With My Bodyguard's successful run concluded by early November, Universal Pictures moved quickly to capitalize on the momentum surrounding its young star, Alex Hayes, and his upcoming film. Sensing potential for a strong counter-programming hit, the studio officially scheduled the release of "Can't Buy Me Love" for February 6, 1981. The accelerated post-production and early release date signaled the studio's confidence in the project.
Around the same time, Aunt Nancy came back to Alex with a list of potential collaborators for his 17 Again script idea. She had compiled names of comedy writers, ranging from seasoned professionals to up-and-comers. As Alex scanned the list at the CAA office, one name jumped out, sparking a strange sense of déja vu: John Hughes.
"John Hughes..." Alex murmured, trying to place the name. "I feel like I've heard of him, but I can't remember where."
"He's primarily known for his work at National Lampoon magazine," Nancy explained. She elaborated, describing the influential publication known for its sharp, often outrageous satire, counter-culture humor, and launching pad for major comedic talents throughout the 1970s. "He's one of their regular contributors, very clever, very tuned into modern life. Still hasn't sold a feature script yet, though. He's looking for that break."
Alex processed this. National Lampoon. Then it clicked – the familiarity wasn't from reading the magazine, but from those dreams. If he recognized the name from the visions, Alex reasoned with his own unique logic, then Hughes was likely destined for something significant. Despite Nancy's note about him being an unsold screenwriter, Alex felt a strong pull. "I want to meet him," he told Nancy decisively.
The meeting was arranged for the next day at a coffee shop near the agency. Alex found himself sitting across from John Hughes, a man of 30 with observant eyes and an air of restless intelligence. After introductions, Alex got straight to the point, wanting to gauge the writer's creative instincts.
"Before I tell you about my idea," Alex began, "I was curious – if you could write any movie right now, what kind of scripts do you want to write? What interests you?"
Hughes leaned forward slightly, his answer immediate and passionate. "Honestly? High schoolers. Teenagers. But done right. I feel like most movies get them totally wrong – they're either treated like mini-adults obsessed only with sex, or like complete morons. There's this whole complex world they live in, the social pressures, the insecurities, the humor... it's rarely captured authentically." He paused, then added, "It's why I thought My Bodyguard was such a good movie, actually. It felt real about some of that stuff."
Alex felt a surge of excitement, thanking Hughes for the compliment to his film. This guy got it. The way he talked about teenagers, wanting to portray them honestly – it aligned perfectly with what Alex envisioned for the 17 Again concept. Maybe he really is the right one, Alex thought. Feeling confident, Alex spent the next few minutes explaining the basic outline of his idea: the middle-aged man getting a chance to relive his high school years to fix his family.
Hughes listened intently, nodding, asking clarifying questions. When Alex finished, Hughes tapped his pen on his notepad. "Okay, interesting. Very interesting potential there. So, tell me," he asked, shifting into collaborative mode, "what are the key characters we need in this script? And what are their personalities?" The conversation had begun.
Alex gathered his thoughts, pulling together the fragmented images from his vision. "Alright, so the main character is Mike O'Donnell," Alex began. "He's 37 years old. And his life... it's just kind of stuck. He feels stagnant, bored, like he completely missed his shot."
He elaborated on the circumstances. "His wife, Scarlet, they were high school sweethearts, but now she's filed for divorce. They have two kids, probably teenagers themselves, but he's pretty distant from them. They don't really connect."
Alex pinpointed the source of Mike's malaise. "See, he always thinks about this moment back in high school. He was the star basketball player, maybe had scholarships lined up, the whole deal. But right before the big game, he found out his girlfriend, Scarlet, was pregnant. He walked away from the game, from that future, to marry her when they were just 17. And now, twenty years later, he feels like that one choice defined his whole life, led him to this dead end."
He paused, setting up the premise. "So, he's miserable, looking back, constantly wishing he could do it over, be 17 again. And then... bam. By some kind of magic, maybe a weird janitor, maybe a bridge, I haven't figured that part out yet... he does. He wakes up and he's seventeen again.But obviously, he can't just walk back into his old life looking like a teenager, so he has to enroll in high school. So he uses a fake name, Mark Gold, to start again."
