In her new film, titled The Boy Next Door, directed by Rob Cohen, Jennifer Lopez makes a grave literary mistake.
First of all she plays a high-school teacher in the new four million budget thriller, which is why she should be able to spot this script foul.
The 45-year-old star goes over the top, having an affair with a 19-year-old student who lives next door, played by Ryan Guzman. The young man, as part of his courtship plan, presents her with a ‘first edition’ of Homer’s famous poem The Iliad and sweeps the teacher off her feet.
“Oh my god, this is a first edition? I can’t accept this. This must have cost a fortune,” she says while receiving the gift in said scene.
Noah Sandborn (Guzman) goes on to tell Lopez’s character (Claire Peterson), that the book cost “a buck at a garage sale”.
The Iliad, as not only those of Greek descent know, is a Greek epic poem written 3,000 years ago by Homer. The ‘first copy’ was actually written in the late 10th century, after the story was passed from mouth to mouth. Finding the first edition of The Iliad at the price of $1 at a yard sale, let alone written in English, doesn’t make much sense, does it?
Screenwriter Barbara Curry says the script for the film “won numerous awards”.
“Much of my original script was rewritten by the producers and the director. I was not given the opportunity to participate in the production of this movie,” Curry told the media.
“The ‘first edition’ Iliad reference in the movie was not something I wrote in my original script.”
The screenwriter went on to stress that she was in fact told by the producer himself – who actually purchased the script – that he loved it and “didn’t want me to change a word”.
“Someone else obviously disagreed,” she added.
Allegedly the producer tried to undermine her talent, yet not a single member of the cast found this line odd.