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10 Things I Hate About You is a 1999 American teen romantic comedy film directed by Gil Junger in his film directorial debut and starring Julia Stiles, Heath Ledger, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Larisa Oleynik. The screenplay by Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith is a modernization of William Shakespeare's comedy The Taming of the Shrew, retold in a late-1990s American high school setting. The film follows new student Cameron James (Gordon-Levitt) who is smitten with Bianca Stratford (Oleynik) and attempts to get bad boy Patrick Verona (Ledger) to date her antisocial sister Kat (Stiles) in order to get around her father's strict rules on dating. Named after a poem Kat writes about her romance with Patrick, the film was mostly shot in the Seattle metropolitan area, with many scenes filmed at Stadium High School in Tacoma, Washington.
| 10 Things I Hate About You | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Gil Junger |
| Written by | |
| Based on | The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare |
| Produced by | Andrew Lazar |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Mark Irwin |
| Edited by | O. Nicholas Brown |
| Music by | Richard Gibbs |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Buena Vista Pictures Distribution |
Release date |
|
Running time | 97 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $13 million[2] |
| Box office | $53.7 million[3] |
Released on March 31, 1999, 10 Things I Hate About You grossed $53.7 million and received generally positive reviews from critics. It provided breakthrough roles for Stiles, Ledger, and Gordon-Levitt, all of whom were nominated for various teen-oriented awards. Ten years later, it was adapted into a television reboot, which ran for twenty episodes and featured Larry Miller reprising his role as Walter Stratford.
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Cameron James, a new student at Padua High School in the Seattle area, immediately becomes smitten with beautiful and popular sophomore Bianca Stratford. Geeky Michael Eckman warns him that she is vapid and conceited, and that her overprotective single father Walter, an obstetrician worried about teenage pregnancy, does not allow her or her shrewish older sister Kat, a senior, to date. Kat is accepted to Sarah Lawrence College in New York, but Walter wants her to stay close to home and attend his alma mater, the University of Washington. Bianca wishes to date affluent senior Joey Donner, but Walter will not allow his daughters to date until they graduate. Frustrated by Bianca's insistence and Kat's rebelliousness, Walter relents and declares that Bianca may date only when Kat does, knowing that Kat's antisocial attitude will greatly complicate it.
When Cameron asks Bianca out, she informs him of her father's new rule and suggests he find someone willing to date Kat so that she can freely date Joey. He selects Australian "bad boy" Patrick Verona, who initially frightens him with his attitude. Michael assists by convincing Joey to pay Patrick to take Kat out, believing that it will allow Joey to date Bianca. Patrick agrees to the deal, but Kat initially rebuffs his first few advances. After Michael and Cameron assist him by probing Bianca for information on Kat's preferences, Patrick begins to win Kat's interest. She goes to a party with him, which enables Bianca to tag along, greatly upsetting Walter.
At the party, Kat becomes upset upon seeing Bianca with Joey, and responds by getting intoxicated. Patrick attends to her, and she starts to open up to him, expressing her interest in forming a band. When Kat attempts to kiss him, Patrick pulls away, causing her to depart, infuriated. Meanwhile, Bianca upsets Cameron by ignoring him for Joey, but soon realizes that Joey is indeed shallow and self-absorbed. When she asks Cameron to drive her home, he admits his feelings for her are indeed genuine and her treatment of him has frustrated him, and she reconciliatorily kisses him in response.
Joey offers to pay Patrick to take Kat to the prom so he can take Bianca. He initially refuses, but relents when Joey offers him more money. Although Kat is still angry with Patrick, he eventually wins her over by serenading her, accompanied by the Padua High School marching band, with a performance of "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" by Frankie Valli, and she returns the favor by assisting him in sneaking out of detention. Their subsequent date turns romantic, but Kat becomes suspicious when Patrick insists that she accompany him to the prom, which she adamantly opposes.
Irritated at not being asked to the prom by Cameron, Bianca accepts Joey's invitation, but Walter declines to allow it unless Kat accompanies her. Kat confesses to Bianca that she dated Joey when they were freshmen and, succumbing to peer pressure, had sex with him, later regretting it. After Joey dumped her, she vowed against doing anything out of peer pressure. Bianca insists that she can decide her own life, so Kat agrees to attend the prom with Patrick, and Bianca decides to go with Cameron instead of Joey. At the prom, Bianca learns that Joey planned to have sex with her that night. Angry that Bianca has spurned him for Cameron, Joey reveals his arrangement with Patrick, which causes Kat to leave, heartbroken. Joey then shoves Michael and punches Cameron, but Bianca then assaults him for having hurt her, Kat, and Cameron. Bianca and Cameron share another kiss.
