'The Roses' is not a remake of 'The War of the Roses.' What's changed? Erin Jensen, USA TODAYAugust 27, 2025 at 9:15 PM 31 PhotosSee Olivia Colman, Benedict Cumberbatch step out for 'The Roses' red carpetSee Gallery Light spoilers ahead about the plot of "The Roses.
- - 'The Roses' is not a remake of 'The War of the Roses.' What's changed?
Erin Jensen, USA TODAYAugust 27, 2025 at 9:15 PM
31 PhotosSee Olivia Colman, Benedict Cumberbatch step out for 'The Roses' red carpetSee Gallery
Light spoilers ahead about the plot of "The Roses." If you don't want to know, swing back by after you've seen it.
If you devoured "The War of the Roses" like a serving of Barbara Rose's popular pâté, you might be eyeing "The Roses," blossoming in theaters Aug. 29.
The new movie is not a sequel, nor a frame-for-frame remake following the exact recipe of the 1989 original (based on Warren Adler's 1981 novel). It does have the same main ingredients: a formerly head-over-heels couple now fighting tooth and nail.
Benedict Cumberbatch plays Theo Rose in the retelling, an initially devoted husband to Ivy Rose (Olivia Colman). Cumberbatch tells USA TODAY that they're fans of the original, in which Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas were at each other's throats.
"We loved it," Cumberbatch says. "It was an iconic film that we both remember from our youth," and the two stars are "big Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas fans."
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Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas played bitter, vengeful exes in "The War of the Roses." The costars reunited for the AFI Life Achievement Award tribute to Douglas in 2009.
But the new version is different, especially in mood, which Colman attributes to writer Tony McNamara ("Poor Things," "The Favourite"). "He took this thing that so many people know and love, and managed to change the tone and make it his own," Colman says.
"The Roses" devotes more screen time to showing viewers why the leads fell in love in the first place. "In the original film, there was much more commitment to just escalating the war all along, and that was what made it great," says "The Roses" director Jay Roach. "Danny DeVito's a master of that and he was so funny (as) the framing character, too. We are calling it 'The Roses' and 'a love story,' because it is different that way. It is more of a cautionary tale love story."
Here's how "The Roses" compares to "The War of the Roses."
Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch star as an estranged couple in "The Roses," a remake of "The War of the Roses."Danny DeVito's 'War of the Roses' role as Gavin D'Amato is axed
For "The War of the Roses," DeVito wore two hats: director and actor. DeVito bookends the movie as pricey divorce attorney Gavin D'Amato, who shares the cautionary tale of Barbara (Turner) and Oliver Rose (Douglas) for a new client, emphasizing just how grisly divorce can be. "The Roses" simply gets into the story of Ivy and Theo without such an entrée.
The couple have new jobs in 'The Roses'
The first film plays truer to Adler's novel in terms of the leads' occupations. Oliver is a successful lawyer, and Barbara starts a catering business. In "The Roses," Ivy owns a casual seafood restaurant called We've Got Crabs! While the eatery might have crustaceans, it lacks customers until a downpour draws a crowd (among them a food critic) seeking shelter. But the same storm that ignites Ivy's career as a successful restaurateur sinks Theo's tenure as an architect and causes his breathtaking (albeit not entirely sound) maritime museum to crumble.
It's a dissent that Roach is quite tickled by. "There's a lot of self-loathing male in me, who is so aware of the ridiculousness of male hubris and overconfidence and always trying to be super-impressive," Roach says. "(Men are) almost doomed from the get-go by how dysfunctional we all are and if we pretend we're somehow above that, that's such a great setup for a fall. The sail on the top of his museum, it's not quite a phallic symbol, but it sort of plays like that where it's his ascent, but it's also his doom, in a way."
The catalyst for the divorce is a whale and not a health scare
In "War of the Roses," what Oliver believes is a near-death experience brings into focus how deeply he cares for Barbara. He thinks he's having a heart attack, but it turns out to be an esophageal tear. Before getting his diagnosis, he writes Barbara a beautiful letter, in which he shares, "All I have and all I am I owe to you." The health scare sharpens something for Barbara as well, that she no longer wants to be married to Oliver. The prospect of him dying brought her contentment.
"I was happy to be free," she tells him, "like a weight had been lifted."
In "The Roses," Theo realizes his relationship with Ivy is over while rescuing a beached whale. It dawns on him that life is short, and he's at a loss for why he would spend what remains with Ivy.
Director Jay Roach (far left) with Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch on the set of "The Roses."Both couples battle for their homes
Barbara lays claim to their house because she found it and decorated it, while Oliver counters that he dumped everything he made into their home. Oliver's lawyer Gavin advises they sell the house and split the profits, but Oliver is dead set on winning. He crashes a dinner Barbara is hosting at their home for clients and urinates on a fish she's prepared. She takes her GMC SUV and runs over Oliver's classic car with him inside of it. Oliver survives and declares, "The gloves are off."
Similarly, in "The Roses," Theo feels tied to their home because he took such care in designing it, while Ivy is the one who supplied the funds. Unable to agree on who the home should go to, they attempt to make life as miserable as possible for the other. Ivy torches Theo's prized moss and makes a deep fake video of him confessing to designing the museum to fall. He grates a wart on his foot into her food.
"It is those tiny, crucial moments sometimes that can be catastrophic," Cumberbatch says. "Take care of each other as couples."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Is 'The Roses' a remake of 'War of the Roses'? Key differences
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