The concept of Boyfriend in-a-Box seemed pretty simple … and a little goofy.

“It was a novelty gift that provided all the evidence of a boyfriend without the hassle of a real guy,” creator Cathy Hamilton explains. “There were photos from him and greeting cards and pink memos of ‘while you were out,’ so you could carry out the ruse of an imaginary boyfriend.”

The $14.95 item debuted in 1997 and ran for several years, selling about 200,000 units in the process.

“It was considered a moderate success in the gift industry,” says Hamilton, a Lawrence Journal-World employee.

By the end of 2000, she had all but forgotten about the project. So she was particularly surprised when a pair of Hollywood producers called, wondering if the rights were available for turning the basic idea into a feature film.

“(Producers Jackie Levine and Jill Tanner) took it, and I really didn’t hear much from them for five months,” Hamilton recalls. “Then they called one day and said, ‘Guess what? Warner Bros. wants to buy this thing, and Brittany Murphy is attached.'”

The movie — appropriately titled “Boyfriend in a Box” — is now actively in pre-production. It is slated for release in 2005.

Fledgling screenwriter Gren Wells is the person responsible for adapting the concept into a romantic comedy. Hamilton first had to approve Wells’ central idea before the matter could move forward.

“The original pitch is that Brittany Murphy (“8 Mile,” “Uptown Girls”) will play a single woman who is, for whatever reason, not interested in love,” Hamilton explains. “But she is feeling some pressure from co-workers and family to get hooked up with somebody. She acquires a Boyfriend in-a-Box and plays out the charade until she has to produce him for some event.

“She contacts the Boyfriend in-a-Box company, finds the model who posed for the picture and it turns out he’s nothing like depicted in the photo. So a Pygmalion thing kicks in, and she transforms him in order to get him ready for this event, all the while falling in love, of course. Then they’re busted by someone who recognizes him from the product. Catastrophe ensues, and I’m sure it’s resolved happily in the end.”

Feeling vindicated

Hamilton certainly can relate to the notion of things being resolved happily in the end.

Despite her eventual success with Boyfriend in-a-Box, the conceit initially met with a lot of resistance.

“Part of the cool thing about this movie is I feel a little vindicated,” she reveals. “Because there were a lot of people along the way who didn’t get it, particularly men in the sales force. I always got the feeling that they just didn’t know how to present it to a buyer. If this does get made into a movie it means that people are accepting it as funny. That hasn’t always been the case. It was kind of an uphill climb with the concept; it was a little out there. Some people thought I was man-bashing, and that wasn’t the case at all.”

Along the way, Hamilton found some unique opportunities to nationally market her novelty gift.

Hamilton and the six models who portrayed the “boyfriends” — dubbed Corporate Craig, Cowboy Clint, Athletic Al, Doctor Dave, Firefighter Frank and Musical Miles — landed a spread in People magazine.

She also appeared as herself on the 2000 version of “To Tell the Truth,” where she successfully duped celebrity contestants such as comedian Paula Poundstone into believing she was NOT the person responsible for Boyfriend in-a-Box. (Other contestants mistook Miss Julie “Dominatrix to the Stars” for the real Hamilton.)

But her highlight was a live appearance on “The Today Show,” when she was brought to New York to be interviewed by Katie Couric.

“After I went to ‘The Today Show,’ I’d run into people on the patio at Free State (Brewery) who just thought we were millionaires,” she says. “That is so not true.”

The art of the deal

Hamilton was comparably naive when it came to navigating around the knotty contracts that typify a Hollywood deal.

“Everything involved in ‘Boyfriend in a Box’ has been a huge education for me,” she says.

Part of the problem was that her situation was so different than if peddling a screenplay or a novel. Hamilton was selling an idea.

“The challenge initially was finding a comparable property on which to base the price,” she says. “And there was no similar property. There was no similar movie based on a novelty.”

Hamilton knew she needed an entertainment attorney based in Los Angeles, so she called Lawrence filmmaker Kevin Willmott (“C.S.A”) for advice. He recommended his own lawyer, Christine Cuddy, and she negotiated the details with Warner Bros.

For “Boyfriend in a Box,” Hamilton secured an option/purchase agreement. She received a check this week for 10 percent of the purchase price. She will get the remaining balance once the first day of principal photography begins.

“Even out here in Kansas I know that things happen and movies do not get made,” she says. “Or movies go into production but they don’t get distributed. I am optimistic but extremely realistic about its chances.”

Warner Bros. also has the option of re-releasing the original novelty gifts. Thus, there is a reasonable chance that if the movie is a hit, the products will be back on store shelves.

“I always told my friends I would really be happy if we could make enough money from Boyfriend in-a-Box to pay for my kids’ college,” Hamilton says. “With any luck at all — and with two kids in college next year — I think chances are good.”