Heathers

Daniel Waters wrote the script while working in a video rental store, from one question: what if Stanley Kubrick made a teen film. He wanted Kubrick to direct. Michael Lehmann did. The first draft ended differently: J.D. blew up the school, everyone died, and the film closed on a prom in heaven. New World, which was putting up the money, refused; Lehmann says the reason given was that you cannot satirise teenage suicide in a film where people actually die. The ending changed at script stage, as a condition of the money. Brad Pitt read J.D. at an informal read through and did not get it. Winona Ryder was 15 and turned 16 during the shoot; her agent knelt and begged her to turn the part down, and the two later parted ways. Set in Ohio, it was shot in Los Angeles on 3 million dollars across 33 days. It opened on 31 March 1989 as its distributor New World went bankrupt and took 1.1 million dollars in the United States. At the 5th Independent Spirit Awards it had 3 nominations and won Best First Feature. A good fit if you want to weigh what a studio mandated ending does to a film. Not for anyone who will not sit with suicide and school violence used as joke material.