Why do you want to do this?’ and my only answer was that it was true to the book,” recalled Lynch. Eventually, Lynch “ended up in Samuel Goldwyn Jr.'s office, and he said, ‘David, I hate this ending. Which wasn’t the way that Lynch would have written it, but he wanted to respect his source material. In Gifford’s book, there is no happily ever after for Sailor and Lula. THE ORIGINAL ENDING WAS THE MAIN PROBLEM. They really wanted to work with me, but they rejected that particular script.” 4. “And many of the people who read it were in a position to make it said they wouldn't. “The first was pretty much devoid of any happiness,” according to Lynch. The first version of the script may have flowed, but even Lynch wasn’t happy with the final result. But … that script didn't exactly set the world on fire.” 3. “But I an assistant named Debby Trutnik to whom I was dictating the script, and she just wouldn't go home. “I didn't mean to,” he admitted in an interview with CBC. LYNCH WROTE THE FIRST DRAFT OF THE SCRIPT IN LESS THAN A WEEK. So what started as a joke was exactly what happened.” Montgomery served as one of the film’s producers. “I asked him jokingly: ‘OK, but what happens if I like it so much that I want to direct it myself?’ He said that in that case, I could direct it. “Monty wanted me to help him write the script so he could direct it himself,” Lynch shared in a 1990 interview. Lynch read Barry Gifford’s novel, Wild at Heart: The Story of Sailor and Lula, at the behest of his friend, Monty Montgomery. David Lynch wasn't supposed to direct Wild at Heart. Here are 16 things you might not have known about Lynch’s divisive neo-noir. Yet a quarter-century later, we’re still talking about it. But the film was hardly met with unanimous acclaim when the film claimed Cannes’ top prize, it was met with “great cheers and many boos, some of the latter from me,” Roger Ebert recalled. Just one month after Twin Peaks premiered on ABC, Wild at Heart made its debut at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Palme d’Or. Starring Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern as star-crossed lovers Sailor and Lula, the film-based on Barry Gifford’s novel-was yet another high point for Lynch in what turned out to be a very good year for the cult director. Like a campy version of Romeo and Juliet, David Lynch’s Wild at Heart came roaring into theaters in 1990.