• the217
• Movies + TV
• I Love You, Beth Cooper hits the big screen

Related Media

It is easy to see that Larry Doyle was heavily influenced by John Hughes when writing his hilarious book I Love You, Beth Cooper. The high school setting, the angsty teen lead character, the popular music and movie references — all of it shadow a time when teen movies were both funny and charming.

Doyle, who is an alum of U of I, got his start writing for shows like Beavis and Butthead and The Simpsons, then moved on to writing screenplays like the Drew Barrymore comedy Duplex.

In I Love You, Beth Cooper, Doyle channels all of this and adds a good helping of the Superbad humor that we all have grown accustomed to as of late. This July marks the opening of the film version of Doyle’s book, and if the movie matches the quality of the book, we are going to have a great comedy to watch this summer.

The story centers around Denis Cooverman, who announces to his entire graduating class that he loves Beth Cooper during his valedictorian speech. The real challenge for the film isn’t going to be translating the story but implementing all of the subtleties that made the book work so well. Doyle, who also penned the script of the film, admitted that much of the book would not translate well into film, so some changes had to be made.

“There is a lot of satirical elements that don’t translate well to the movie,” said Doyle, “like [how the book] makes fun of certain kinds of clichés in teen movies. If you actually do it in a teen movie, it just looks like you are doing it and not making fun of it.”

Doyle also said a big difference from the book to the movie is the way the film visually portrays the characters. The cast includes Hayden Panettiere, of Heroes fame, playing Beth Cooper.

“Hayden is the type that Beth Cooper would be,” explained Doyle. “Although in the book, she has dark hair and is taller.”

Doyle had other worries about Miss Panettiere that concerned him when she was cast as the lead female role.

“When Hayden was first cast in the movie, I wasn’t sure that she could act it because she doesn’t do much in Heroes, which is all sci-fi 101 shit,” said Doyle. “In the movie, she has to do a lot of subtle acting, and she does an amazing job.”

Fans of the book will overlook small changes like physical appearance of the characters, but what may irk some of them is the fact that a lot of the adult humor is taken out of the movie.

“The movie is PG-13, and the book is NC-17,” said Doyle. “The book has condoms hanging from an underage kid’s penis and references to blowing people while they are taking a poop.”

Blumpkins and other odd sexual moves aside, Doyle hopes that the attention of the movie gets more people interested in its source material. As to which is better, the book or the movie, Doyle said, “I think that they are different things. The book did well, but it wasn’t a gigantic best-seller. I hope that the movie will get more people to read the book.”