Universal Pictures is in negotiations to acquire the rights to make a feature-length movie based on the popular book series Sweet Valley High. If the deal works out smoothly, the studio already has Juno and Jennifer’s Body writer Diablo Cody in line to pen the adaption. Cody set the project in motion with Mason Novick, who together went looking for the rights and made their pitch to Universal. Cody and Novick would also be producing along with Marc Platt.
Cody has settled into a groove where high school kids are a prime element to her stories. Juno, Jennifer’s Body, and her Showtime series The United States of Tara all have characters who are dealing with that time in their lives, so this would certainly be a fitting project for her, though some may want to see her spread her wings and fly a little.
Sweet Valley High revolves around two twin sisters named Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield who are polar opposites of themselves: one a good girl who works hard on trying to become a journalist; the other a resident flirt and cheerleader who gets into more trouble.
The series was started in 1983 by Francine Pascal, who gathered a team of ghostwriters and churned out over 150 books over the years — the last of which hit in 2003. The series has also seen multiple spin-offs transpire.
[Source: THR]
This site gets less ‘geek’ everyday.
Comment by scrotumbagmonkeyflicker — September 26, 2009 @ 7:27 am
I don’t mind the branching out so much on GoD. And Diablo Cody sort of fits in here. As for this news, well I am already sort of sick of Diablo Cody and her pony that can only do one trick (so it would seem). Juno was a pretty important release and holds up pretty well but it isn’t fit for legacy status. It just sort of broke from the pack.
Comment by Joseph — September 26, 2009 @ 10:45 am
That hurt, scrotumbagmonkeyflicker.
Comment by Empress Eve — September 26, 2009 @ 11:53 pm
I guess all of those comic book and DVD giveaways, news stories on movies in development like the Highlander and The Fly reboots, and coverage of Dragon*Con 2009, along with the LA Times referring to me as a “popular blogger on all things nerd culture” is really lessening this site’s geekiness every damn day. WTF?
Comment by Empress Eve — September 27, 2009 @ 12:02 am
hmmm maybe I was a tad bit harsh. I apologise.
Comment by scrotumbagmonkeyflicker — September 27, 2009 @ 6:08 am
Thank you scrotumbagmonkeyflicker. I appreciate it. I know you’re a loyal reader and I love all your comments throughout the site (except for the ones where you’re mean to me, lol).
Comment by Empress Eve — September 27, 2009 @ 9:32 am
Hugged it out bitches. Hugged it out somethin’ good.
Comment by Joseph — September 27, 2009 @ 5:49 pm
If it’s a big news story we try and cover it. Spielberg doing a movie about Abraham Lincoln isn’t exactly “geek,” but it is Stevie S.
And as Joseph said, like it or not, Diablo is a popular lady.
We can always hope that this will see one of the sisters getting knocked up by a stick figure runner and the other sister goes demonic and eats peoples!
As said, I would like to see her try something completely different with no high schools in sight.
Comment by The Movie God — September 28, 2009 @ 3:00 am