Alex paused, letting Hughes absorb the core concept. "That's the setup for Mike... or Mark, as a teen."
John Hughes nodded, making a few notes. "Okay, got the protagonist. Mike, stuck in the past, gets a magical do-over as Mark. Who else is central to this?"
"Right," Alex continued, focusing on the key relationships. "There's his wife, Scarlet Porter O'Donnell. She was his high school girlfriend, the one he married at seventeen. Now, she's the one who's borne the brunt of his unhappiness and resentment all these years. She's completely fed up with him living in the past and blaming everything on that one decision. So, yeah, she's the one wanting the divorce."
Alex shifted slightly, moving to the next crucial character. "Then there's Ned Gold. Ned is Mike's best friend from high school – probably the nerdy guy back then who maybe got rich later, a millionaire now, totally different trajectory from Mike. And he's key because he's the only one who knows that 'Mark Gold' is actually Mike, stuck as a seventeen-year-old again. Ned has to help him navigate everything."
He explained Ned's practical role in the plot. "Since Mark needs a plausible identity to enroll in high school and everything, the cover story is that Mark is Ned's... uh... bastard son, basically. Like, a kid Ned never knew he had who suddenly shows up." Alex paused, then added a crucial detail to make the premise work visually. "And here's an idea to explain why Mark looks exactly like a young Mike O'Donnell: maybe Ned is also Mike's cousin. That way, there's a family resemblance. It makes sense that Ned's 'son' would look like Mike did back then."
He looked at Hughes, laying out the core support structure: the estranged wife representing the past Mike needs to fix, and the best friend/cousin enabling the high-school charade.
John Hughes absorbed the details about the wife and the best friend/cousin/enabler. "Right, Scarlet and Ned. Got it. So, the family he's trying to fix – what about the kids?"
"Yeah, there are two," Alex confirmed, picturing the family unit central to the story. "First, there's the daughter, Maggie O'Donnell. She's 18, so she's a senior in high school – the same school 'Mark' ends up enrolling in. "
He then moved on to the son. "And then there's the son Tom O'Donnell. He's younger, 16 years old, also at the same high school. And a key thing with him is that he's getting bullied pretty badly." Alex leaned in slightly, emphasizing the connection. "And guess who's doing a lot of the bullying? Stan, Maggie's boyfriend, the basketball captain. That's part of what Mike, as Mark, discovers when he goes back – seeing his own son getting tormented by his daughter's boyfriend."
Alex paused, having outlined the immediate family unit: Mike/Mark, the estranged wife Scarlet, the popular daughter Maggie who is now his peer, the bullied son, who desperately needs help, and the rich, nerdy best friend/cousin Ned who holds the secret. He looked at Hughes, having laid out the main players and their core conflicts.
Alex then briefly sketched out some of the other necessary minor characters – Ned's eccentricities, clueless teachers, other student archetypes needed to populate the high school world and drive subplots.
Finally, Alex leaned forward again, making a crucial point he felt strongly about, based perhaps on the vague edges of his vision or simply his own instincts. "And one thing we absolutely need to be clear on from the start," he said firmly, meeting Hughes's eyes, "is avoiding any of that potentially uncomfortable or icky stuff between Mark and Maggie. Yeah, he looks her age now, and they're in the same school, but he's still her father inside. There's should not be a whiff of romantic notion even from daughter side, none. That's completely off-limits. Just... no."
John Hughes nodded immediately, his expression showing complete agreement. "Absolutely," Hughes confirmed. "Rule number one. Keep that boundary crystal clear. It's about him trying to reconnect as a father, maybe becoming her friend, but nothing beyond that. Understood."
With the main characters established, their core conflicts identified, and key thematic boundaries set, the foundation for the 17 Again script was laid. Hughes had the raw material he needed, sparked from Alex's unusual inspiration, and Alex felt confident he'd found a collaborator who understood the heart of the story he wanted to tell.