thurman and Julia Roberts among them. Here’s the tale.

1994 
New Line lines up Meg Ryan and Julia ­Roberts to produce and, perhaps, co-star. Diane ­English, creator of Murphy Brown, is hired to update the screenplay. 

1995
James Brooks agrees to ­direct. New Line sets a tentative $65 million budget but can’t coordinate with Ryan’s and Roberts’ schedules. The project falls apart.


1996-2000
The stalled years: New Line, now a division of Time Warner, balks at putting up $65 million for the film, reasoning that women don’t buy movie tickets. English slashes the budget in half, to $32 million. Helen Hunt, Whitney Houston, and Holly Hunter are all briefly ­attached but drift away. 

2003
At a viewing party for Sex and the City on Martha’s Vineyard, ­English is introduced to Victoria Pearman, a producer with Mick Jagger’s Jagged Films. English brings Pearman aboard; Roberts is interested again.

2004
Shooting is tentatively set for February ’05, but soon Roberts, now pregnant, is out again. Sandra Bullock is interested. Annette Bening and Meg Ryan are in, but the budget is trimmed again, this time to $24 million. The project stalls. 

2006
English writes a large check to take ­control of the film. Pearman sells the foreign rights to international distribution firm Inferno for $7 million. The sale prompts another casting crisis. The “it” girl for Italy is not the “it” girl for, say, Australia or Brazil. Picturehouse, a division of Warner Bros., agrees to provide some new financing and oversee distribution for the film in North America.

2007
The budget is cut to $15.7 million. The executive producers forfeit fees for a percentage on the back end and ask the actresses to take a pay cut. They also lean on friends for hotel discounts and clothing; Picturehouse throws in even more cash. The film comes in on time at $16.5 million. 

2008 
In May, Warner Bros. ­shutters Picturehouse. The Women will be its last film. The same month, Sex and the City surprises Hollywood by grossing $56.8 million during its opening weekend. Warner doubles the number of theaters for The Women, to more than 1,500, and triples the marketing budget, to about $30 million.