The Story Behind Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Jim Carrey as Ferris Bueller, anyone? Anyone?
BY Aug 19th 2009 9:09AMFILED UNDER: Features
User Comments (2)
John Hughes' greatest flick took a long time to get to cinemas, with ideas for the script stretching back to his youth.
In that time, Jim Carrey, Johnny Depp and Tom Cruise all came close to playing Ferris.
"The sportos, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, waistoids, dweebies, dickheads - they all adore him." So let's find out how a righteous dude got to take a day off school...
1. The youthful Inspirations
While he's gone on the record to deny being directly responsible for inspiring Ferris Bueller, lawyer/speechwriter Edward McNally can lay claim to some of the elements that would eventually show up in the speculative slacker.
McNally and Hughes grew up in Northbrook, Illinois, and attended Glenbrook North, where Hughes would one day film scenes featuring Sloane (Mia Sara) being comforted over the fake death of a relative.
Bueller's ability to score days off from school is easily beaten by McNally's own - while Ferris had nine days out, the future legal eagle managed 27, primarily thanks to sick notes written by his sister, Sheila.
In fact, when his younger brothers brought notes from their actual mother, the dean of the school refused to believe them, thanks to the different handwriting. Now that's comedy...
McNally used his absences for school for Bueller-alike escapades, including one trip into Chicago with friends that involved him borrowing his own father's car - a purple Cadillac.
After putting 113 miles on the odometer, the lads jacked the car up, just like as happens with Cameron's father's Ferrari in the movie, and span the tires back to take off the drive time.
While the car didn't end up crashing into a ravine, it quickly took off 10,000 miles. Yes, McNally senior did notice.
Oh, and McNally had a best friend shared with Hughes. His name? Buehler.
A seed was sown, but first Hughes needed some more life experience...
Next: The path to Ferris
Print Comments (2)
1: Irishgirl says
Fact check....."He'd go into the editing room and play around with various sections - adding extra kicks during the scene where Sloane attacks Jeffrey Jones' exasperated Dean Roonie and extending the kiss between her and Ferris as Roonie watches outside the school."
It was Ferris' sister Jeanie (Jennifer Grey) who kicked Principal Ed Rooney (he wasn't a college Dean or named Dean, and it wasn't spelled Roonie) Also, you made a typo on page 8....the number of cinemas it opened in.
Otherwise, loved the article. Ferris Bueller's Day Off is one of my favorite films of all time.
Posted: Aug 19th 2009 // 2:46PMAlert a moderator
2: Nealsreviews1 says
A great film that is timeless you can watch this twenty years from now & it will still remain fresh. The only thing I didn't get was having Cameron wearing a Detroit Redwings jersey. They are from Chicago on would think Hughes would have him wearing a Blackhawks jersey. The best line is when Rooney says "So that's how it is in their family" when Sloane is kissing Ferris on the lips as he is pretending to be her father in front of the school classic good stuff. RIP John Hughes
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