Taglines: What Ivy wants, Ivy gets.
Poison Ivy movie storyline. The always challenging transition from adorable child performer to sexy adult star was achieved flamboyantly by actress Drew Barrymore with this erotic drama that unfolds like a paranoia-drenched Lolita (1962). Sylvie Cooper (Sara Gilbert) is a misanthropic student at a private high school for children of the privileged.
While calling in a phony bomb threat to the TV station where her father, Darryl (Tom Skerritt) is a producer, Sylvia attracts the attention of Ivy (Drew Barrymore). Ivy is an orphan from a poor family, attending the school on a scholarship. She and Sylvia quickly become best friends, and Ivy eventually moves out of her aunt’s home and into the Cooper household. Ivy covets the Coopers’ lavish lifestyle and luxuries, so she begins plotting to kill Sylvie’s ailing mother Georgie (Cheryl Ladd), then seduce the alcoholic Darryl and frame Sylvie for the crime, thus taking over the Cooper house.
Director Katt Shea Ruben and her co-writer husband Andy Ruben were veterans of the Roger Corman school of filmmaking. The success of Poison Ivy (1992) on video and cable television inspired a pair of sequels, Poison Ivy 2: Lily (1996) and Poison Ivy: The New Seduction (1997).
Poison Ivy is a 1992 American drama-thriller film directed by Katt Shea. Andy Ruben (who also produced and/or semi-directed the film) transformed Melissa Goddard’s story into the screenplay. It stars Drew Barrymore, Sara Gilbert, Tom Skerritt, and Cheryl Ladd. The original music score is composed by David Michael Frank. The film was shot in Los Angeles.
It was nominated for the 1992 Grand Jury prize of Best Film at the Sundance Festival. Sara Gilbert was nominated for Best Supporting Female at the 1993 Independent Spirit Awards. Although it did not fare very well at the box office, grossing $1,829,804 with its limited theatrical release to 20 movie theaters, the film received favorable word-of-mouth, and became a success on cable and video in the mid-1990s. As a result, the film spawned three sequels that are, by subtitle, Lily, The New Seduction, and The Secret Society.
Producers Melissa Goddard and Peter Morgan bought the original idea to New Line. The studio then hired Katt Shea who had made a number of movies for Roger Corman; according to head of production Sara Risher, the studio wanted “a teenage Fatal Attraction”.
The movie developed greatly from this premise. There were three different drafts of the script and four different endings. According to Shea the original ending had Poison Ivy getting away with her crimes and hitch-hiking along a road. However New Line insisted that Ivy be punished and made her shoot a new ending where Ivy died. New Line then wanted Shea to revive the character for sequels which the director did not want to do; Shea now says she regrets the decision. Shea says that she never regarded Ivy as villainous and that Ivy just wanted love. She credits this for the film’s popularity.
Poison Ivy (1992)
Directed by: Katt Shea
Starring: Drew Barrymore, Tom Skerritt, Sara Gilbert, Cheryl Ladd, Jeanne Sakata, Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael Goldner, Alan Stock, Charley Hayward, Mary Gordon Murray
Screenplay by: Andy Ruben, Katt Shea
Production Design by: Virginia Lee
Cinematography by: Phedon Papamichael
Film Editing by: Gina Mittelman
Costume Design by: Ellen Gross
Set Decoration by: Michele Munoz
Art Direction by: Hayden de Maisoneuve Yates
Music by: David Michael Frank
MPAA Rating: R for sensuality and language.
Distributed by: New Line Cinema
Release Date: May 8, 1992
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