Grosse Pointe Blank 🎬

[LessAspin]

Riffing off the Grosse Pointe thread in GD..

Grosse Pointe Blank was an under appreciated John Cusack movie...

Screenwriter Tom Jankiewicz wrote the initial script for Grosse Pointe Blank in 1991 after receiving an invitation to his 10th high school reunion.[2] He picked the title while substitute teaching for an English class at Upland High School, writing the title on the classroom's whiteboard to see how it would look on a movie-theater marquee.[2] Jankiewicz decided to use Grosse Pointe, an upscale suburb of Detroit, Michigan, rather than his working-class hometown of Sterling Heights, Michigan, due to the contrast between the two towns. There is also the wordplay ("point blank&quot , which is a ballistics term of reference to the distance a bullet travels before dropping from the firearm's bore axis.[2]

Jankiewicz simultaneously worked as a substitute teacher and a cashier at a Big Lots in Upland, California, to make ends meet before his script was picked up for production.[2]

Jankiewicz, who was raised in Sterling Heights, based several of the film's characters on his real-life friends from Bishop Foley Catholic High School in Madison Heights, Michigan.[3] For example, Jeremy Piven's character, Paul Spericki, was originally named after Jankiewicz's best friend during high school, although the name was changed during filming.[3] The film's script was based on an urban legend about a student who became a professional hitman.[3] Joan Cusack's character, Marcella, was named for Jankiewicz's manager at Big Lots.[2].....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grosse_Pointe_Blank