Waters achieved critical respect with his first screenplay, "Heathers" (1989), based in part on a fictional column he wrote while in high school. A cult classic, "Heathers" is a black comedy about high school life, depicting cliques, teen angst, suicide and murder sprightly directed by Michael Lehmann. Its success led Waters to work on two films for producer Joel Silver: "The Adventures of Ford Fairlane" (1990) and "Hudson Hawk" (1991). The former was a thriller about a detective trailing a mysterious woman who may or not be involved in the murder of a rock star; the latter was a
