’10 Things’ Director Reveals Follow-Up Film with Nod to Heath Ledger (Exclusive)

A new 10 Things movie is in development!

Gil Junger, who directed the original 1999 teen comedy 10 Things I Hate About You starring Julia Stiles and the late Heath Ledger, reveals exclusively to PEOPLE that a follow-up film, titled 10 Things I Hate About Dating, is in the works from himself and original producer Andrew Lazar.

While the film hasn’t been greenlit yet, Junger — who is currently co-writing the script with Naya Elle James — plans to make it the first in a trilogy, with two more subsequent installments titled 10 Things I Hate About Marriage and 10 Things I Hate About Kids.

“10 Things I Hate About Dating is definitively in the works as a feature film. We’re developing it right now,” says Junger, 70, teasing that he, Lazar and James have “some pretty good ideas.”

10 Things I Hate About You follows teen Kat Stratford (Stiles, 44), a high-achieving, sharp-tongued loner who is constantly compared to her perky, popular younger sister Bianca (Larisa Oleynik) by their overprotective single dad, Walter (Larry Miller). Kat’s world is soon turned upside down by the arrival of Patrick Verona (Ledger), an edgy new student who changes her life.

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The movie is widely considered an integral part of the ’90s teen-comedy zeitgeist and went on to inspire a TV series of the same name, as well as a recently announced Broadway musical from Lena Dunham and Carly Rae Jepsen.

Aside from Stiles, Ledger, Oleynik, 43, and Miller, 71, the original 10 Things I Hate About You starred Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Allison Janney, Andrew Keegan, Gabrielle Union, David Krumholtz and more.

Similarly to how the first film was a modern retelling of William Shakespeare‘s 16th-century comedy The Taming of the Shrew, 10 Things I Hate About Dating will be inspired by Molière’s 1666 play The Misanthrope, Junger tells PEOPLE.

And although it’s unclear at this juncture how much of the original setting and plot will play a part in the new story, the director says he’d love to see some familiar faces in the next iteration, which will be aimed at an audience in the 30-year-old age range as opposed to the first film’s teen target.

“I would love to work with Julia again,” Junger says. “She shaped the lives of millions of women. That Kat character really spoke to young women in a very powerful way.”

The director adds that while he “hasn’t thought” seriously about who might star in the new movie yet, as the script is still in its early stages, “If it resonates with [the original cast] and I can have some cameos or even real parts, I’d love [that].”

“I’d love Larry Miller to come back, because he’s so great,” Junger adds.

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One cast member whom he dearly misses? Ledger, who died in 2008 at age 28. In fact, before his death, Junger previously told PEOPLE he was going to offer Ledger the opportunity to star in a follow-up film called 10 Things I Hate About Me, which he wanted to have a similar “tone” as the first.

Asked whether there might be a nod to Ledger in 10 Things I Hate About Dating, Junger says now, “I think that’s a beautiful idea, and the answer is now going to be yes. … He deserves to be loved.”

Meanwhile, via his Breakthru Company, Junger offers audition workshops and courses, which he launched three years ago “to teach actors all over the world how to disregard self-limiting beliefs so they can make a pure connection to their creative energy,” he says. He also has a book coming out called Surviving the Creative Brain, “all about why the creative brain is wired differently.”

But Junger’s own brain is never far from 10 Things, and he tells PEOPLE that celebrating the iconic teen comedy’s 25th anniversary at a screening at Griffith Park in Los Angeles last year was an unforgettable experience, especially considering he “hadn’t seen it in years.”

“I thought, ‘God, I was so on my game,’ ” Junger recalls. “I remembered exactly where I was standing, what notes I gave there and what I did. And then I look out to the audience [during my Q&A], and my 22-year-old and my 19-year-old were sitting in the front row with their dates. And they weren’t born [when the movie came out]. They weren’t even a thought.”

“I thought to myself, ‘This is such a beautiful experience that I get to share this with my own kids, and they get to see the impact that this film genuinely had on people,’ ” he adds of his two sons Ben, now 23, and Will, now 20. “It was amazing for me.”