The 1988 cult film Heathers, starring Winona Ryder and Christian Slater, is getting a 2016 update in a new TV anthology series.
American television network TV Land has given the go ahead for the reboot of the black comedy, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Originally directed by Michael Lehmann, the 80s comedic movie followed Winona Ryder’s character Veronica as she tried to navigate the bitchy social hierarchy of high school with brooding – and later murderous – boyfriend J.D (Christian Slater), all with deadly consequences.
The new version will be directed by Leslye Headland, who’s known for the film Sleeping With Other People. It’s set in the present day, with a new set of Heathers who are typically social outcasts, rather than queen bees, ruling the school. As Jezebel reports, Heather McNamara (originally played by Lisanne Falk) is a black lesbian, whereas Heather Duke (originally Shannen Doherty) is a gender-queer high schooler and Heather Chandler (Kim Walker) has “a body like Martha Dumptruck”.
Headland told the Hollywood Reporter that she was not previously familiar with the film when it first came out, but watched it in her twenties. ““I related with it so much,” she said. “I can’t believe they got away with so much. The movie was a huge influence on an entire generation and it’ll be nice to introduce this to a new generation.”
It’s the third attempt to recreate the cult high school classic. A previous go back in 2012 centred on Veronica’s daughter, leading the new generation of ‘Ashleys’, but it was scrapped in 2013, and an earlier project by Fox never even got off the ground.
