Diablo Cody to Add Witty Dialogue to ‘Sweet Valley High’
Posted by Neil Miller (neil@filmschoolrejects.com) on September 23, 2009
Diablo Cody is going back. Back to high school. And this time, she’s not going to have a witty, sexy teen walking around killing all of the boys in her particular zip code. According to Heat Vision, She’s going to be breathing life into the students of Sweet Valley High, based on the popular series of tween books by Francine Pascal. The series, which debuted in 1983 and has since gained cult status among several generations of teenage girls, follows the lives of two girls, Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield, who lived in the fictional town of Sweet Valley, California. One conniving and materialistic (Jessica) and one realistic and practical (Elizabeth), the two girls descend upon their local high school with various schemes and untold amounts of mischief.
The literary series, some 150-plus books in length, has more than 60 million copies in print today, with the last of the series being published in 2003.
Hot off her work on Jennifer’s Body, which opened to a lackluster box office showing this past weekend, Cody will look to use brand strength to make a hit out of Sweet Valley, producing alongside Mason Novick (Jennifer’s Body) and Marc Platt (Wanted).
For my money, this production should be about the resurrection of careers. Cody needs some help after flopping around with Jennifer’s Body, and I don’t think The United States of Tara is going to cut it. Likewise, I think that perhaps Lindsey Lohan, or possibly even the Olsen Twins, should star as the Wakefield girls. I mean, why not. They were all popular back when these books were really popular, weren’t they?
What do you think of the Diablo Cody/Sweet Valley High combo?
Read more articles by Neil Miller