The following day, Bianca reconciles with Kat and begins dating Cameron. Comfortable that Kat can handle herself, Walter permits her to attend Sarah Lawrence College. For an assignment in which the students were tasked to write their own versions of William Shakespeare's Sonnet 141, Kat reads aloud a poem she composed, entitled "10 Things I Hate About You", revealing that she still loves and cares for Patrick. He surprises her with a Fender Stratocaster that he bought with the money Joey paid him, and confesses that he has fallen for her. Kat forgives him, and they reconcile with a kiss.
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- Julia Stiles as Katarina "Kat" Stratford, the antisocial, shrewish older Stratford sister
- Heath Ledger as Patrick Verona, the Australian "bad boy" hired to date Kat
- Joseph Gordon-Levitt (credited as Joseph-Gordon Levitt) as Cameron James, the new student at Padua High School who is smitten with Bianca and goes to great lengths to win her over
- Larisa Oleynik as Bianca Stratford, the younger Stratford sister, superficial and popular
- Larry Miller as Walter Stratford, an obstetrician and single parent who is overprotective of his daughters
- Andrew Keegan as Joey Donner, an affluent, self-absorbed high school senior and aspiring model who intends to have sex with Bianca, and to that end pays Patrick to date Kat
- David Krumholtz as Michael Eckman, a geek who assists Cameron in his quest to woo Bianca, and in the process tries to woo Kat's friend Mandella
- Susan May Pratt as Mandella, Kat's only close friend and an aficionado of William Shakespeare who falls for Michael
- Daryl "Chill" Mitchell as Mr. Morgan, teacher of Kat, Patrick, and Joey's English class
- Allison Janney as Ms. Perky, Padua High School's guidance counselor and a writer of erotic literature
- David Leisure as Mr. Chapin, coach of the girls' soccer team
- Gabrielle Union as Chastity Church, Bianca's best friend who later becomes her enemy
- Greg Jackson as "Scurvy", a friend of Patrick
- Kyle Cease as Bogey Lowenstein, a golf enthusiast and member of a clique of aspiring MBAs
- The band Letters to Cleo (singer Kay Hanley, guitarists Greg McKenna and Michael Eisenstein, bassist Scott Riebling, and drummer Jason Sutter) appears as the band performing at Club Skunk, playing their songs "Come On" and "Co-Pilot", and a cover of Cheap Trick's "I Want You to Want Me" on the school's rooftop during the closing credits. Hanley and Eisenstein also appear in the prom scene, performing a cover of Nick Lowe's "Cruel to Be Kind" with Save Ferris.
- The band Save Ferris (singer Monique Powell, guitarist Brian Mashburn, bassist Bill Uechi, trumpeter José Castellaños, trombonist Brian Williams, saxophonist Eric Zamora, and drummer Evan Kilbourne) appears as the band performing at the prom, playing their songs "I Know" and "Can't Stop" as well as covers of The Isley Brothers' "Shout" and Nick Lowe's "Cruel to Be Kind".
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The script was finalized in November 1997.[4] Many of the scenes were filmed on location at Stadium High School and at a house in the North End of Tacoma, Washington. The prom sequence was shot over three days in Seattle.[5] Costume designer Kim Tillman designed original dresses for Larisa Oleynik and Julia Stiles, as well as the period outfits for Susan May Pratt and David Krumholtz. Gabrielle Union's snakeskin prom dress is a Betsey Johnson design. Heath Ledger's and Joseph Gordon-Levitt's vintage tuxes came from Isadora's in Seattle.[5] For the scene where Patrick dances on the high school bleachers, Ledger took inspirations from the 1995 film Showgirls and Fred Astaire.[6] Filming took place from June 8 to August 6, 1998.
