Patrick Verona

Unbeknownst to Cameron, Bianca wants to date an affluent senior, Joey Donner.

Cameron selects Australian bad boy Patrick Verona.

Michael convinces Joey to pay Patrick to ask out Kat.

Patrick agrees, but Kat rebuffs his first few advances.

Meanwhile, Bianca upsets Cameron by ignoring him for Joey, but she realizes that Joey is shallow and self-absorbed.

When she asks Cameron to drive her home, he calls her selfish for the way she's treated him, and says his feelings for her are true.

She kisses him in response, and I'm just gonna say it, uh, weak boy energy from him.

yeah like

Zach Seiler from she's all that.

Jake Ryan from 16 candles, Jonathan Moxton from Moxton from Farsi blues and Cappy Rowe from Lucas, Patrick Verona from 10 Things I Hate About You.

We got Jamie Presley as Pasella, the nasty cheerleader who is, you know, based on Taylor Vaughn from She's All That, Big Red and Torrance from Bring It On and Angela Hayes from American Beauty or Christian Olsen as Austin, the cocky blonde guy.

He's based on Dean Sampson from She's All That, Stephanie McKee from Pretty in Pink.

So released in 1999 and directed by Gil Junger, 10 Things I Hate About You is a rom-com adaptation of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, and one of my personal all-time favorite teen movies.

In it, a very beautiful Heath Ledger's Patrick Verona is hired to date Julia Stiles' Kat so that a baby-faced Joseph Gordon-Levitt can date her sister, Bianca.

So Katie, other than the obvious answer of because it's amazing, um, tell me about this choice.

Why, why 10 Things?

Mm.

Like, music is really important to her.

There's a great quote when, uh, when Patrick is trying to find out information-

Yes

And the character mapping is direct, almost one to one.

You have Cameron James, played perfectly by a young Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who basically bribes the school's mysterious bad boy, Patrick Verona, to help him win the heart of the popular Bianca Stratford.

And why does he need this convoluted scheme? Because Bianca's overprotective father has instituted a stripped, archaic dating rule.

Bianca is not allowed to date until her older, notoriously antisocial and abrasive sister, Kat, dates first.

The nomenclature alone is a massive clue hiding in plain sight.

The Stratford sisters referencing Shakespeare's birthplace of Stratford upon Avon, Patrick Verona referencing the Italian city.

But what elevates this from a simple copy paste exercise into a highly successful reimagining is how it handles the themes.

Right.