Heathers Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Forget about a Heathers remake. That's not in the works, but a television show is. Variety reports that Fox is developing the classic cult film into a new TV series. Mark Rizzo is adapting the story with the help of Sex and the City's Jenny Bicks.

As well all know (or should!) Heathers focuses on Veronica Sawyer, a smart girl who gave up normal life for popularity with a group of Heathers. When the sexy, Jack Nicholson-esque Jason Dean enrolls in the school, she falls for his charm, and briefly, his rather harsh way of dealing with the unjust aspects of high school politics. In other words, a series of murders covered up as suicides.

While I've been known to be quite ... apprehensive ... of plans to re-enter the world, whether it be with a sequel or an on-stage musical, the idea itself is neat. Veronica's frantic diary entries would make a great weekly organizer for the serial killing antics, and television could do with more smart black comedy. That being said, there's the big issue of how you keep killing off popular jerks without either getting caught or running out of victims. And within our real world -- how students killing other students on a weekly basis will play out socially. Buffy fans surely remember the problem not only with the Earshot episode and real-life shootings, but also with the Season 3 finale -- even though it was about students fighting a monster gearing up to eat them, rather than a fellow student or innocent.

There are a million reasons not to have a sequel to Heathers, but maybe if they made the whole production a little closer to real life, it'd have some possibilities -- because Veronica Sawyer has gone batsh*t insane! Remember how Winona Ryder was, once again, talking about a Heathers sequel last month? And how she swore up and down that it was in the works this time? And that Christian Slater would be back in an Obi-Wan-type role?

Well, it's ALL in her head. Movieline talked with director Michael Lehmann, and he said: "Winona's been talking about this for years -- she brings it up every once in a while and Dan Waters and I will joke about it, but as far as I know there's no script and no plans to do the sequel. A couple weeks ago everyone started talking about it and I guess Winona said the movie was gonna get made, and I thought, 'I don't know, maybe they did this without me?' But I got in touch with Dan Waters and he said he didn't know anything about it. So I don't think there's any truth to it."

Winona, let it die already. I find it kinda creepy that you keep sparking this rumor mill with the same stories -- all of which have had no basis in truth, if Lehmann is to be believed. I've been reading these rumors for over a frakking decade. I adore the film as much as you do. I've seen it more times than I can count, and I can recite it from beginning to end, but sometimes things come to an end. But ... Moby Dick is dunked. The white whale drank some bad plankton and splashed through a coffee table. Now it's someone else's turn to take the helm of teenage dysfunction.

Who says you can't go home again? Winona Ryder says that a sequel to 1988's Heathers is definitely on its way -- "swear to God"!!! She told Empire Magazine: "Whatever you hear, there is a sequel in the works. I swear to God ... For some reason the writer Dan Waters and director Michael Lehmann don't want to talk about it. I've been wanting to do a sequel forever. There is a story, and Christian [Slater] has agreed to come back as a kind of Obi-Wan character."

If those words sound familiar, it's because they're almost exactly the same words she uttered nearly three years ago: "It takes place in Washington and Christian Slater agreed to come back and make an Obi-Wan-type appearance. It's very funny." Last fall, Slater expressed his interest in a sequel: "I would do it in a heartbeat. I would totally love to do that character again."

The Obi-Wan references would seem to indicate that Slater's character, J.D., could return as Obi-Wan did in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Twenty years on, Ryder and Slater are still a very appealing pair, so the question returns to Daniel Waters and Michael Lehmann, without whom a sequel would be a pointless, tawdry affair. Lehmann has been busy directing TV shows (True Blood, Big Love, Californication). Most recently, Waters wrote and directed the well-received Sex and Death 101, in which Ryder appeared. What can they do to make Heathers 2 better than Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo?

[ Via US Magazine. ]

I thought I was pretty mad when I heard that Footloose was becoming a new musical film. Oh no, that was nothing. Child's play, or rather, anger. It doesn't come close to the rage I feel now, which has made its way into my veins and numbed me to my fingers and toes.

There are some things you just don't touch, and one of them is Heathers.

