Seems that Diablo Cody is continuing to beat the odds. Even though the Jennifer’s Body box office was weak she seems to have gotten her next gig. Let’s also keep in mind that Toni Collette won a surprise best actress Emmy on Sunday night for the United States of Tara which Cody created.
She is adapting and producing a film based on the Sweet Valley High books for Universal which outbid Fox for the project. Story is about identical twins Jessica and Elizabeth with opposite personalities. One gets into trouble, the other gets her out of trouble.
What was awesome to me is that I first heard about this through a breaking news email from the Hollywood Reporter. You gotta be big to warrant a breaking news email.
This could be very interesting. Lots of girls (I am a bit too old) read Sweet Valley High. Dang there are over 150 books and it was a TV series for several years. Could be another potential franchise in the making.
Don’t think Sweet Valley High will be quite as sweet after Cody gets hold of it.
Diablo Cody Takes on Sweet Valley (Variety)
Hopefully it’s better than the Babysitters’ Club movie from about 10 years ago. (Seeing as how this is Diablo Cody, I suspect it will be)
I’m actually pretty excited for this. There’s a whole generation of girls like me who grew up on the book in the late 80s and early 90s and there are quite a few blogs who take the time to tear the SVH books apart now that they’re older and can see how ridiculous the series was, The Dairi Burger being the best blog. It has the potential to be a really good comedy.
THIS IS EXCITING! :D
Ok, enough caps. :p But I am REALLY excited about this! Don’t be deceived by the name Melissa, those books were far from sweet, which makes Diablo almost perfect to adapt them with. Actually it reminds me very much of what Jennifer’s body seems to be about – with Jennifer being Jessica, and Needy being Elizabeth. It really was more like fictionalized Melrose Place or 90210 than teen romance, although they also had that thrown in their.
Firstly, I’m glad the screenplay is being adapted by a female. Secondly, I’m glad that it’s Cody. She may be young enough to respect the genre, but still be able to exaggerate its silliness. It’s completely relational driven, but has a hefty amount of action in it; hopefully she won’t lose that in screenplay form, and she’ll add just enough snark to make it work. I would worry that someone would over-sentimentalize it, but she wouldn’t be the one.
Just thinking about this is bringing back good memories. I dropped the series as I got older and lost interest, so I didn’t quite make it through all 100+ books. But I did read quite a bit of them before I turned to other fiction. I actually wonder why they are deciding to it?
And I think this is great for Cody, that she can possibly be like other artists: have a bomb and still keep it moving to the next.
I didn’t think the Babysitter’s Club movie was bad at all. It was meant for like pre-teens and I think that demographic really enjoyed the film, including myself.
I was a huge fan of the Sweet Valley High TV show (a bit too young for the books lol) so I’ll be excited to see how this turns out.