Hayley Atwell Will Be in Sort of a Sequel to '10 Things I Hate About You'

Because ABC Family's 10 Things I Hate About You television series went over such a storm, director Gil Junger has decided it's time to once again make a spin-off of the biggest success of his career. And this time it will involve suicide, AS WE DEMANDED.

According to Variety, Junger will next direct 10 Things I Hate About Life, a loose not-quite-sequel to 10 Things I Hate About You that will star absolutely none of that film's charismatic cast (which included such notables as Julia Stiles, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the late Heath Ledger, and Alex Mack). Instead, Captain America's Hayley Atwell is attached to play a new character, one of two "relatable, ordinary people with normal jobs and normal desires (so relatable!) whose seemingly great lives have become unmanageable," Junger told the trade. Whereas the original film was written by Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith, and based on Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, this script comes from Junger himself, based on an experience he had coming across a man who had committed suicide at a scenic overlook. You know how it is: you see a body splattered across some rocks beneath a lovely waterfall, you start to think, "Fuck, life is so fleeting. I should probably do something with that teen comedy I made in 1999."

Junger also clarified that, aside from the inspiration of a misery-filled corpse, his other motivation for making a sequel is that he would big-time like some more money; last year alone, he apparently made more money from 10 Things residuals than he did for originally directing the film, so he clearly sees some future paychecks in a sequel, no matter how ill-conceived it may be. Basically, we should be happy Junger's Black Knight wasn't more financially successful, or right now I'd be reporting a shaky thematic sequel to Martin Lawrence traveling back in time.