Truly, truly… out of focus.
Right now, this is the best look anyone's had at the cast of “Jem and the Holograms,” and believe it or not, there are people who are very excited (and worried) about what's coming.
I have a friend who recently made a joke about the cartoon, and when I told her that there is a live-action reboot coming this year, she flipped. It was a potent reminder that all of these properties have their true believers, people who bonded with this thing in childhood and who now take it very seriously as adults. It means something to them.
Meredith Woerner over at ion found an image from the film in the March issue of Elle magazine, and it's kind of amazing that we've seen nothing from a film that is set to be released in October of this year. I'm curious to see how it plays, because Jon Chu is a pretty canny pop artist. His two “Step Up” movies are energetic and fun, and he knows what he's doing when it comes to shooting dancers. His first Justin Bieber documentary, “Never Say Never,” is an infomercial, but it is a brilliant bit of pop star mythmaking.
That's what “Jem” is about, evidently, with the original cartoon having been rethought to make it relevant to kids who think of the Internet as their primary source of entertainment. I don't watch “Nashville,” but Aubrey Peeples has made an impression as a singer on that show, and it could make her a nice fit for playing the role of Jem.
The poster came out April of last year —
— and since then, silence. Today's photo isn't even an official Internet release. It's as nice a snap as you're going to get off of a low-res blow-up of a picture from a magazine. Honestly, I'm as entertained by Meredith's write-up as anything else. I don't have any stake in this, but I hope for those of you who do that the film turns out to be entertaining.
“Jem And The Holograms” will be in theaters October 23, 2015.