Manchester Prep

Looking to capitalize on the “teen TV show boom” that was pretty much the saving grace of the network for the majority of its existence, The WB (home of Dawson’s Creek and Buffy the Vampire Slayer) looked to adapt the hit teen drama Cruel Intentions into a weekly TV series that would serve as a prequel to the big screen film. Manchester Prep would focus on the machinations of the evil step-siblings from their first meeting and starred a relatively unknown Amy Adams in the role of Katherine (originally played by Sarah Michelle Gellar in the movie).

The show was called too sexually suggestive by the censors at Fox with one scene focusing on a teen girl bringing herself to orgasm while riding a horse being deemed as “over-the-top” and calls for massive rewrites and cuts to be made to the script. Amidst all of this behind the scenes back and forth the producers of Manchester Prep were able to get 3 episodes in the can and when Fox finally made the decision to not air the show the folks behind the show made the decision to go back to production and add some more sex to things, edit it down to a two hour movie and release it as a direct-to-video offering rechristened as Cruel Intentions 2.