KULTURA / CULTURE
ter. We remind more forgetful readers that Julia Roberts played Vivian Ward, a sex worker hired by Gere’s Edward Lew- is. They end up spending a week togeth- er at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Ho- tel, where Vivian wins over some of the snobby world of wealth with her win- some spirit. The pair eventually fall for each other and seal their devotion as Roxette’s hit It Must Have Been Love plays in the background. Oh yes, and in- stead of arriving on his trusty steed, Gere arrived in a white limousine to climb up to his Julia, not to say Juliet. And yet, even after all these years in the life of this hit film, no sequel has been made. There’s no doubt that many peo- ple would love that to happen, which is why AI is used to generate various trail- ers and fake news about a sequel. Ju- lia perhaps wouldn’t prove a problem – she once said in jest that the sequel sees Edward die happily of old age, after which she takes over his empire. On the flip side, Richard Gere apparently nev- er even liked the film. He once said he hadn’t even wanted the part, remarking that it lacked any character and that Ed- ward could have been played by “a goat, you just need to put it in a nice suit”. He otherwise referred to Edward as “a suit”. Director Garry Marshall was fortunate- ly able to convince him to take the part regardless, promising that, together with Julia Roberts, he would achieve the character that Gere wanted. The actor recently told People magazine that he would even consider a sequel if some- one offered him a good script. “I'm so proud of that movie and proud of the
work process that we did to create that movie. We ended up really trying to find a character there that made sense with- in the structure and, you know, the es- sence of what that piece was. To make it heartfelt, to make it charming, make it fun, make it sexy... We had a wonder- ful time, and we had no idea that it was gonna be what it was.” In honour of the 35th Anniversary of Pretty Woman, and as we hope for a se- quel, here you can read some interesting facts that you might not have known... WRONG TITLE J.F. Lawton's screenplay for the film was initially called 3,000 — the price for a week with Vivian. That was still the title when Disney first presented the script to the late director Garry Marshall. The movie was renamed Pretty Woman on the basis of Roy Orbison's homonymous song, which can be heard while Vivian is shopping. A LOT DARKER, TOO In addition to the title change, Garry was expected to lighten up the script. It was always going to be about a sex worker; however, the original story had a more down-on-her-luck leading lady who didn't get her happily-ever-after.
“They threw her out of the car, threw the money on top of her, and just sort of drove away, leaving her in some dirty al- ley," said Roberts once, revealing how it was supposed to end. That’s really a long way from the finale we ended up seeing in cinemas. FIRST CHOICE Producer Gary Goldstein disclosed that he’d initially wanted to cast Roberts as Vivian based on her performance in Mystic Pizza – despite her not being a household name at the time. His No. 1 pick for Edward from the outset was also Gere, who had starred in Ameri- can Gigolo and An Officer and a Gen- tleman, but the actor turned down the role because he didn't like the charac- ter. Once the film landed under the Dis- ney umbrella, the company wanted a big star for their female lead and Michelle Pfeiffer was among the many names being considered for Vivian, while Al Pacino was offered the role of Edward (something like a romantic version of Scarface, I guess). Pacino passed on the movie, as did Burt Reynolds (when asked why, he said, "because I'm an id- iot"), and script changes caused Gere to reconsider. “I’m talking to Gary, and Roberts on the other side of the desk writing something on one of my Post- its,” Gere explains. “Then she puts it down, and I read it, and it says, 'Please say yes.' So, I said yes." ON BROADWAY Though Pretty Woman is not a musi- cal per se, it is a music-filled film. Its soundtrack is a collection of pop and rock hits featuring artists like Roy Orbi- son, David Bowie, Natalie Cole and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Roxette's power ballad It Must Have Been Love topped charts in June 1990, just a few months after the film’s release. Pretty Woman was actually adapted into a stage musi- cal in 2018, with original music and lyr- ics by Grammy winner Bryan Adams.
52 | Pop kultura » Pop culture
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator