Formula for success: 53 new photos of the beautiful cast from 'Valentine's Day'

Posted Wednesday, January 27, 2010 at 9:25 AM Central
Last updated Wednesday, January 27, 2010 at 9:39 AM Central

by Tim Briscoe

Hollywood loves a successful formula. No matter how trite, if a film recipe makes money, it's worth doing again and again.

Let's say a movie starring a blind duck makes $200 million. Well, Katy bar the door -- here comes a new movie with an epileptic goose.

When that recipe for success declines, here come the derivative works. Instead of exploiting handicapped water fowl, the flavor of the day is disabled rodents. Every studio in Hollywood scrambles to greenlight a script starring a deaf prairie dog.

OK, I exaggerate just a bit.

Consider this: last year on Feb. 6, Warner Bros. released He's Just Not That Into You. In case you don't remember it was a romantic comedy with an enormous cast of beautiful people. The movie performed well grossing over $178 million worldwide.

After its release a suit at Warner Bros. surely asked, "What can we do for next Valentine's Day to further capitalize on all the couples going to the movies after a dinner at Applebee's?" One enterprising young exec pipes up, "Why not do the same thing you did last year except this time actually call the movie Valentine's Day?"

Without further ado I present some photos from Valentine's Day, a brand new romantic comedy featuring an attractive ensemble including Julia Roberts, Patrick Dempsey, Jessica Alba, Bradley Cooper, Ashton Kutcher, Taylor Lautner, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Biel and others. It debuts Feb. 12.

Stay tuned for Valentine's Day 2011. I hear Warner has already begun work on a new film starring Bradley Cooper. He falls in love with a schizophrenic squirrel.