Today, November 25, 2022, is the 30th anniversary of the release of The Bodyguard. The iconic Hollywood film catapulted Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston to massive fame, but an even bigger name was planned for the sequel. After the 1992 film’s release, Costner began working on the script for its follow-up, The Bodyguard 2. But instead of Houston or another pop star, he wanted to bring real-life royalty on board: Princess Diana.
Costner later revealed that he wanted to revisit The Bodyguard with Princess Diana and tell a story “loosely based on her life”. Speaking in 2012, he broke his silence on the biggest movie that never happened.
He said that “the studio liked the idea of making Bodyguard 2” with Diana playing the next love interest of his film’s character, Frank Farmer. She added that the ex-wife of King Charles III would be taking on a role “in the same kind of capacity as Whitney”. She also revealed that “nobody really knew for about a year.”
The Yellowstone actor also revealed that his character would have been “protecting Diana’s character from stalkers and paparazzi before their relationship inevitably turned romantic.”
Costner spoke candidly with Diana on the phone while preparing the script. And this romantic angle between her characters was something that Diana was quite interested in.
Costner added that Diana asked him to reconnect with her once the dramatic period in his life came to an end. At the time, she was going through a messy divorce from the then Prince, now King Charles. As a result, she told Costner, “Look, my life maybe will become my own at some point. Go ahead and do this script, and when it’s done, I’ll be in a really good place.”
Costner went ahead and continued writing the new script. But unfortunately, Princess Diana died in a car accident shortly after, on August 31, 1997.
The actor revealed that he received the second draft of the script the day before Diana’s death. He later said of the royal’s death: “When we lost her, it was tragic. Unbelievably tragic. And private to me, actually. I didn’t talk about it for a year, and someone else talked about it and that’s how that story came about. a while ago. There was a bit of a discrepancy as to whether it was true or not, and we worked our way through that.”
Costner later claimed that he first connected with Princess Diana with the help of another member of the royal family: Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York. He said: “Sarah was really important. I always respect Sarah because she’s the one who started the conversation between me and Diana. And she never said, ‘Well, what about me? I’m a princess too.'” She just supported the idea.”
Bodyguard’s first film was a huge success, receiving Academy Award nominations for Best Original Song. The accompanying soundtrack also became the best-selling soundtrack of all time.
The Bodyguard is now available as a digital download.
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