ZAMM.COM

The nice thing about adapting 18th Century novels to the screen is that you don’t have to pay for the underlying literary rights.

That may well be a factor in why so many films are based on Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ 1782 classic “Les Liaisons Dangereuses” — including Roger Vadim’s controversial 1959 French language LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES, starring Jeanne Moreau, Gérard Philipe & Annette Stroyberg; Stephen Frears’ 1988 DANGEROUS LIASIONS, a best picture Oscar nominee, starring Glenn Close, John Malkovich & Michelle Pfeiffer; and Milos Forman’s 1989 VALMONT, starring Colin Firth, Annette Bening & Meg Tilly.

Another de Laclos adaptation that easily slips under the radar is writer-director Roger Kumble’s 1999 teenage romantic drama CRUEL INTENTIONS, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, Reese Witherspoon & Selma Blair. This modern version of the book is set in the world of rich Manhattan prep school teens.

Made by producer Neil Moritz’s Original Film, CRUEL was acquired by Columbia Pictures, which released it March 5, 1999. It was produced on a low budget six week shoot for $10.5M and did $76.3M worldwide, a good number at the time. Its success sparked a video prequel in 2001, a video sequel in 2004 and a 2015 “jukebox musical” staged in L.A. & New York,  featuring ’90s rock music hits.

Moritz did very well two years earlier with the horror mystery I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER, starring Gellar & Phillippe. Not surprisingly, they were his first choices for CRUEL. The film’s original title was “Cruel Inventions,” but after research screening audiences said that sounded like a sci-fi picture, “Inventions” quickly became “Intentions.”

Gellar plays Kathryn Merteuil, a very popular upperclassman at her elite school, who’s promised to help a naive incoming freshman, Cecile Caldwell, played by Selma Blair. Kumble had to push hard to get Christine Baranski to play Cecile’s mom, which only required three days of filming. What finally did the trick was that Baranski’s daughters were big fans of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER and were wildly excited that their mom would be working with Gellar.

Columbia thought Katie Holmes was perfect to play the innocent Annette, who’s seduced by Phillippe’s character, Sebastian Valmont. Kumble felt she didn’t have enough character strength for the role and asked Phillippe, about getting his real life girlfriend, Witherspoon, to play Annette.

They managed to get her to say yes, according to Kumble, by taking her to dinner — in his words — “to get her drunk — and we ended up getting drunk. I literally got down on my knees and begged her, ‘Please, it’ll be 15 days and you’ll be great!’”

Casting Witherspoon & Phillippe promoted gossip that they actually were having sex in one of the film’s steamiest scenes. Real-looking or not, Kumble insisted the sex was simulated — and, in fact, that they weren’t even fully naked since in that scene they were only visible from the waist up.