The big-screen writing credits of Australian playwright and screenwriter Tony McNamara include two incredibly well-regarded Yorgos Lanthimos-directed films, “The Favourite” (2018) and “Poor Things” (2023).

He also is the creator of the critically adored TV series “The Great” — gone far too soon after three seasons on Hulu.

His latest endeavor is “The Roses,” which, like the 1989 black comedy “The War of the Roses” — starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner and directed by Danny DeVito, who plays a supporting role — is an adaptation of Warren Adler’s 1981 novel of that name.

Directed by Jay Roach, “The Roses” stars Benedict Cumberbatch (“The Imitation Game,” the “Dr. Strange” movies) and Olivia Colman (“The Favourite,” “The Lost Daughter”) as a once-happy couple that turns on each other, the pair battling it out for the meticulously designed house they share. In this version of the tale, the husband, Cumberbatch’s Theo Rose, is an architect — and creator of the structure — and the wife, Colman’s Ivy Rose, has risen to become a prominent chef.

“I think it’s rare now that both partners don't work, and I wanted to look at it if you had two very ambition, creative people trying to do something special in the world and the pressure that puts on their marriage and how they balance their egos and their desires and also parenting,” McNamara says during a joint video interview with Roach (the “Austin Powers” movies, “Trimbo”) earlier in the summer. “That seemed to me to make it contemporary.”

In a conversation edited for length and clarity, the pair discusses working together for the first time on the film, due in theaters on Friday, Aug. 29:

Q: The production notes for the movie describe it as “a bold reimagining of the 1989 classic film ‘The War of the Roses.’” Was that the starting point for both of you more than the novel?

McNamara: I’d read the novel, and, of course, I’d loved the movie, but I think (it was) the idea of doing a movie with Olivia and Ben.

We didn’t want to do a remake. We wanted to reimagine what a contemporary marriage story was, and so the jumping-off point was more like, “Let’s look at a marriage where they’re hanging on for dear life, trying to make it work,” as distinct from a we-hate-each-other-let’s-destroy-each-other story. It’s a different way of looking at it.

Roach: I thought it was a really compelling and funny and painful range of experiences. And I love Danny DeVito’s version, but I thought this was a really enjoyable whole other thing that Tony came up with.

Q: The cast is full of notable actors. You mentioned your two talented leads — what did Benedict and Olivia bring to the couple dynamic that powers the movie?

Roach: They’re such amazing actors. Some people have wondered if it was obvious that they would have chemistry. I was like, ‘Are you kidding?” They’re so smart, so funny — and each in their own way among the best banterers. And with Tony’s dialogue, they (showcase) this enjoyable verbal dexterity and have to trust in saying the worst, most horrible things to each other in a funny way.

I just thought Benedict and Olivia would be amazing, and they are — they’re really, really fun to watch, both in the sentimental moments and also in the sort of mutual-destruction moments, too.

McNamara: It was surprising to me they’d never worked together because they’re both legends of the British industry and they are friends. And I think that was one of the original starting points of the project — their desire to work together.

On the first day, it was like, “Oh my God, it feels like they’ve been married for 15 years.” They just fell in it and were comfortable like an old couple. It was quite amazing to watch.

Q: “The Roses” also features “Saturday Night Live” alums Andy Samberg and Kate McKinnon as another married couple who seem to have their own issues. What was it like working with them?

Roach: I got to work with Kate on “Bombshell” (2019), and I knew what a mad genius she is. She’s such a wild card in all these great ways. And I got to know Andy through the prep process, and he had so many great ideas.

McNamara: Yeah, it was a joy. They are brilliant, so it was an interesting experience of us cooking it all up together and sort of molding the couple. … It sort of evolved as we went.

Q: Sticking with the theme of dynamics, what was it like for you two working together? By the end, you weren’t taking cues from your characters and burning each others’ possessions or playing loud music at one another, were you?

McNamara: We met on another project, and I think we just got on incredibly well.

(Early on in the development of “The Roses”), I was talking to the producer, and we’re talking about who could (direct) this, and we were saying we needed a brilliant comic director and how rare that is. And then I said, “You know what? I just had a talk with Jay Roach.”

When we met, it was just a real easy meeting of comedy minds.

Roach: I had been an admirer of Tony’s writing. He’s famous now for the features, but I freaking love “The Great,” the show with Elle Fanning and Nicholas Hoult. I’d become a student of it because I’ve seen every episode.

I admired his ability to stretch the tone and still keep it really authentic — to be freaking hilarious and have heightened events but somehow make you always care about the characters and root for them. (He has an ability) to portray really (expletive)-up stuff, really horrible dysfunction, in a great way and somehow real you back into not just looking at it as farce that’s not to be taken seriously. It is really serious and even really emotional sometimes.

Q: You mentioned tone, which is something always worth asking filmmakers about and seemingly a really tricky aspect of “The Roses.” How did you balance it with these characters, whom we need to like but who also do mean things to each other?

Roach: That was kind of the daily conversation … right up through the film getting finished and even the marketing and everything. It’s so wonderful to see the audience, when they buy into it, just lose themselves.

We set the table for that early on (with the opening couples-therapy scene). (A viewer thinks), “OK, this is a couple that is so enviable.” You wish you could talk to your partner that way. But they also have a very dangerous explosiveness to them.

I think we got it. I love the way it’s come together.

Q: Do you see the film as a cautionary tale for couples?

McNamara: That’s exactly the phrase we said — a tragic-comic cautionary tale. And Ben used to say, “At the end, we want partners who watch the movie together to turn to each other and go, ‘We should be nicer to each other.’”

I think that is more or less it. It is like, all the moments of cruelty add up, and all the moments of kindness add up, and you’d better make sure you have more moments of kindness.

Roach: I hope it does get people talking about how to be more aware of your faults and be contrite about them sometimes and also be more grateful for the good things so you may feel like working toward keeping it together.

———

©2025 The News-Herald (Willoughby, Ohio). Visit The News-Herald (Willoughby, Ohio) at www.news-herald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.