Rumor Has It: Melissa Moseley

Rumor Has It

RELEASE DATE Dec. 25

WHY WE CAN'T WAIT Jennifer Aniston + romantic comedy x novel twist on a beloved film? Sounds like a winner.

THE PREMISE An aimless young woman (Aniston, pictured), unsure if she really wants to marry her fiancé, discovers to her horror that her own family may have been the inspiration for the story of the scandalous affair recounted in the The Graduate.

SOURCE An original screenplay by Ted Griffin, inspired by characters in the 1967 movie The Graduate (scripted by Calder Willingham and Buck Henry, based in turn on the novel by Charles Webb)

THE BACK STORY Screenwriter Griffin was to have made his directorial debut with this movie, but the studio fired him and brought in veteran Rob Reiner at the last minute. ''It became a very liberating process because I didn't have the emotional stake I had in other projects,'' says the director-for-hire. ''And I didn't have time to be obsessive. I just used my instinct, flew by the seat of my pants. And it worked.''

BURNING QUESTION Can Aniston carry a big-budget studio movie on her own shoulders, or is the Friends box office curse still in effect?

COME FOR Aniston, doing what she does best

STAY FOR Kevin Costner, on the comeback trail since The Upside of Anger, as the older man who may be Aniston's Mr. Robinson