The Meet the Parents Story

<p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>When the movie </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Meet the Parents</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> starring Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro was released on Oct. 6 2000 it pulled in $28623300 opening day and would become one of the most successful comedies ever producing two successful sequels. What very few people know however is that the movie was a remake of a low-budget independent feature of the same name released 10 years before. Greg Glienna released his original </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Meet the Parents</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> in 1991 and it was well received at the local Chicago theaters where it was shown leading the young director to believe that with the right distribution it could be a national hit. What followed was a decade-long journey of discovery as Greg tried to navigate the Hollywood studio system that seemed set up purposely to confound any outsider trying to get in. </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Meet the Parents</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> would eventually become both a national and an international hit but through the process gradually Greg saw his connection to the film slowly erased from history.</span></p><p></p><p>Laura Enright is from <em>Chicago and has written about the city in her book Chicago's Most Wanted: The Top Ten Book of Murderous Mobsters Midway Monsters and Windy City Oddities</em>. She's also used the city as a backdrop for books in her Chicago Vampire Series. With its roots in Chicago the story of the film <em>Meet the Parents</em> is a fitting tale for her to tell. </p><p></p>