It’s not often that word of a large-scale adaptation of an existing theatrical property thrills me to my absolute core, but I am willing to forget all the weird Les Miserables Starring Country Pop Star Taylor Swift talk if this next project works out as well as it should. Word about a cinematic adaptation of the Tony and Grammy-winning hit musical Jersey Boys (originally produced by Dodger Theatricals, written by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, directed by Des McAnuff, with music by Four Seasons member Bob Gaudio and lyrics by Bob Crewe) has been brewing for awhile, and it’s such a welcome concept for a film that I might actually be dancing in my chair right now. The musical centers on the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, and their incredible rise to fame in the 1960s, and it’s one of those rare musicals that deserves all the heaping and glittery praise it has received. Dancing in the aisles? Check. Smiling from ear to ear? Drama laced in with a great story and fantastic music? Check, check, check! In case it’s not yet readily apparent, I love this musical. It’s my favorite musical. The way people feel about Les Miz? That’s how I feel about Jersey Boys. So the news that two-time Academy Award-nominated screenwriter John Logan has been picked to adapt the film has excited me so much that I’ve very nearly passed out six times while writing this.

The cinematic doppelganger effect seems to happen on a cyclical basis. Every few years, a pair of movies are released whose concepts, narratives, or central conceits are so similar that it’s impossible to envision how both came out of such a complex and expensive system with even the fairest amount of awareness of the other. Deep Impact and Armageddon. Antz and A Bug’s Life. Capote and Infamous. Paul Blart: Mall Cop and Observe and Report. And now two R-rated studio-released romantic comedies about fuck buddies played by young, attractive superstars have graced the silver screen within only a few short months of each other. We typically experience doppelganger cinema with high-concept material, not genre fare. To see two back-to-back movies released about the secret life of anthropomorphic talking insects, a hyperbole-sized rock jettisoning towards Earth’s inevitable destruction, a Truman Capote biopic, or a movie about a mall cop seem rare or deliberately exceptional enough as a single concept to make the existence of two subsequent iterations rather extraordinary. Much has been made of the notion that Friends with Benefits is a doppelganger of No Strings Attached (the former has in more than one case been called the better version of the latter), but when talking about the romantic comedy genre – a category so well-tread and (sometimes for better, sometimes not) reliably formulaic that each film is arguably indebted to numerous predecessors – can we really say these films are doppelgangers in the same vein as the high-concept examples, or [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

Robert Levin takes aim at the popular hobby of hating Nic Cage and asks that we appreciate great trash.

The true-ish story of Chuck Barris, who wrote pop songs, hosted games shows, and killed people for a living. (And the movie where Michael Cera tries to convince a girl his penis tastes like strawberry).

Attention, New York Rejects! In anticipation of this weekend’s release of Where The Wild Things Are, the Museum of Modern Art in New York has created the first ever retrospective of Spike Jonze’s work. Spike Jonze: The First 80 Years.

With this weekend’s release of Angels & Demons, Culture Warrior looks at what types of books make good movies and why.

The Weinstein Co. has just optioned one of her better biographies, “Get Happy – The Life of Judy Garland” by Gerald Clarke. The book is a pretty detailed look at the singer and actress’ life and loves, chronicling her early years up to her dying day in 1969.

Our very own Cole Abaius sits down with Stephenie Meyer, Catherine Hardwicke, Robert Pattinson from Twilight. No, he didn’t make a fool of himself. That bad.

New Line films have recently optioned the screenplay “Dan Mintner: Bad Ass for Hire” by writer Chad Kultgen (Average American Male).

Now Denzel Washington brings us the latest in a long line of imitative films, Die Hard, but on a Subway!

Although news of Twilight has swept across the internet, there are many still out there who have no idea what this movie could possibly be. So, in order to get people up to speed, we here at FSR are pleased to offer an introduction to what could possibly be the next big adaptation.

We’ve got a few copies of Steve Niles’ graphic novel adaptation of Richard Matheson’s classic story that inspired the upcoming Will Smith flick ‘I Am Legend’. All you have to do is play a little game…

Alan Rickman and Johnny Depp both equate it to some good, old school horror, but they don’t talk much about the song-and-dance. I wonder if this is intentional on the part of Paramount’s marketing department.

Blasting its way into theaters this Thanksgiving is the movie adaptation of the critically acclaimed game.