The weak opening of Jennifer’s Body isn’t holding Diablo Cody back. The unfairly maligned screenwriter has signed on to bring the Sweet Valley High books to the screen for Universal. And she has a lot to work with – there are over 150 Sweet Valley books in print. And now, thanks to this deal, I finally know that Sweet Valley High has a story. Or at the very least, a central conceit. Says Variety:
The “Sweet Valley” novels followed the lives of identical twins with
dissimilar personalities — the sensitive and practical Elizabeth and
the flighty and boy-crazy Jessica — in the fictional town of Sweet
Valley.
Oh my!
Cody has long been a superfan of the series, so this is a match made in heaven. And while this film is obviously not being geared towards the grown men who read children’s superhero comic books, they’ll likely have a lot of snarky things to say about it.
Interestingly, Universal has shut down developing new projects for the rest of the year, but Cody managed to get around that austerity measure by getting the project fast tracked.