There was brief talk of an 11 Things I Hate About You sequel, but a tonally synonymous follow-up called 10 Things I Hate About Life did get underway in 2012. It starred Evan Rachel Wood and Thomas McDonnell as two kindred spirits who meet when they’re both in the middle of trying to commit suicide—and it never came out.
But director Gil Junger, reteaming with producer Andrew Lazar, hit the ground running. “We were open, we wanted to get a fresh, young cast,” Lanz told Vumanity, “but it just so happens, as we started meeting girls, Evan Rachel Wood—much like Julia Stiles did—just so out-shined all of the other actors in terms of talent, in terms of depth and emotion, that we settled on her.”
After six screen tests to pair Wood with the right guy, “we ended up with somebody phenomenal.” Lazar called the chemistry between McDonnell and Wood “electric.” They also had Skylar Grey in the Letters to Cleo role as the cool-live-music presence.
Production, however, was halted in February 2013 when the CEO of Intandem, the U.K.-based company financing the film, stepped down.
Also by then, Wood was pregnant with her son, who was born that July; the new Intandem CEO claimed the production was delayed because of her pregnancy but would resume in September. Instead, in June 2014, 10 Things Films sued Wood for breach of contract and $30 million, claiming she was paid $300,000 and then “seemingly changed her mind about desiring to complete the film during principal photography, ultimately refusing without any legal justification to fulfill her contractual obligations and instead opting to walk out on the project.”
A rep for Wood called that “preposterous,” stating that Wood was ready to resume work in November 2013, when producers promised they’d be ready, but they “still could not get their act together.”