‘Heathers’ Getting an Update

heathers

It’s the remake roulette wheel.  Around, around she goes and where she stops, no one knows.  This week, she’s stopping on 1989, where the black teen comedy, ‘Heathers,’ resides.  This time, however, Fox is developing an updated version of the film for TV.  Why not?  Every other movie in the ’80s had its shot at a TV series.  Why not ‘Heathers.’  It’s just that it’s about 20 years too late.

As reported on Variety, the series is being developed by screenwriter Mark Rizzo and “Sex and the City” writer and producer, Jenny Bicks.  The series will be developed in hand with Lakeshore Entertainment, who holds the rights to the original, 1989 film.

The original film followed a clique of snotty, rich girls at a high school.  One of the girls, Veronica, played by Wynona Rider, isn’t so sure she wants to be one of the “popular” girls.  Her dreams are answered when a new kid, JD, played by Christian Slater, comes to the school and the popular kids start turning up dead.  As noted in the Variety article, look for most of the characters to be back for the series.

While the idea of reviving a story set in a high school seems ideal for TV, the fact that the film was so centered on the murders makes it seem like the series is going to be very limited.  Perhaps, like this Summer’s “Harper’s Island,” Fox is only planning on running the series for one season.  We’ll see.

Andy Fickman developing ‘Heathers’ Musical

heathersmusical

Remember ‘Heathers’…? Of course you do! The 1988 dark comedy about teens is a popular cult favorite and launched the careers of Wynona Ryder, Christian Slater and Shannen Doherty. Well, are you ready for Heathers: The Musical? No, I didn’t stutter. It’s true, but it gets even worse. Andy Fickman, you know… the auteur director responsible for Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s masterpiece Disney films including ‘The Game Plan’ and ‘Race to Witch Mountain’… yeah, so he’s developing a musical stage adaptation of ‘Heathers’. Yipee!

The trio has worked on the production under the radar for some time, even doing readings this week in Endeavor’s screening room. The readings saw “Veronica Mars” star Kristen Bell playing the lead and Christian Campbell as J.D., with Jenna Leigh Green (“Wicked”), BrokeDown Cadillac lead singer Corri English and Christine Lakin (the CW’s “Valentine”) as the three Heathers. — HR

Fickman isn’t entirely foreign to the musical genre, having directed ‘Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical’ in 2005 with partner Kevin Murphy, with whom he is working with on ‘Heathers’. Fickman claims the original movie offers many “over the top” moments that would give the musical a similar appeal to John Waters’ ‘Hairspray’. Unfortunately, Fickman failed to consider one crucial element… Waters knows how to make an entertaining movie!

[source: Hollywood Reporter]