Photos from Secrets About The Devil Wears Prada

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20th Century Fox/Kobal/Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock

1. The film version of The Devil Wears Prada was in the works before the book even hit shelves. The first 100 pages and an outline were enough to sell Fox executives on the roman-à-clef based on author Lauren Weisberger‘s brief stint at Vogue as editor-in-chief Anna Wintour‘s assistant. “I was the first person to read it at Fox 2000,” Carla Hacken, the studio’s former executive vice president, told Variety in 2016. “I thought Miranda Priestly was one of the greatest villains ever. I remember we aggressively went in and scooped it up.” 

The adaption began ahead of The New York Times Best Seller’s 2003 release, but after four writers took a stab at crafting a direct narrative, Aline Brosh McKenna was tasked with creating a new script focused on the sacrifices women make to move up the masthead at fashion magazines. “I wrote a draft pretty quickly—it took me about a month,” McKenna told the outlet. “Then I rewrote it based on everybody’s notes.”