I’ve always thought the idea of a sequel to Heathers, that relentlessly black cult classic of 80s high-school comedy, was a bit pointless. Luckily, director Michael Lehmann seems to think so, too, having recently poured cold water on original star Winona Ryder’s repeated suggestions that a followup was in the offing to the body-strewn tale that briefly made a leering Christian Slater resemble a sort of bratpack Jack Nicholson.
“Winona’s been talking about this for years – she brings it up every once in a while,” he told Moviehole. “[Screenwriter] Dan Waters and I will joke about it, but as far as I know there’s no script, and no plans to do the sequel.”Having said that, there have been a number of spiritual successors, Lindsay Lohan vehicle Mean Girls probably being the pick of the bunch. Now, Diablo Cody, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Juno, has picked up the baton, and with some degree of relish by the looks of it. Jennifer’s Body, the first trailer for which has just hit the web, comes with a Cody screenplay and Juno’s Jason Reitman as producer – though the director is the less well-known Karyn Kusama, who made 2000 Sundance hit Girlfight and lame 2005 Charlize Theron comic-book adaptation Aeon Flux.
The film’s coup de grâce might be to cast Megan Fox, star of Transformers, as a high-school beauty possessed by a cannibalistic demon with a penchant for offing hunky jock types. Amanda Seyfried (Mamma Mia!) plays the good girl former best friend who slowly realises her pal Jennifer is “evil. Actually evil. Not just high-school evil”.
I’m a total sucker for this sort of trashy, edgy material. But what do you reckon? It looks pretty unlikely to win Cody any more awards, but I personally found Juno rather twee and dreadfully worthy. At least Jennifer’s Body looks likely to eschew the wimpy indie soundtrack of Cody’s last film in favour of some kick-ass 80s rock and pop. After all, as everybody knows, the devil really does have all the best songs.
Source: Gurdian UK
