Pretty Woman began as a dark indie drama before becoming a popular rom-com

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

PRETTY WOMAN celebrated its 30th anniversary yesterday and that shined a new  light on the popular romantic comedy that made Julia Roberts an instant star & "American's Sweetheart." The film was a mainstream success, still holding the record for the biggest romantic comedy of all-time in terms of tickets sold, but the film did not begin its life as a light-hearted Cinderella story about a hooker with a heart of hold. Originally, PRETTY WOMAN was going to be a dark cautionary tale about class and sex work in Los Angeles.

Via "IndieWire", screenwriter J.F. Lawton revealed that PRETTY WOMAN began as a dark drama entitled, "3000." The plot device we know PRETTY WOMAN for was in place, which involves a sex worker who gets employed by a rich businessman to accompany him for a week, but things were going to take a much darker turn throughout. Vivian, played by Julia Roberts in the film, was supposed to be addicted to cocaine and part of the one week deal she had with Edward (Richard Gere), was that she couldn't do drugs during that time. This leads to the original, and much bleaker ending, that Lawton had previously mapped out.

Lawton's original ending, also confirmed by Roberts in an interview for "Vanity Fair", had Vivian not ending up with Edward and saw her character being tossed out of his car only to have the money he owed her for the week thrown on top of her before leaving her alone in a dark and dirty alley. BTW, this is after her best friend Kit (Laura San Giacomo) dies of a drug overdose. Does this sound like the film that would go on to gross $463.4 million at the worldwide box office?

What changed for PRETTY WOMAN was that the original company behind the film, Vestron Pictures, folded and the project ended up at Disney/Touchtone Pictures. Soon enough director Garry Marshall was brought on board, mainly for his comedic sensibilities,  and while the film maintained an R-rating, very taboo for Disney at the time, the film was retouched as a romantic comedy and turned into the rom-com classic it is today. To think that the film, in its original form, was even considering a run at the Sundance Film Festival, shows that it definitely had more indie intentions before taking on a more mainstream approach.

I think PRETTY WOMAN is perfectly fine the way it is but since Hollywood likes to remake everything, how bout the remake takes the darker original route and let's see how that plays out with today's audience. It would be interesting to see if people would respond to that version today because they certainly wouldn't have it in 1990. 

Do YOU think PRETTY WOMAN should've kept its original concept?