'Valley Girl' Being Remade as a Musical

Cover songs are troublesome. Most contemporary artists who tackle a old song don't do anything new to them, and no, Rascal Flatts adding a dobro to "Life is a Highway" for the Cars soundtrack does not constitute doing anything different. Plus, anything it would add would be immediately subtracted by the shitsuck that is Rascal Flatts. Movies are the same way: If you're going to remake it, do something with it that we haven't already seen. There is a pandemic of remakes at the moment, and most aren't very good. But I'll give MGM a little credit for their announced update of Valley Girl: It's being turned into a musical a la Hairspray. Saying that and doing it are two different things, but at least it's not just a remake for the sake of a remake. The Hollywood Reporter says Valley Girl "has been recast as a Romeo and Juliet-inspired musical built around the movie's new wave soundtrack (think Modern English, Sparks and the Psychedelic Furs)." My initial thought is that it could be something like Moulin Rouge! with new interpretations of the songs, although you would expect some original material, too. I don't know if they'd go that direction, but would your soundtrack be stronger with "I Melt With You" as opposed to something that's supposed to approximate it? The studio has wisely picked a veteran of the stage musical, Jason Moore, to make the new film. His Broadway credits include Shrek: The Musical, Steel Magnolias, and Avenue Q. Beyond those productions, Moore has also directed a few episodic TV shows, but this is his first feature film. Realistically, Valley Girl has a better chance to succeed than the Girls Just Want to Have Fun remake also headed our way. And the reason is because they're not going to remain locked into what the movie was but rather how it can become something else.

Comments

[kinsey]

thumbs up on the valley girl remake.... and thumbs up on introducing me to the word "shitsuck"