Diablo Cody Teases9 to 5Reboot with 'Powerful' Producer Jennifer Aniston: 'The Coolest Girl in the World' (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Diablo Cody; Jennifer Aniston.Photo:Leon Bennett/Getty; Pascal Le Segretain/Getty

Leon Bennett/Getty; Pascal Le Segretain/Getty

Diablo Codyhas a dream collaborator inJennifer Anistonfor their upcoming9 to 5reboot.

“Jennifer Aniston is just the coolest girl in the world, right?” says Cody, 46, of the movie’s producer. “She can make anything happen. She’s incredibly powerful. And she’s gorgeous and she’s cool.”

Aniston, 55, is attached to produce a new version of the 1980 comedy that starredDolly Parton,Jane FondaandLily Tomlinthrough her production company Echo Films, which she runs with Kristin Hahn.

“They were looking for a writer, and I heard about it, and I really move on things,” Cody tells PEOPLE enthusiastically. “I thought, ‘If I don’t do this, I’m going to regret it.’ And that’s always the sign. I think to myself, ‘Would I be viciously jealous of the person who took this job if I didn’t take it?’ If the answer is yes, I have to do it.”

The Oscar-winningJunoscreenwriter adds that it’s “definitely a pinch-me moment to be collaborating with” Aniston and Hahn, who hired her as the movie’s screenwriter because of Cody’s “love” for the original film. “It helps when people know that you’re passionate about it and that you’re not just a hired gun.”

As for why she’s invested in a story of women in the workplace, the filmmaker says she “many years ago was a corporate 9 to 5 girly. So I’ve been in that world. I worked in an ad agency. So I had to call upon that era in my life to write.”

(Left-right:) Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton and Jane Fonda in ‘9 to 5’.20th Century Fox/Kobal/Shutterstock

20th Century Fox/Kobal/Shutterstock

However, a good reboot should break new ground as much as it must “pay homage to the material,” Cody says.

“I’m not really supposed to talk about this that much,” she teases. “But the original movie was kind of a battle-of-the-sexes type scenario. Whereas now I feel like most of the conflict in the workplace is generational: how Gen Z works versus people that have maybe been in the office for decades.”

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Diablo Cody in 2019.Andrew Morales/Getty

Andrew Morales/Getty

Among Cody’s other upcoming projects following the release of theKathryn Newton-starringLisa Frankensteinin February isDeath of a Pop Star, the big-screenadaptationof the hit supernatural webcomic of the same name.

“The horror-comedy genre is something that I’ve been doing for years,” she says. “But there’s also this element of music and ‘stan’ culture that I feel is very of the moment and relevant. Sometimes those people are the scariest thing imaginable.”

Speaking to PEOPLE in January, Cody teased the possibility of another reboot or sequel of another classic:Jennifer’s Body, her 2009 film starringMegan FoxandAmanda Seyfried. “I think something will happen, I do,” she said. “But it’s one of those things where you’re constantly having to push. There’s a lot of content out there right now and a lot of people trying to remake existing IP.”

source: people.com