On march 31, 1999, the high school rom-com  10 things i hate about you  hit theaters, and grossed a modest  $53.4 million worldwide. it was the american film debut of heath ledger, and also to launch the career of julia stiles. loosely based on shakespeare’s  the taming of the shrew,  10 things i hate about you  pits two sisters, kat and bianca, against each other as they romance high school boys. bianca (larisa oleynik) isn’t allowed to date until kat (stiles) does, so joey donner (andrew keegan) pays patrick verona (ledger) to take kat on a date and to the prom. at first she despises him, but then they fall in love. karen mccullah and kirsten smith wrote the script and went on to pen  legally blondeand  the house bunny. tv director gil junger helmed it, and rock band letters for cleo contributed some songs. here are 10 non-odious facts about the iconic late ’90s teen flick.