Cruel Intentions Turns 25 Today!
This movie would never have been made today!
Despite going on to become a beloved cult classic and revered by many as one of the best movie adaptations in history, director Roger Kumble has now conceded that the film would never be made today.
The flick was released in the US on March 5, 1999, with an all-star cast including Sarah Michelle Gellar, Reese Witherspoon, Ryan Phillippe, Selma Blair and Joshua Jackson introducing us to the wild goings-on of the Upper East Side long before we’d even heard of Gossip Girl.
It was based on the 1782 novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons) and followed Kathryn Merteuil, (Sarah Michelle Gellar) a rich high school student as she bet her stepbrother, Sebastian Valmont (Ryan Phillipe), that he can’t seduce the new principal’s daughter Annette Hargrove (Reese Witherspoon).
At the same time, Kathryn tasks Sebastian with taking Cecile Caldwell’s (Selma Blair) virginity as revenge for her ex-boyfriend, who savagely dumped her for the naïve newbie.
Cruel Intentions raked in more than $76million at the global box office and is considered a classic today, and a staple for millennials – just hearing a few notes of Bittersweet Symphony from the Verve can instantly transport most of us back to school sleepovers when we were way too young to be watching.
