How did you get involved with the project?

A: I was actually contacted originally by Brad Pitt who at that time was starring in the film and they were looking for a director of the movie. I had an association with his company and somebody suggested my name in association with this, so I met Brad, I spoke to Universal about it and that was how I got involved. So it was bizarre that I ended making the film even though the actor ended up not doing the film, which was quite strange, as he invited me to the party, as it were.

You also had to contend with Brad Pitt leaving the film just before you were due to start shooting. What was that like?

A: Right from the very beginning we had different views on what the film was going to be and I assumed because of the way that he kept going and was involved with the film until a week before we started shooting that was just the way that he was and that he would disagree with you about things and that you would argue about it. And I think that is the way he is, I think he gets himself involved with things and then gets cold feet and argues a bit and it’s sort of backwards and forwards, it’s the way he gets himself to be ready to be in the film. I think that’s what happens, from what I understand, on a lot of his projects. I didn’t think he was not going to do the movie until a week before we were ready to start shooting.

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With all the news today about “Baby Fae,” the California baby who was given the world’s first baboon heart transplant in 1984 and lived 21 days, Speakeasy’s memory was jogged into thinking about the film “Untamed Heart.” We have a soft spot for the 1993 romantic drama, which starred Christian Slater as a sensitive busboy with, yes, a baboon’s heart, because it was the first PG-13 movie we ever paid good allowance money for. The film co-starred a pre-”My Cousin Vinny” Marisa Tomei as Caroline, a waitress who falls for Slater’s character after he rescues her from an attempted rape by a couple of thugs.

Speakeasy tracked down “Untamed Heart” screenwriter Tom Sierchio to talk to him about his inspiration for the film.

As for Adam, the part that went to Slater, Sierchio says he met “quite a few times” with Woody Harrelson about the part (who would later do a popular sketch on “Saturday Night Live” with Dana Carvey that featured the line: “The sun feels good on my baboon heart!”) and that Brad Pitt was “dying” to do the movie. But, says Sierchio, Slater’s 1992 film “Kuffs” had just come out and had a $10 million weekend, so MGM “didn’t have the foresight and went with the sure thing with Christian.” (Reps for Madonna, Harrelson and Pitt couldn’t be reached for comment.)

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Thanks intothegrinder.