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Frank Cotolo
June 1, 2017 |
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Erich Segal's smash novel, Love Story, is a tearjerker that instantly sold millions of copies. It's
a simple story about a boy (Oliver) and girl (Jenny) from entirely different backgrounds. They fall
in love and then Jenny dies of cancer.
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Of course its success made Hollywood notice and a script went into development. However, the book's
author did not write the first drafts. He was busy on the book's sequel, so the movie producers
used a few salaried screenwriters to get the script going.
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All of the screenwriters disliked the ending of Segal's story, so they concocted a number of
alternate endings they thought would bring the film to a rip-roaring end.
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In the first draft, Jenny becomes paranoid, thinking Oliver's rich father will take out a contract
on her life so she won't marry his son. She buys a gun and carries it everywhere she goes. One night
she is spooked into thinking the hit man is following her, so she reacts by turning around quickly,
taking her gun out, aiming at the man and pulling the trigger. The guy backfires and shoots her in
the chest. Oliver still gets to cry over the tragedy of her death, per the book's ending.
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