“Valley Girl” — The Musical?
Written by admin on July 22, 2008
I was quite happy after first reading about the plan to remake the classic 80s movie “Valley Girl,” a project that is being led by film makers Matt Smith and Sean Bailey. It did not hit me at the time that they were looking to make it a musical.
A musical featuring the great new wave tunes of the time might sound intriguing, but most of those types of movies (like plays) feature the actors attempting to sing the tunes instead of the original artists. I am not the kind of person who likes to put a damp nose on an 80s movie revival story, but the thought of some minimally-talented young “actor” of today attempting to whine through “I Melt With You” or “Love My Way” does not sound too appealing to this 80s guy. Would anyone really want to hear Ashlee Simpson try to lip synch to herself attempting “Johnny Are You Queer?” Why the suits at MGM think this is such a brilliant idea would stymie me only if I expected a sliver of intelligence coming from any of their ilk in the music industry.
Do not misunderstand me: I would be very much looking forward to a remake of the movie with some cameos by those who were originally in the movie, but with the real songs from the original artists. Do the suits think that these musicians are so irrelevant today that a cute young film star of today can reproduce the magic of that soundtrack? The music is the reason that the movie was so great in the first place; otherwise it would have been a run-of-the-mill “chick flick” in 1983 with the same old “boy from poor background falls in love with rich girl” story. While it is true that Nicholas Cage was brilliant in that role, the soundtrack is arguably remembered more as classic than the movie.
I might be wrong, but I do not tend to overestimate the Hollywood suits too much. Maybe they will change their minds and let the actors act while the real soundtrack remains intact. Or, am I starting to sound like one of those old guys a step away from lamenting about things that were better “when I was your age…” from the rocking chair?
