The 1988 cult classic written for Stanley Kubrick to direct: “Highfalutin and pretentious”
There are many great ‘what ifs?’ in cinema history, but one of the strangest is the fact that a certain 1980s teen movie classic was written with Stanley Kubrick in mind, which feels slightly unfathomable.
But, of course, one look at his filmography and you can tell Kubrick wasn’t one to be prejudiced against certain genres. His first film, Fear and Desire, was a low-budget anti-war drama, but then he excelled in the art of black comedy, as evidenced by Dr Strangelove and Lolita, sci-fi, of course, reflected in his masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey, and even horror worked well under Kubrick’s supervision, although critics didn’t take to The Shining straight away.
Still, he had a penchant for experimenting within the confines of genre and pushing the envelope; for instance, he was always looking to take psychological themes as far as possible, until they turned darkly comic, and A Clockwork Orange is a terrific example of his ability to push the boundaries of genre, which sits somewhere between comedy, horror, psychological drama, satire, crime, and dystopia.
With the filmmaker refusing to limit himself, so perhaps even a satirical teen movie could be in his wheelhouse, and believe it or not, Heathers was actually written with the legendary filmmaker in mind to direct it, but of course, it was Michael Lehmann who ended up in the director’s chair.
Considering that Kubrick was a master of crafting movies laced with black humour, the more you think about the filmmaker potentially directing the 1988 Winona Ryder film, it doesn’t actually seem all that ridiculous. It was an ambitious idea from writer Daniel Waters, sure, but you’ve got to have some slightly delusional level of determination if you want to get anywhere in life, and he might not have gotten Kubrick on board, but he bagged Lehmann instead, resulting in what has since become a cult classic.
Waters once revealed these original plans for his movie (via The Irish Times), “My first draft was 196 pages. The goal was to get the script to Stanley Kubrick so he could make it as a three-hour film. He had done his science fiction film, his war film, his period film, his horror film. So this was going to be Stanley Kubrick’s teen film.”
It wasn’t meant to be, and it seems like Kubrick was preoccupied with his anti-war film Full Metal Jacket, which emerged in 1987, anyway, but it was worth trying to get him on board. “You can’t say I wasn’t highfalutin and pretentious from the get-go,” Waters said.
Heathers saw Ryder and Christian Slater play a couple who decide to take their hatred for high school popularity into their own, murderous hands. Waters’ script is terrific, with its quippy lines and camp sensibilities, and it also clocks in at a concise 103 minutes, which is a lot shorter than his initial plans for it to be a three-hour-long Kubrick epic.
It’s actually a relief that Kubrick wasn’t interested in the film, because, really, could Heathers have turned out any better than it did under the direction of Lehmann?
