As far as stories go, the 1980s cartoon Jem was pretty awesome and out there. It focused on a young girl whose deceased father left her a computer that helped her use hologram technology to completely change her appearance – or at least her hair and makeup – and become the biggest pop music star in the world. Along with her band, the fittingly-named Holograms, Jem got into a series of adventures that involved rival bands and people trying to take over her music company. Again, it was pretty complicated, which might be why nobody had bothered to poach it from pop culture history for a modern big screen reboot before. But it was only a matter of time before that changed.
GI Joe: Retaliation director Jon Chu will helm and also produce a live action version of Jem and the Holograms, and he’ll be joined by producer Jason Blum and “music mogul” and Justin Bieber enabler Scooter Braun. But this won’t just be any typical Hollywood reboot, exploiting our love of nostalgia for sweet, sweet profit. Instead, it sounds like this might also be a – say it with me, friends – gritty origin story.
Project will reimagine Jem for a hyperlinked social media age, the producers say, and revolve around an orphaned teenage girl who becomes an online recording sensation, she and her sisters embark on a music-driven scavenger hunt –- one that sends them on an adventure across Los Angeles in an attempt to unlock a final message left by her father. (Via Variety)
The coolest thing about Jem was how she used her earrings to change into a rock star, and the lengths she had to go to in keeping her real identity a secret. She was an animated Hannah Montana long before Miley Cyrus was begging for her tongue to be cut off like the Opie toy in One Crazy Summer. But since most kids today don’t have the first clue who Jem is, these guys would like to tell her story all over again, almost as if they’re just using the name and basic plot as a jumping off point.
There’s more to this than just a reboot, though. Chu, Blum and Braun are reaching out to all the hip, young kids out there to help them write the music, cast the roles and whatever else goes into making a movie. Basically, they’re crowdsourcing the entire movie, but they don’t want anyone else’s money. And I think that Blum wants to shoot everyone with his super cool NERF gun.
Every once in a while, I like to make fun of YouTube commenters by pretending that they’re smart, but really mocking the asinine and typically racist things that they post on videos, to add emphasis to the fact that nobody should EVER read YouTube comments. But today – March 20, 2014 – I think that I might have found the most YouTube comment of YouTube comments that has ever been written.
Tell us how you really feel, girlfriend.