The Hollywood Reporter posts that the man behind Reefer Madness: The Musical and Race to Witch Mountain, Andy Fickman, has teamed up with Reefer partner Kevin Murphy to bring Heathers: The Musical to the stage. It seems that they're currently working on the lyrics and book, and have the blessing of Daniel Waters, who has seen some of the readings. Yes, there have been readings, and to add insult to injury, the lovely Kristen Bell has been voicing Veronica Sawyer ... with Christian Campbell voicing JD, and the three Heathers reinvisioned with Jenna Leigh Green, Corri English, and Christine Lakin. (They aren't, as of now, signed on to star in the musical. So far, it's just readings.)

Greetings and salutations! I bring the following news to you with an air of excitement, and a huge warning of caution:

Christian Slater, otherwise known as the sexy, seductive, and utterly unstable Jason Dean, is eager to go back to the Heathers fold. While talking up his new NBC show My Own Worst Enemy with AOL TV, Slater spoke about returning to Sherwood, Ohio and said:

"Yeah, sometimes I see Winona and she's like, 'Are you ready to do Heathers 2?' And I'm like, 'Sure!' I would do it in a heartbeat. I would totally love to do that character again -- J.D. We'd have to have a scene in there where's he's watching The Shining or something, you know? We'd have to see that he's collected all of Nicholson's movies. Just to really make sense of it all. [Laughs] That would be like a dream come true for me. So we'll see -- if they want to put something together, I'd be thrilled."

Why the caution? Well, Winona has been dying to do it for years (I remember reading rumors about it all the way back in the 90s), and there was all that talk about the sequel being a reality two years ago. We saw how far that got. But maybe some things have changed -- the way Slater is talking about this, you'd think he's itching for more than just an "Obi-Wan-type appearance."

The last time that Heathers got a special edition, I got a ruler, a tin that bent pretty quickly, and a DVD that didn't work. It seemed that there was a problem with many of the DVDs, so I had to send away for a replacement. Still, the hassle was worth it for a DVD that offered all that Swatch dogs and Diet Coke heads could want.

Now The Hollywood Reporter has posted that my beloved movie is getting a two-disc, 20th Anniversary DVD. God, I feel old, but then I have to remember that the last time I saw this film, I was a pre-teen with a Christian Slater crush. Anyhow, this new release will be hitting shelves on July 1, and it will include a newly remastered version of the film, plus a new documentary called Return to Westerburg High, which features interviews with writer Daniel Waters and director Michael Lehmann.

New features are cool, but this is sounding suspiciously like a fluff feature to tantalize fans who bought the other discs. That's fine, but I'd want a little more than just Waters and Lehmann, both of whom were featured on the last featurette and commentary. For example, some new interviews with Winona Ryder would be nice, especially since she just worked with Waters on Sex and Death 101.

But even as I type this, I know I'll pick it up, because I'm a sucker for Heathers. How about you?

I have a problem. As a moviegoer, I'm always attracted to charisma over deed. More times than I can count, I find myself rooting for the bad guy and hoping that they bring the bland hero down. Of course, sometimes it's a fight between hero and villain for who has the most charisma, and sometimes the film wants us to love the villain, but whatever the case, the thorn is usually a lot more fun than the hero he's stuck onto. And this means that I'm often disappointed at the end, because the bad guy almost always dies.

Still, this is what's so great about film -- you can love the baddies without the real-world consequences. We've all heard about bad-guy lust, but this way, the baddie can do his bad thing for us to enjoy, without us getting all of the negative repercussions. We get the wild eye without the body count, the ripped muscles without the steroid set-up, and the twisted humor without the reality.

However, seeing that bad guys are my kryptonite, it's hard to pick just seven. While the following is, by no means, all-encompassing, it's a list of some of my favorite baddies. Some we're told to love, and others, well, they just steal the show.

Jason Dean -- Heathers

This is probably what started it all. When my friends and I gathered around the television to watch Christian Slater's new movie, we were immediately smitten. We didn't care that J.D. had a thing for doling out his own deadly justice. By the time he said: "Alright, so maybe I am killing everyone in the school... because nobody loves me!" We were exclaiming: "We love you!" J.D. had the drawling, Jack Nicholson voice, the sexy trench, and the need to row out to the middle of a lake somewhere with a bottle of tequila, his sax, and some Bach. He was very. Very very.

