An Alternate History of the Movies #2: Pretty Woman.

Or, Wow; that was Pretty Dark.

This 90s classic is a quintessential feel good rom-com with a fairytale ending. But that wasn’t the original vision writer JF Lawton (who also wrote Under Siege) had when he penned the script about a sex-worker spending the week with a wealthy businessman in LA. There was no happily ever after for Julia Roberts and Richard Gere in that version. In fact, it almost wasn’t them playing the lead roles…But, wait; I’m getting ahead of myself.

© Disney..

$3,000

The original title for Pretty Woman was $3,000. A reference to the price Edward Lewis paid to spend a week with Vivian Ward (rather than the weekend, it ended up being). Apparently, the president of Disney at the time - Jeffrey Katzenberg - thought the title sounded a bit too much like a sci-fi film so had it changed to Pretty Woman. And that wasn’t the only change.

Originally written as a cautionary tale about sex work and drug addiction, $3,000 was much lauded by the Sundance Institute which got the script shopped around. In that version, instead of saving one another, Edward returned her fur, kicked Vivian out of his car at the end of the week on his way to the airport. There was no happy ending. The final scene had Vivian and Kit (her best friend and roommate) take a bus to Disneyland.

Also of note is Edward wasn’t the knight in shining armour played by Richard Gere. He was a divorcee who was cheating on his model girlfriend.

Casting

By all accounts, Julia Roberts was always attached to play Vivian. A relative unknown at the time (she appeared in Mystic Pizza the year before), the gritty role appealed to her. However, after the title change and rewrite, she had to re-audition for Disney and almost lost out had Molly Ringwald not turned the part down. Apparently, Meg Ryan and Michelle Pfeiffer were also amongst the short-list.

Another behind the scenes fact: it is not Julia Roberts on the poster. Apparently, her face was photoshopped over her stand-in’s body!

Richard Gere turned the part down, originally. The anecdote goes that Julia Roberts flew out to meet him and asked him to accept the role with a message scrawled on a post-it ahead of his call with the director. Before him, another name considered was Al Pacino. Interestingly, a year later, the two alternate starts would work together in Frankie and Johnny!

Legacy

Love or loath it, the impact this movie had on audiences and cinema — especially in terms of the Rom-Com formula — is undeniable. There have been countless bland carbon copies released since its release in 1990. For its two leads, the film catapulted them to A-List megastardom.

It’s also an early example of a movie reinvigorating a classic track for new audiences. Having passed two years before, Roy Orbison’s Pretty Woman got a new surge thirty years after its original release. Remember Ghost doing the same for the Righteous Brother’s classic, Unchained Melody the same year and My Girl, the year after that.

Yet again, somewhere in the multiverse, there exists an alternate version of Pretty Woman which would be alien to any of us. A dark, gritty drama staring two different leads with an entirely foreign soundtrack.

This feature would not have been possible without reference to the following source material. Thanks go out to Cosmopolitan, Collider, Woman's World, Marie Claire, US Magazine, and En-Vols for their insight. There also exists a copy of the original script out there (it’s pretty good) but I have not included the link for copyright reasons.

If you enjoyed this piece, please leave a like or comment so I know you’re out there. Again, if anyone has any suggestions on future alternate history spotlights, drop them in the comments. An Alternate History of the Movies will return with Alien3…