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Early 'Breakfast Club' Script Found At Chicago High School

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

You know, sometimes trapped in the studio, I feel like saying this...

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE BREAKFAST CLUB")

MOLLY RINGWALD: (As Claire Standish) Excuse me, sir. I know it's detention, but I don't think I belong in here.

GREENE: That is Molly Ringwald in the John Hughes movie from the '80s "The Breakfast Club." That movie was shot in an actual high school.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Maybe that's why it so appealed to me when I was a kid - the verisimilitude. Now, an early draft of the screenplay was recently discovered in an office at that high school near Chicago. It had been locked away for more than 30 years.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE BREAKFAST CLUB")

JUDD NELSON: (As John Bender) I could disappear forever and it wouldn't make any difference. I may as well not even exist at this school.

INSKEEP: Judd Nelson, a member of the Brat Pack, playing Bender there, one of a group of high school misfits spending a Saturday together in detention. In fact, another document reveals an early title of the movie was "Saturday Breakfast Club." One of the characters also had a different name.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE BREAKFAST CLUB")

NELSON: (As John Bender) What's your name?

RINGWALD: (As Claire Standish) Claire.

NELSON: (As John Bender) Claire?

RINGWALD: (As Claire Standish) Claire. It's a family name.

INSKEEP: In the original script, Molly Ringwald's character, Claire Standish, was supposed to be Cathy Douglas.

GREENE: Now, since writer and director John Hughes wanted to shoot the film at a high school, he give a copy of the script to the superintendent to get approval for it. And then, just like the souls of its teenage characters, the script was lost and then rediscovered.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE BREAKFAST CLUB")

ANTHONY MICHAEL HALL: (As Brian Ralph Johnson) What we found out is that each one of us is a brain.

EMILIO ESTEVEZ: (As Andrew Clark) And an athlete.

ALLY SHEEDY: (As Allison Reynolds) And a basket case.

RINGWALD: (As Claire Standish) A princess.

NELSON: (As John Bender) And a criminal.

HALL: (As Brian Ralph Johnson) Sincerely yours, the Breakfast Club.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DON'T YOU (FORGET ABOUT ME)")

SIMPLE MINDS: (Singing) Don't, don't, don't, don't - don't you forget about me. As you walk on by, will you call my name? Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.