The Aging Process

The movie studios are selling a lot more these days than just movies: “The Lost Boys” has found an afterlife in merchandising following success at the box office ($32.2 million gross). Warner Bros. is pushing “Lost Boys” T-shirts, jean jackets, movie and star posters (of the teen vampires from the pic, led by Kiefer Sutherland).

Interesting, because the original script by James Jeremias and Janice Fischer wasn’t even about two teen-age brothers battling a pack of young vampires (Jason Patric and Corey Haim in the movie). It was a more innocent Peter Pan fable about a 12-year-old and his 8-year-old brother--”kids who just want to have fun and not grow up,” said a production source. They are seduced by older bloodsuckers who offer the ultimate thrill of flying . . . for a chilling price.

But the source tells us that exec producer Dick Donner and studio honchos “wanted the kids old enough to drive” to appeal to the ubiquitous core teen audience. Jeffrey Boam’s rewrite got cars and sexy romance into the movie--and opened merchandising possibilities for teen-age buyers.

Jennie Lew, Donner’s assistant on the film, insists that the changes “had nothing to do with merchandising, it had to do with story. Especially after ‘Goonies’ (Donner produced and directed the PG film for Steven Spielberg), in which the kids were 7 to 9--it was a decision to do a different type of movie.”

“Goonies II,” by the way, is in the scripting stage, but Lew wouldn’t comment on a possible “Lost Boys” sequel.