Diablo Cody Takes On 'Sweet Valley High'
Filed under: Comedy, Drama, Deals, Scripts
The woman of funky phrasing -- Diablo Cody -- is gearing up to tackle the teen world's most infamous twins, the two girls many of us 20 and 30-somethings grew up with -- the Wakefields. The Hollywood Reporter's Heat Vision Blog reports that Universal is currently vying for the rights of Francine Pascal's Sweet Valley High series, which Cody will not only produce, but adapt.
For the uninitiated, there were a whole bunch of books in the Sweet Valley series (started in 1983), allowing young girls to follow blonde twins Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield through their formative years -- Sweet Valley Kids, Twins, Junior High, High, Senior Year, University... It was all covered, with stories that ranged from the battles between Jessica's wildness and Elizabeth's responsible ways, to side stories like my favorite where the jerky and rich Bruce Patman fell for the sweet, beautiful, and once-deaf Regina Morrow, who then up and died. There was the mundane teen fare intermingled with the ridiculously over-the-top installments when people were held hostage, vampires descended -- you name it. There was also a show from the mid to late '90s starring Brittany and Cynthia Daniel.
If Diablo reigns her Cody style into the story -- and doesn't go The Vampire Diaries route changing almost every part of the story but the names -- this is the perfect match that has my inner teen rejoicing. Hey, Diablo: Do Enid, Lila, Bruce, Caroline, et all proud, 'kay? And if you could dump Todd Wilkins and give Elizabeth Nicholas Morrow, that'd be great too.
I wonder ... will Universal try to steal back all the Twitter names?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-23-2009 @ 9:07AM
Matt said...
I know this is fairly simplistic, but bear with me for a minute.
Diablo Cody sucks. So bad.
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9-23-2009 @ 10:29AM
Robin said...
Agreed. But I also have no interest in seeing a SVH adaptation (even as a 32 year old female who read the books when I was a kid), so have at it, Cody.
9-23-2009 @ 11:35AM
Jen Yamato said...
Sweet! I'm looking forward to this. Because I still have an appreciation for Diablo Cody, Jen's Body and all, and I L-O-V-E me some high school dramarama. And I totally watched that Brittany/Cynthia Daniel SVH show.
Side note: I swear there was a show on around the same time as Sweet Valley High, like Sweet Valley High on a boat. Anyone remember, or am I making it up?
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9-23-2009 @ 12:18PM
The Deej said...
That would be Breaker High which starred Ryan Gosling & Tyler Labine.
9-23-2009 @ 12:26PM
Jen Yamato said...
Ohhhhhmygod. Thank. You. So. Much.
9-23-2009 @ 2:34PM
Monika said...
Deej beat me to it. :) It's one of the big cheesy Canadian teen shows.
9-23-2009 @ 12:23PM
Felicia said...
Ok. I have to admit I'm excited by this. I'm 35 so of course I read these books. I don't know how they would cover much of the material with a movie though.
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9-23-2009 @ 1:37PM
CParis said...
Good luck with that. I won't be lining up for this as I grew out of teenHS movies a while back and usually avoid attending films where 90% of the audience is too young to buy a beer.
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9-23-2009 @ 4:53PM
Mr.R said...
And I thought standing a non acting hot broad with fangs speaking Diablo lingo was torture, let me think of something horrible I might have done to put me through this inferno.
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9-26-2009 @ 8:18AM
Jolene said...
OMG i haven't thought about those books in years!! I swear i must have read everyone of them. Not sure if its a good idea to make a movie or not, But i know that if i tried to get my teenager to read them now, she would look at me as if i were smoking crack...lol
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9-26-2009 @ 10:37AM
John F. C. Taylor said...
Too old to have read SVH, but can remember Nancy Drew and Cherry Ames. This was back in the days of my youth along with Tom Swift, Hardy Boys and Rick Blaine. If this plays out like most books to TV/film, SVH is going to be a big disappointment. Not only will details be left out to make it fit, but there'll be major alterations to what appears on screen. Of all the books that have been made into movies or gone on TV, the Lord of the Rings trilogy has come as close as I've seen to any book that I've read.
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9-26-2009 @ 1:06PM
Angie said...
I read SVH and Cherry Ames--glad they haven't done a movie on those one (CA). Those books are classics and I am pretty sure Hollywood would kill it badly. As for SVH, the movie is unnecessary--most of us who read the books aren't into the high school scenario anymore.
9-26-2009 @ 11:33AM
acidbrat said...
I've tried to like Diablo Cody, I really have. I've read the books, I've watched "Juno" (which I simultaneously loved and hated, LOL). I don't outright HATE her work ... I just find all the lingo a bit too precious, affected and pretentious - just MY opinion, of course. I guess I'm just not "hip" enough to appreciate it.
I'm trying to imagine "Sweet Valley High" as interpreted by Diablo Cody and I keep coming up with every teen-centered TV show featuring 15-year-olds mouthing words written by 35-year-olds to sound like 25-year-olds.
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9-26-2009 @ 11:42AM
Carey said...
Hopefully it goes well. And God Bless the writer of this article for recognizing that the tv series The Vampire Diaries is NOTHING like the books!
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9-26-2009 @ 12:45PM
Angel said...
It would be better to do it as a prime time TV show. So many books mean so many episodes. And it would probably be done closer to how the books were written, too.
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10-05-2009 @ 4:11PM
BayouBabe said...
The only thing worse than a Diablo Cody movie is a Diablo Cody FRANCHISE, and that's why they bought this series - so Cody could skulk around in her own horrible high school reinvention for the rest of her writing life.
Which, hopefully, will be brief.
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