Exclusive: Watching "Young Adult," the new dramatic comedy (or comedic drama) from director Jason Reitman and writer Diablo Cody (who previously teamed on the Oscar-winning "Juno" and the unfairly ignored "Jennifer's Body"), we got to thinking about a project that had previously been announced a couple of years back but we haven't heard anything about for a while: a revamped big screen version of the beloved book series "Sweet Valley High." While Cody told us that the two projects were "inexorably linked" (we'll get into this more when it's time to talk about "Young Adult"), we wanted to know the nuts-and-bolts details of what was happening with the sugary, teen-girl favorite "Sweet Valley High."
"That is moving forward," Cody told us. "I need to talk to the producers and see how much I can say about it. It's closer to reality than ever but I can't freely talk about it."
Still, we wondered what her goals were for the movie. Would this have some kind of crazy modern feminist bent? Would the characters talk like they had just come from an audition for a Joss Whedon movie? Would any of them be pregnant or demonic or have multiple personalities? It turns out: none of the above.
"I want it to be wonderfully nostalgic," Cody said. "I want it to be to the '80s what 'American Graffiti' was to the [early] '60s. I want it to be looking back on a really cool time and enjoying yourself and I want it to be glamorous and colorful and bubblegum and a feast for the senses. That's my plan."
Honestly, this sounds pretty irresistible – Cody's razor-sharp dialogue behind a conceptually sound backbone could be the rare post-Hughes teenage movie that we can all see and love (even the most cynical of us out there). We eagerly await more news on "Sweet Valley High," but until then, be sure to check out "Young Adult" when it lands in theaters on December 16th. More from our interview with Diablo Cody soon.