as his graduation thesis. At the age of 20, Johnson came up with the idea for the film through conversations with his uncle, Dirk Wittenborn, a novelist and screenwriter, who is also a producer of the film. Having been brought up reading Scott Fitzgerald, Johnson noted that no one of his class or background had attempted to examine issues of social class in America today. He was also personally motivated to make this film by his approaching inheritance on his 21st birthday, having observed that a lot of people with inherited wealth, including members of his family, “live unproductive lives, and even in some cases tragic and miserable lives.” He wanted to figure out why this occurs to avoid that fate. The film makes reference to his grandfather, Seward Johnson, noting the conflicts from his third, late in life marriage to his chambermaid, and the longest, most expensive contested will trial in U.S. history that ensued after his death in 1983. During the trial there were ongoing headlines in The New York Times about the estate battle and lurid tales were revealed that humiliated his family. Johnson said, “My grandfather made some serious mistakes, he was born rich and I really didn’t want to be in the same situation that he found himself in at the end of his life.” It took three years to make as most of the young heirs contacted to participate in the film turned him down, sometimes harshly, due to parental objection, fear of losing their inheritance, or fear of violating social taboo. A Campbell's soup heir and a Rockefeller initially agreed to participate but both of them backed out due to a parent's objections. The pre-production took two years and involved hundreds of phone calls to line up the "young inheritors". Johnson enlisted Bingo Gubelmann, a childhood friend who is a cousin of socialite Marjorie Gubelmann, to be a co-producer and to help recruit "inheritors" in their late teens to mid-20s who could live lavishly without ever having to work. 11 heirs ended up being interviewed. Filming By summer of 2000, after a year of filming, most of those interviewed were asking Johnson to take them out of the movie. Carlo von Zeitschel threatened a lawsuit but never filed. Johnson recalls people approaching him at parties telling him that he was a traitor to his class, that making the documentary was the "stupidest thing"