With any major Hollywood success comes the inevitable onslaught of imitators, and High School Musical is no different. While Disney themselves took the cheesy teen musical genre in a slightly (and I do mean slightly) edgier direction with Camp Rock, rival TV networks MTV and Nickelodeon jumped on the bandwagon with their mediocre efforts, The American Mall and Spectacular!. Although Spectacular! performed fairly well in the ratings, a film with ex-Home & Away star Tammin Sursok as its only recognisable cast member could not compete with the Zac Efrons and Jonas Brothers of this world. However, this hasn’t deterred other film companies from backing teen musical projects, and we can expect several to appear in UK cinemas over the next year. Here is the Lowculture guide to some of the most interesting musicals on the release schedule…
Bandslam
This is directed by Todd Graff, the man behind the brilliant 2003 teen musical, Camp, and if that’s anything to go by, Bandslam is likely to be the quirkiest of the new musical films. Its cast list does include David Bowie, after all! Then again, lead roles have gone to High School Musical’s Vanessa Hudgens and Aly Michalka, another Disney singer well known for her clean-cut image, so don’t expect anything too controversial. There probably won’t be any cross-dressing teenagers in Bandslam as there were in Camp, but, on the other hand, you might have a little more chance of catching it at your local cinema, so there is at least one advantage to Graff’s more commercial venture. From the trailer I can deduce that Bandslam’s storyline involves a geeky boy befriending some cooler girls and starting a band, and that the geeky boy’s mum is played by Lisa Kudrow. If that tickles your fancy, Bandslam is released in the UK on the 12th of August.
Fame
Remakes of Fame are regularly rumoured, but with the resurgence of the teen musical genre, the project has finally gotten off the ground, and a new version featuring a host of up and coming young starlets is on its way to the big screen. Trailers have been released and Fame is certainly going to be a grand and dramatic affair, but there is not yet much sign of a storyline. I’m not too worried, though. Who needs a storyline when you can have pretty young things singing and dancing for 90 minutes? That’s the whole point of teen musicals, after all. The youngsters are joined by a few well-known TV stars, including Kelsey Grammar, Megan Mulally and original Fame star, Debbie Allen. You can also keep an eye out for a former member of 3LW and a contestant from So You Think You Can Dance, if you so wish. Fame will be released in the UK on the 25th of September.
Footloose
You might have heard about this Footloose remake as the ubiquitous Zac Efron was set to take the lead role of Ren (originally played by Kevin Bacon), but apparently he found something more important to do, and he pulled out of the project a few months ago. A replacement was eventually found in the shape of Gossip Girl heartthrob Chace Crawford, an unexpected choice considering that there is no previous record of him singing or dancing. It will certainly be interesting to see how capable he turns out to be, and I must admit this will be my main reason for seeing the film. With High School Musical choreographer Kenny Ortega on board, there should be some fun dance numbers, although this film does seem to be continually struck with bad luck – popular singer/dancer Julianne Hough is meant to be playing Ariel, but has reportedly been sent off to acting classes after her initial screen test was a complete embarrassment!
Hairspray 2
One musical film Zac Efron is still expected to appear in is the follow-up to the hugely successful Hairspray remake from 2007. John Waters, who wrote the original and remade versions of Hairspray, suggested such crazy ideas at first for the sequel that they had to be tamed down, including Link taking acid and talking to his spots, Edna becoming addicted to diet pills, and even one scene where Penny blew up the world out of anger! We do know that Hairspray 2 will be set at the time of the Vietnam War, and that most of the main characters will return, with the exception of Velma (Michelle Pfeiffer) who has been written out in favour of a new villain. There are also rumours that the film will be in 3D as director Adam Shankman has been impressed with the results of Step Up 3D, which he is currently working on. Hairspray 2 is clearly in the very early stages of production at the moment, but it’s definitely one to look forward to in 2010.
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its cool, right?