Editing Sleepless in Seattle (section)

=== Origins and development ===
In 1989, ''Sleepless in Seattle'' was conceived by Jeff Arch, a struggling writer and former cinematographer,<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":45">{{Cite news |last=Kempley |first=Rita |date=June 25, 1993 |title=Movies |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1993/06/25/movies/dc628e50-87a9-4a1b-9f70-8ede68fc682e/ |access-date=March 21, 2022}}</ref> whose work as a writer had experienced little to no success at the time .<ref name=":44">{{Cite news |last=Adams |first=Sean |date=November 30, 2018 |title='Sleepless in Seattle' screenwriter and Harrisburg native on the film's 25th anniversary screenings |work=[[The Patriot-News]] |url=https://www.pennlive.com/life-and-culture/erry-2018/11/71b2bd34041075/sleepless-in-seattle-screenwri.html |access-date=March 21, 2022 |id= |quote=But at the time I remember reading an article in the Washington Post about women who were hiring detectives to investigate the men they were dating. So [Meg Ryan's character Annie]'s friend Becky was going to hire a detective to check up on her boyfriend.}}</ref> ''Sleepless in Seattle'' was Arch's first script to be optioned as a film.<ref name=":39">{{Cite news |last=Perez |first=Lexy |date=January 23, 2021 |title='Attachments' Book Excerpt: 'Sleepless in Seattle' Screenwriter Pens Debut Novel (Exclusive) |work=[[The Hollywood Reporter]] |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lifestyle/lifestyle-news/attachments-book-excerpt-sleepless-in-seattle-screenwriter-pens-debut-novel-exclusive-4119990/ |access-date=March 18, 2022}}</ref> The story began as a play about two people falling in love over the telephone without meeting in person.<ref name=":44" /> Arch decided that, unlike typical romance plots in which the main characters bicker for most of the film after they "[[meet cute]]", his couple would not meet until the end of the film,<ref name=":44" /> feeling unprecedented confidence that ''Sleepless in Seattle'' would be successful as long as he "got these people to the top of the [[Empire State Building]] on [[Valentine's Day]]".<ref name=":45" /> The writer drew inspiration from several sources, including the [[French film]] ''[[And Now My Love]]'' (1974), a seminar by motivational speaker [[Tony Robbins]],<ref name=":7">{{Cite web |title=Sleepless in Seattle (1993) |url=https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/59663 |access-date=March 14, 2022 |website=[[AFI Catalog of Feature Films]] |id=Despite [[An Affair to Remember]] being a favorite of his mother's, Arch himself was not particularly fond of the film. |quote=[[Nora Ephron]] credited Jeff Arch with the motif of the 1957 film, An Affair to Remember}}</ref> and a ''[[The Washington Post|Washington Post]]'' article he had read about women hiring [[private investigator]]s to uncover information about their romantic partners.<ref name=":44" />

Arch faced criticism about the unlikelihood of the film being made due to the lack of scenes shared by its lead couple.<ref name=":44" /> He pitched the film to at least six studios and executives, all of whom rejected it for similar reasons.<ref name=":45" /> Desperate, Arch's agent Dave Warden submitted the [[spec script]] to producer Gary Foster in 1990.<ref name=":4">{{Cite news |last=Foster |first=Gary |date=June 25, 2018 |title='Sleepless In Seattle' Hits 25: Producer Gary Foster Narrates Evolution From Spec Script To Seminal Romantic Comedy |work=[[Deadline Hollywood]] |url=https://deadline.com/2018/06/sleepless-in-seattle-25th-anniversary-tom-hanks-meg-ryan-producer-gary-foster-1202416746/ |access-date=March 14, 2022}}</ref> Although Foster typically discards new scripts that fail to captivate him within its first 25 pages, he claims to have read past the 25th page of Arch's script unnoticed,<ref name=":4" /> only to find he was crying by the last page.<ref name=":3" /> Immediately noticing the script's potential, Foster submitted the script to [[TriStar Pictures]] executive Richard Fischoff, whose studio had produced all of his previous films.<ref name=":4" /> At first, Fischoff's staff screened the script and passed on it.<ref name=":4" /> After pleading from Foster, Fischoff eventually relented and read the script, optioning it to TriStar a few days later.<ref name=":4" />

Eventually TriStar chairman [[Mike Medavoy]] heavily promoted the film,<ref name=":45" /> and Foster began interviewing potential directors shortly after.<ref name=":4" /> [[Nick Castle]] had been slated to write and direct ''[[Hook (film)|Hook]]'' (1991), a big-budget adaptation of ''Peter Pan'' also for TriStar, but he was eventually removed from the film in favor of [[Steven Spielberg]].<ref name=":4" /> The studio reassigned Castle to ''Sleepless in Seattle'' as a consolation.<ref name=":4" /> [[Garry Marshall]] had also been considered to direct.<ref name=":7" /> While Foster retained sole producer credit, the film was co-executive produced by [[Lynda Obst]] and [[Patrick Crowley]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Foster |first=Gary S. |date=October 15, 1995 |title=Female Producers;Whose 'Sleepless'? |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/10/15/movies/l-female-producers-whose-sleepless-060739.html |access-date=March 31, 2022}}</ref> Foster struggled to get the film made over the following two years.<ref name=":7" /><ref name=":4" /> After finally agreeing to maintain the idea of keeping the couple separated, TriStar insisted that the "wistful" script be re-written to make the film and each character edgier and quirkier, particularly Sam and Annie.<ref name=":45" /> Foster found the script lacked the sophistication and complexity required to elevate an emotional, sentimental story beyond merely treacle.<ref name=":4" /> Foster reluctantly informed Arch they were interested in changing writers in order to "sharpen" his script.<ref name=":4" /> Although Arch submitted a re-write himself, he soon found he was essentially "kicked off my own movie", and replaced by a writer with whose work he was not pleased, such as relocating the entire film to New York without including the Empire State Building.<ref name=":45" /> Arch begged Foster and director [[Nick Castle]] to hire a better writer "who's going to take this way up to the next level".<ref name=":45" />