I'm not sure if this is true, but I've heard some movie geeks out there grew up crushing on Winona Ryder. I know I wasn't the only one. Actually, I know there were thousands of us, if not millions. Now, as a sensitive teen, one of the things I liked about the actress was that she was firm on her decision to keep her clothes on. Of course, as a hormonal teen, this was also one of the things that frustrated me about her. Well, now that it's been about twelve years since I met Ryder while selling her Shine tickets and came to the realization that she was a real person and not someone to obsess over, she is baring some skin. It's still not a lot of skin, and it's only noticeable if a certain gossip blog freeze frames it for us, but Winona Ryder is a bit naked in Sex and Death 101. Now, you might want to chime in and point out that, as MrSkin.com does, Ryder showed a dab of flesh in Autumn and New York (there were rumors of a full nude scene that was cut out), and this isn't that much better. But this is a little different; I would at least consider it more of a nude scene. And if you want to watch it, you better do it quick. The video and the NSFW photo are sure to be taken down soon.

For those who don't know, Sex and Death 101 is the film that reunites Winona Ryder with Heathers screenwriter Daniel Waters, who also directs this time around. It stars Ryder, of course, as a serial killer named Death Nell, who targets sex criminals. Ryder's co-star in the film is Simon Baker (The Devil Wears Prada), who can be seen in the video, as a guy who one day receives a mysterious email detailing all the women he has and will have sex with in his life. Our own Scott Weinberg saw the film at Fantastic Fest and called it Waters' "best work in a very long time," and Ryder's, "best stuff in years." That may not say much to you, knowing their lack of success in recent years, but Scott continued to give the film praise. He wrote, "the movie juggles romantic comedy, dark humor, sex farce and slight slapstick with seldom a misstep, resulting in a surprisingly unpredictable flick that works on a small variety of levels." Sounds interesting. Oh, and don't forget that sex scene; that might interest you, too.

Shoot 'Em Up opens this week, and Clive Owen is making Bugs Bunny look all sorts of tough and cool. He banters. He sexes up the ladies. He handles guns like a pro. Heck, he even tries to buy them with food stamps. All this badness and guns has thrown me into an antihero state of mind. But before I can go a-listing, we've got to decide what an antihero is.

Blending all of the vague definitions together, your antihero is basically the person who doesn't imbue the classic attributes of heroism. This could mean being inept and stupid, but for the means of this list, I'm going for the antiheroes whose methods, manners and intentions can be questioned. Some are good guys who do bad things, some are bad guys who do good things. Some just don't care as much as a good hero should. But they're all so uber cool that whether you've seen the films or not, you know who they are, and you might just be quoting them.

Note: Only one cop is included on this list, and it isn't John McClane -- he's much more of a bitter hero than a questionable antihero.

Harry Callahan -- Dirty Harry (1971)

I know what you're thinking: "Did he fire six shots or only five?" Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself a question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?

While I love most of the guys on this list, the one who has to be there above all others is Dirty Harry Callahan. He might be a cop trying to keep the streets safe, but instead of upholding the law, he enforces morality with his gun, boot, or whatever else he can find. In the first of the action series, Callahan is hunting down Scorpio, a serial killer loosely based on the Zodiac killer. He tortures suspects when he needs to, and does it all in a suit, tie and sweater. Most of all, he's "Dirty," but no one knows the specific reason why.

Que sera, sera, whatever will be, will be.
The future's not ours to see...

Almost two decades have ticked by since Heathers quietly slid onto the big screen. The years have been kind to the film, and while it never made a big splash while projected for darkened theaters, it has become a cult legend that few films can even think to touch. Premiering in 1989, Heathers was the perfect, ironic final chapter to the decade of John Hughes, big hair and cheery optimism.

Winona Ryder stars as Veronica Sawyer, a young woman who had forsaken her unpopular friend Betty Finn (note the names) to join a popular triumvirate clique of Heathers – the red Heather Chandler, the green Heather Duke and the yellow Heather McNamara. She's displeased with the actions of her new circle, yet yields to the demands of their red-themed leader – that is, until she becomes mesmerized by the dark clothed, attitude-laden new kid named Jason Dean (Christian Slater).

One night, Veronica heads out with Heather Chandler to a frat party. She gets sick and soon the girls are in a bitter, cursing fight. Veronica finally stands her ground against her bossy friend, and Heather vows: "Monday morning, you're history." As Veronica later stews over the argument in her bedroom, J.D. pops up in the window, helping to turn her rage into old-fashioned revenge. The next morning they head to Heather's house to give her a hangover cure -- J.D. is itching for the fatal, chemical solution, while Veronica just wants Heather to have the same puke-filled embarrassing situation that she suffered.