Editing Heathers (section)

===Development===
Daniel Waters began writing the screenplay in spring of 1986, while he was working at a [[Video rental shop|video store]].<ref>{{Cite web|last1=Rowlands|first1=Paul|title=Daniel Waters on 'Heathers' (Part 1 of 2)|url=http://www.money-into-light.com/2016/05/daniel-waters-on-heathers-part-1-of-2.html|access-date=January 9, 2021|language=en}}</ref> He wanted the film to be directed by [[Stanley Kubrick]],<ref name="Qnet">{{cite web |date=September 25, 2001 |title=Heathers DVD review |url=http://www.qnetwork.com/review/377 |access-date=March 9, 2011 |website=Qnetwork.com}}</ref> not only out of admiration for him, but also from a perception that "Kubrick was the only person that could get away with a three-hour film". The cafeteria scene near the start of ''Heathers'' was written as a homage to the barracks scene which opens Kubrick's ''[[Full Metal Jacket]]''. After a number of failed attempts to get the script to Kubrick, Waters approached director Michael Lehmann, who he met through a mutual friend.<ref name=":0" /> Lehmann agreed to helm the film with producer [[Denise Di Novi]].

In the original version of the script, J.D. successfully blows up Westerburg High, and the final scene features a surreal prom gathering of all the students in heaven. Executives at New World Pictures agreed to finance the film, but they disliked the dark ending and insisted that it be changed.<ref name="Markovitz">{{cite magazine | url=https://ew.com/article/2014/04/04/heathers-oral-history/ | title=Heathers: An Oral History | last=Markovitz | first=Adam | magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]] | date=April 4, 2014 | access-date=January 10, 2018}}</ref>

Some reviewers have discussed similarities between ''Heathers'' and ''[[Massacre at Central High]]'', a low-budget 1976 film.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Kane|first1=Joe|title=The Phantom of the Movies' Videoscope: The Ultimate Guide to the Latest, Greatest, and Weirdest Genre Videos|date=2000|publisher=Three Rivers Press|location=New York|isbn=9780812931495|page=524|quote=We probably would have liked [''Heathers''] even better if we hadn't seen much the same story before as 1976's ''Massacre at Central High... Heathers'' replaces ''Massacre''{{'s}} fascistic male clique with a femme one but otherwise clones the earlier flick pretty closely.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Siegel|first1=Scott|last2=Siegel|first2=Barbara|author-link1=Scott Siegel|title=The Winona Ryder Scrapbook | date=1997 | publisher=Carol Publishing Group|location=Secaucus, NJ|isbn=9780806518831|pages=51–52|quote=''Heathers''... spoofed the 1976 schlock horror classic ''Massacre at Central High''... about a new student at a Southern California high school who doesn't like how other students are terrorized by a gang, so he decides to off the gang members one by one in gruesome fashion.}}</ref> Daniel Waters has stated that he had not seen ''Massacre at Central High'' at the time he wrote ''Heathers'' but that he had read a review of it in a [[Danny Peary]] book about [[cult movie]]s and that the earlier film may have been "rattling around somewhere in my subconscious".<ref>{{cite book|last=Bowie|first=John Ross|author-link=John Ross Bowie|title=Heathers|page=14|date=2011|publisher=[[Soft Skull Press]]|location=Berkeley, CA|isbn=978-1593764579|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ygKozrmDh1QC&q=massacre%20at%20central%20high%20heathers&pg=PT14|quote=I [''Heathers'' screenwriter Daniel Waters] had most definitely not seen [''Massacre at Central High''], but I do remember reading about it in the beloved book ''Cult Movies'' by [[Danny Peary]]... so I guess it was rattling around somewhere in my subconscious.}}{{Dead link|date=February 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} [Peary's review of ''Massacre at Central High'' appears in his ''[[Cult Movies 2]]''.]</ref>