SYNOPSIS

Meet Elliot Richards, a well-meaning but socially inept technical-support advisor who is in love with Alison Gardner, a female co-worker. Unfortunately she barely knows he's alive. Desperate to gain Alison's affections, Elliot strikes a deal with the Devil - a lusty, drop-dead gorgeous woman with, as he'll soon discover, a wicked sense of humor. In exchange for Elliot's soul, the temptress will grant him seven wishes. To start, Elliot asks to be rich, powerful and married to Alison. When he awakens the next morning, he discovers he's all that and more - as a Colombian drug lord. No problem, he thinks, because he's got six more wishes. How about becoming the most emotionally sensitive man in the world? Sure, only Elliot ends up a sniveling, driveling fool. A 7' 6" basketball superstar? Elliot breaks all NBA records, but unfortunately his "equipment" doesn't measure up. Elliot is learning the hard way to be careful what he wishes for. Because the Devil, always a step ahead of him, is dishing up hilariously subversive versions of Elliot's desires, turning each of his new lives into a living hell. BEDAZZLED stars Brendan Fraser as Elliot Richards, a hapless young man consumed by unrequited love and desperate to change his life. Elizabeth Hurley plays the Devil, who slyly promises to do just that - for a price. Frances O'Connor plays Alison Gardner, the object of Elliot's affections.

BEDAZZLED, from Twentieth Century Fox and Regency Enterprises, is directed by Harold Ramis, who has helmed some of the most successful comedies in movie history, most recently "Analyze This." The screenplay is by Larry Gelbart and Harold Ramis & Peter Tolan. The film is produced by Trevor Albert & Harold Ramis, who are partnered in Ocean Pictures. Neil Machlis is the executive producer.

What if you could be anyone that you wanted? What if your every wish came true? Director Harold Ramis had those very questions in mind when he began thinking about creating a new version of the 1967 film comedy "Bedazzled." Ramis and his partner, producer Trevor Albert, both were fans of the original "Bedazzled," a take-off on the Faust-Mephistopheles legend starring Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, and directed by Stanley Donen. However, Ramis and Albert both recognized that the story needed updating. "We loved what Stanley, Peter and Dudley did," says Albert. "But it was made over 30 years ago, and a lot of culture have passed since then." Using the original film as a point of departure, Ramis and Albert wanted to make their version edgier and more audacious, while retaining the original legend's timeless themes. People will always be seduced by temptation, even if the temptations themselves change. When Ramis began writing the script, with Larry Gelbart and Peter Tolan, he tried to catalogue what he thought most Americans would wish for. He decided that most would want to be rich, powerful, famous, brilliant or athletic.

However, Ramis was really looking to make a more important point. "We spend our lives wishing for those things, which we think will make us happy, successful, and attractive to other people," he says. "And they really don't. I wanted to say that you don't get there by wishing." Take Elliot Richards - who wants desperately to be popular and win the love of the woman of his dreams. "Elliot is really a delayed adolescent," Ramis point out. "He's like a big puppy dog. He thinks that if he was rich and powerful, or tall and athletic, or brilliant, then women would go for him. And Elliot discovers, as we do in life, that the things we wish for are not necessarily the things that will make us happy."

The role of Elliot required an uncommonly versatile actor, as the character undergoes several dramatic transformations, each requiring a different performance. Ramis was more than pleased with his choice. "Brendan Fraser has the soul of a misfit in the body of a hero," he explains. "He is handsome, and has tremendous physical strength and energy, yet he can also be really goofy, completely self-effacing and humble." Trevor Albert was equally impressed. "Brendan is such an accomplished actor that he makes the characters he inhabits totally believable," he says. "He brings humor to each of the different Elliots he plays in the film, and really makes them his own." While Elliot's "alter-egos" are outrageous, Brendan Fraser points out that the character is based in reality. "We all know someone like Elliot," Fraser claims. "He is a social misfit who is friendly and benign, but hasn't figured out how to communicate with people in a way that isn't overbearing. So he finds it really difficult to refuse the Devil when she offers to change his mundane existence into a life - or lives - filled with adventure, intrigue and derring-do - everything he craves." The Devil gives him all of these things, but at the same time she makes sure that his new lives go hopelessly awry.

While myth, literature, films and theater have long portrayed the Devil as a male (or at least having masculine traits), Harold Ramis had something else in mind. Or, his wife did: "Actually, she came up with the idea of making the Devil a woman," he recalls. "We were talking one night about who should play the Devil. I was naming different actors and finally she asked, 'Why can't the Devil be a woman?' The idea has a lot of emotional and psychological resonance. After all, most men are bedeviled by women. And with women achieving real power in our society, I thought why not a female Devil?" Ramis also wanted to avoid traditional notions of good and evil - and the easy stereotyping that can result. "Our Devil is not a villain," he insists. "She's more naughty than evil. I also wanted her to be beautiful, really sophisticated and much more worldly than Elliot."

To cast the temptress, Ramis had the enviable task of making up a list of what he calls every "devastating" woman in Hollywood. "Elizabeth Hurley was way at the top of the list," says Ramis. "And when she came in to meet with us, she had just the right kind of comic spirit. Elizabeth is very sophisticated, sexual and powerful, and she has a wonderful joie de vivre. I always thought Elizabeth and Brendan would be great together, because he's so innocent and pure in a certain way, and Elizabeth seems so worldly." Trevor Albert adds, "Elizabeth has an energy and an air about her that are captivating, powerful and commanding." Hurley embraced the character's mischievous nature. "I loved that she's really playful," Hurley admits. "Although she tries to frighten Elliot at times, she's more interested in charming and beguiling him into giving up his freedom. The Devil enjoys influencing Elliot's decisions about his wishes, knowing full well that none of them will work out. She lives to ruin them."

The Devil arrives in Elliot's life in response to his whispered plea, "Dear God I would give anything to have that woman [Alison] in my life." Australian actress Frances O'Connor plays the third member of the BEDAZLED triangle. Prior to being cast in BEDAZZLED, O'Connor impressed critics and audiences with her starring role as a strong-willed 19th century woman in the feature "Mansfield Park." However, Ramis and Albert had not yet seen the film - and didn't realize she was Australian. "Frances was a huge discovery for us," comments Ramis. "She read for the part, and did a beautiful job. She even fooled us into thinking she was an American. And when I saw 'Mansfield Park', I was totally sold on her." Alison, like Elliot, undergoes several physical changes. She appears as a different idealized love object in each of Elliot's wishes, including: a Latina spitfire and wife to a drug lord; a spacy, tattoo-wearing free spirit; a sexually aggressive sports reporter, and a Grace Kelly-like sophisticate. O'Connor enjoyed all the different Alisons. "I think the characters that are the most extreme and far removed from one's own personality and looks, are the most fun to play," she offers. "Each of my transformations is different, and I appreciated them in different ways."

Alison isn't the only person at Elliot's workplace who figures into his wishes. A quartet of colleagues - played by Orlando Jones, Paul Adelstein, Miriam Shor and Toby Huss - who alternately ignore and taunt Elliot at work, also turn up as different people in each of Elliot's different worlds. A beloved cinema classic inspired, in part, this element of BEDAZZLED: "I was thinking of 'The Wizard of Oz,'" Ramis explains, "in that all the people Dorothy knows on the farm turn up as the characters in her Oz fantasy. The co-workers also give the film an additional theatrical conceit - and provide a wink to the audience."

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