It’s been 13 years since Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger dallied with a Shakespearian update in high school comedy 10 Things I Hate About You, but now original director Gil Junger has decided that it’s finally time for a sequel. And he’s recruited Captain America’s Hayley Atwell to star.
Junger has also written the script for the new movie, which will advance the situation – though presumably with different characters – into the present day. And the story had a slightly dark genesis, as it was birthed after he read the story of a man who had committed suicide by plunging from a scenic overlook.
"It is the story of two relatable, ordinary people with normal jobs and normal desires whose seemingly great lives have become unmanageable," Junger tells Variety. "Two people who go to the same place at the same time to end it. Their chance meeting is so awkward, so raw, and so funny, they postpone their intentions and go their separate ways."
There is one other reason for the new film: 10 Things remains the biggest success in Junger’s career to date and he’s tried to go back to the well before, as part of a team behind the 2009 TV spin-off version that lasted for two seasons.
Atwell will next be seen in The Sweeney, which drives on to our screens on September 12.