John Hughes wrote a screenplay inspired by The Cure’s ‘Lovecats,’ Molly Ringwald says

Vanity Fair this week published a lengthy, and quite engrossing, profile/tribute to the late John Hughes, the exceedingly reclusive king of ’80s teen films who died so unexpectedly last summer. On the magazine’s website, the feature’s author, David Kamp, also has posted outtakes from his interviews with some of Hughes’ biggest stars: Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall and Matthew Broderick.

One of the gems buried in Kamp’s interview leftovers: Ringwald reports that Hughes started work on a script based on The Cure’s jaunty 1983 single “The Lovecats” — and even assembled a hypothetical, jazz-filled soundtrack for the film.

Ringwald says:

“When ‘The Breakfast Club’ ended, he started writing a script called ‘Lovecats,’ because I played him that song by the Cure, ‘The Lovecats.’ I was obsessed by the Cure — still am. I think Robert Smith is an underrated songwriter. Anyway, I played this song for John, and he started writing a script, and he gave me a mix tape of what the soundtrack was gonna be. Which was pretty much Dave Brubeck, with the last song by Bob Dylan.”

Hughes, of course, was no stranger to using ’80s college rock in his movies, and famously titled his 1986 film “Pretty in Pink” after a Psychedelic Furs song of the same name. This news, however, raises all kinds of questions: Did Hughes finish the script? Was Robert Smith ever aware of it? And why would a soundtrack to a film inspired by a Cure song consist “pretty much” of songs by jazz pianist Dave Brubeck and Bob Dylan?

Sadly, the answers to those questions probably died with Hughes.

Read the full profile, “Sweet Bard of Youth,” here, and the outtakes here.

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