Josh Hartnett and Ashton Kutcher were in the running to play Patrick Verona. Eliza Dushku auditioned for the role of Kat Stratford. Katie Holmes was also considered for the role. Kate Hudson was offered the part but her mother, Goldie Hawn, did not like the script, so she passed on the role.[7]
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Box office
In its opening weekend, the film grossed $8.3 million in 2,271 theaters domestically (averaging $3,668 per venue), finishing second at the box office, behind The Matrix. It grossed a total of $38.2 million in the U.S. and Canada, and $15.3 million in other territories, for $53.7 million worldwide.[3]
Critical response
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 71% based on 92 reviews, with an average rating of 6.3/10. The website's critics consensus states: "Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger add strong performances to an unexpectedly clever script, elevating 10 Things (slightly) above typical teen fare."[8] Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 70 out of 100, based on 26 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[9] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.[10]
Geoff Andrew from Time Out praised the film's leads, writing, "Stiles grows into her character, and Ledger is effortlessly charming."[11] Brad Laidman of Film Threat said the film was "pure of heart and perfectly executed."[12] Ron Wells, also of Film Threat, wrote, "Of all the teen films released this year, this one is, by far, the best."[13] Roger Ebert gave the film two and a half stars out of four, saying that he "liked the movie's spirit, the actors and some of the scenes. The music, much of it by the band Letters to Cleo, is subtle and inventive while still cheerful. The movie almost but not quite achieves liftoff against the gravitational pull of the tired story formula."[14] Entertainment Weekly put the film 49th on its list of Best High School Movies.[15]
Accolades
10 Things I Hate About You provided breakthrough roles for Stiles, Ledger, and Gordon-Levitt.[16][17][18] Gordon-Levitt, Stiles, and Oleynik each received YoungStar Award nominations for Best Actor/Actress in a Comedy Film. The movie was nominated for seven Teen Choice Awards: Choice Movie: Breakout Star (Stiles), Choice Movie: Comedy, Choice Movie: Funniest Scene (featuring Krumholtz), Choice Movie: Love Scene (featuring Stiles and Ledger), Choice Movie: Hissy Fit (Gordon-Levitt), Choice Movie: Villain (Andrew Keegan) and Choice Movie: Soundtrack at the 1999 Teen Choice Awards. The film's casting directors Marcia Ross and Donna Morong were nominated for Best Casting for Feature Film, Comedy at the Casting Society of America's Artios Awards in 1999. In 2000, Stiles won the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Most Promising Actress (tied with Émilie Dequenne in Rosetta) at the 1999 CFCA Awards and an MTV Movie Award for Breakthrough Female Performance at the 2000 MTV Movie Awards. Ledger was also nominated for an MTV Movie Award for Best Musical Performance for the song "Can't Take My Eyes Off You".[19]
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The film's soundtrack album, featuring Letters to Cleo performing cover versions of Cheap Trick's "I Want You to Want Me" and Nick Lowe's "Cruel to Be Kind", stayed on the Billboard 200 chart for seven weeks, peaking at no. 52.[20][21] Reviewer S. Peeples of AllMusic rated it 3 stars out of 5, calling it "one of the best modern rock soundtracks of the spring 1999 season".[22]
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Performer | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "I Want You to Want Me" (originally performed by Cheap Trick) | Rick Nielsen | Letters to Cleo | 3:25 |
| 2. | "F.N.T. (Fascinating New Thing)" (from Great Divide, 1996) | Dan Wilson, Jacob Slichter | Semisonic | 3:29 |
| 3. | "I Know" (contains an interpretation of "Shout", written by O'Kelly Isley, Ronald Isley, and Rudolph Isley and originally performed by The Isley Brothers) | Michael Holton, Miré Molner, Brian Mashburn | Save Ferris | 2:52 |
| 4. | "Your Winter" (from Fortress, 2000) | Ken Block, Jett Beres, Andrew Copeland, Ryan Newell, Mark Trojanowski, Bill Smith | Sister Hazel | 4:39 |
| 5. | "Even Angels Fall" (from Key of a Minor, 2000) | Tom Whitlock, Jessica Riddle, Kim Bullard, Penny Framstad | Jessica Riddle | 3:27 |
| 6. | "New World" (from Leroy, 2001) | Leroy Miller | Leroy | 3:02 |
| 7. | "Saturday Night" | Rodney Jerkins, Marti Sharron, Dan Sembello | Ta-Gana | 4:26 |
| 8. | "Atomic Dog" (from Computer Games, 1982) | George Clinton, Garry Shider, David Spradley | George Clinton | 4:44 |
| 9. | "Dazz" (from Good High, 1976) | Ray Ransom, Edward D. Irons Jr., Reginald Hargis | Brick | 3:24 |
| 10. | "The Weakness in Me" (from Walk Under Ladders, 1981) | Joan Armatrading | Joan Armatrading | 3:32 |
| 11. | "War" (from "My Favourite Game", 1998) | Peter Svensson, Nina Persson | The Cardigans | 3:57 |
| 12. | "Wings of a Dove" (1983) | Carl Smyth, Graham McPherson | Madness | 3:00 |
| 13. | "Cruel to Be Kind" (originally performed by Nick Lowe) | Nick Lowe, Ian Gomm | Letters to Cleo | 3:01 |
| 14. | "One More Thing" | Richard Gibbs | Richard Gibbs | 3:01 |
| Total length: | 49:59 | |||
Certifications
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In June 1999, the Scholastic Corporation published a novelization of the story, adapted by David Levithan.[26] The story is retold as it is in the film, with each chapter written from the point of view of either Bianca, Cameron, Kat, Patrick, or Michael.
In October 2008, ABC Family ordered a pilot episode of 10 Things I Hate About You, a half-hour, single-camera comedy series based on the film. Larry Miller is the only actor from the film to reprise his role of Walter Stratford in the TV series. The director of the film, Gil Junger, directed many of the episodes, including the pilot; the film's composer, Richard Gibbs, also returned to do the show's music. The series was adapted and produced by Carter Covington.[27] The show premiered on July 7, 2009,[28] and ended on May 24, 2010, lasting 20 episodes.
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