Three Thousand by J. F. Lawton was originally developed at now-defunct Vestron Pictures by cult filmmaker Donald Cammell (1934–1996) as a stark drama about a cocaine-addled streetwalker who gets paid $3,000 by a businessman to be his escort for a week. Disney acquired the script, called it Pretty Woman, hired Barbara Benedek to do a page one rewrite, and cast Julia Roberts as the most beloved whore of all time.