"The Breakfast Club" follows a group of five high school students who seemed to have nothing alike at first, while they spend a Saturday together in detention. The film covers themes like sex, domestic issues, and social stigmas among youth of the 1980s. Photo by The Breakfast Club/Facebook
CHICAGO, April 23 (UPI) -- A piece of film history was found appropriately placed deep in the back of a high school's filing cabinet in suburban Chicago last month. A first draft screenplay of The Breakfast Club was discovered at the shuttered Maine North High School while staff packed up to move to a new building.
"One day a few weeks ago, one of the assistants was going through a filing cabinet and found a file that had a manuscript from The Breakfast Club dated Sept. 21, 1983," District superintendent of Maine Township High School District 207 Ken Wallace told the Chicago Tribune. "It's a first draft of the screenplay by John Hughes."
The manuscript didn't just appear there, however. The cult classic was filmed inside the high school during the spring of 1984. The school's indoor gym served as the sound stage for the famous 1985 movie's library set.
The script dons the signature of approval from then-superintendent John Murphy, dating back to early 1984. "Reviewed and approved by Dr. Murphy," it reads.
A few notable differences between this draft and the released film are found just by looking at the first draft. Leading lady Clair Standish, for example, was originally named Cathy Douglass. An early title for the film was "Saturday Breakfast Club," the Tribune reports.
The film marked its 30th anniversary this year, reminiscing on the impact it had, and still has, among American teens in the '80s. The film starred Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy.
Superintendent Wallace hopes to find a way to display the script as a piece of film history. "The odds of having such an iconic movie filmed and associated with your district are astronomical," he said.
