Freaky Friday is a 2003 American fantasy comedy film directed by Mark Waters, from a screenplay written by Heather Hach and Leslie Dixon.

It stars Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan as a mother and daughter, respectively, whose bodies are switched by mysterious and magical Chinese fortune cookies.

Aspiring teenage musician Anna Coleman lives with her widowed psychiatrist mother Tess, younger brother Harry, and grandfather Alan.

They are on separate sides of a bathroom door and read their fortunes aloud simultaneously before feeling an intense earthquake, to which the rest of the restaurant is oblivious.

She realizes that Anna's English teacher, Mr. Elton Bates, is targeting her out of spite because Tess rejected his prom invitation decades earlier.

Finally realizing the full scope of Anna's musical talents, Tess promises to regard her daughter's ambitions and passions with more respect.

The origins for a remake of Freaky Friday (1976) came when producer Andrew Gunn was called by Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group president Nina Jacobson, who wanted him to make films for her.

[4] The original script for the Freaky Friday remake involved a psychiatrist mother and a daughter writing for her school newspaper who wished to interview Gwen Stefani at the House of Blues.

[10] Lohan's audition for Anna wasn't stellar but the studio was confident of her acting abilities after her role as Annie James and Hallie Parker in The Parent Trap (1998), with Waters feeling that her chemistry with Curtis, along with both of their "aggressive energy", saved the movie.

[14] Raven-Symoné, Naya Rivera, Ashley Tisdale, Sophia Bush and Kat Dennings auditioned for members of the fictional band Pink Slip.

Vidal, Lohan and Haley Hudson would have rehearsals at a North Hollywood, Los Angeles studio in preparations for their musician roles.

The website's consensus reads: "Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan charm in Mark Waters' nicely pitched—and Disney's second—remake of the 1976 hit.

David Ansen of Newsweek noted that "the most startling metamorphosis is Curtis' transformation from fading horror flick queen to dazzling comedienne".

Lisa Schwarzbaum from Entertainment Weekly called her performance "glorious",[21] and A. O. Scott from The New York Times contended that she "does some of her best work ever [in Freaky Friday]".

[22] Independent reviewer Nick Davis described her as "so frisky and pouty and incandescent in Freaky Friday, she made the whole movie feel like something special".

Roger Ebert, who gave the film three out of four stars, described Lohan as possessing "that Jodie Foster sort of seriousness and intent focus beneath her teenage persona".

While Ebert noted that Asian American actors were cast in the film simply to "supply magic potions, exotic elixirs, ancient charms and handy supernatural plot points",[24] Nick Schager of Slant Magazine called it "a strange bit of 'Oriental mysticism' stereotyping that seems at odds with the film's thematic focus on tolerance and understanding".

In October 2022, Curtis expressed enthusiasm about making a Freaky Friday sequel alongside Lohan after disclosing the two were still in touch when a fan asked her if she was open to exploring the film's story further during an event in Mexico.

[31] After news of her statement created buzz online, Curtis revealed on The View a few days later that she had already contacted Disney about it and shared a potential pitch.

"[47][48] In May 2023, Curtis and Lohan were both interviewed by The New York Times about the original movie turning 20 years and said they "would only make something that people would absolutely adore" when asked about a sequel.

"[54] Gunn later revealed they got a draft of a script for the sequel right before the writers' strike, which again incorporates music and the fictional band Pink Slip "in a great way.

"[6] On November 10, Curtis shared a reunion photo with Lohan on Instagram to celebrate the end of the SAG-AFTRA strike and tease the project's development.

[58][59] Later that month, The Hollywood Reporter announced Nisha Ganatra would be directing from a screenplay written by Jordan Weiss, with filming set to begin for mid-2024 in Los Angeles and is scheduled to be released in 2025.

[60] A few days later, a casting call revealed potential story details including that Tess and Anna would be body swapping with two teenage girls, the latter's daughter and her soon-to-be stepdaughter.

[62] During that month, it was announced that filming had begun and that Harmon, Murray, Vidal Mitchell, Hudson, Soong, Tobolowsky, and Chao would all be reprising their roles with Sophia Hammons and Maitreyi Ramakrishnan joining the cast.