An Oral History of HEATHERS...and HEATHERS 2

On March 31, 1989, New World Features released their last film before going out of business, a dark high school comedy called HEATHERS. It only grossed a little over a million and was considered a flop. Until, that is, home video made it a high school cult classic with some very quotable lines. I didn't wait for home video and saw it that April in DC (at the Outer Circle) and it blew my mind. Even more exciting was that a friend I'd done summer theatre with was in the film with a couple lines too!

In honor of HEATHERS 25th anniversary, and the recent opening of the HEATHERS musical off-Broadway, Entertainment Weekly has put together a highly entertaining oral history about the making of HEATHERS.  Winona Ryder sounds somewhat obsessed with the film, stating she's seen it over 50 times and always watches til the end if she catches it on TV. And to think that her role could've gone to Jennifer Connelly or Justine Bateman, both of whom turned the part down before it was given to Winona.

There's also some great details here about an idea for a sequel to HEATHERS that writer Daniel Waters was toying with in which Winona's character ends up in Washington working for a "Senator Heather" (played by Meryl Streep!) and goes on to assassinate the president. It almost sounds like a very special episode of HOUSE OF CARDS!