Film Review: 'The Runaways': Like rocker Joan Jett herself, the new film about her band The Runaways beat the odds to become a success

By John J. Moser, The Morning Call, Allentown, Pa.

Mar. 20--' 'The Runaways," the new movie that tells the story of the 1970s prototypical punk girl group by the same name and its founder, Montgomery County native Joan Jett, has captured the pop culture buzz with a tawdry tale of teen angst, cool tunes and hot stars Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning.

But Jett's longtime manager, Kenny Laguna, says it took a dozen years and a collection of filmmakers and financiers to get the movie made after the Hollywood establishment turned up its nose -- much as the music business did to rock and roll hitmaker Jett when she started out and was playing Lehigh Valley venues.

"The Runaways" debuted in limited release Friday and opens nationwide April 9.

"The timing wasn't really a plan, although I think the timing is good if we had planned it out," Laguna says in a telephone call, noting the release marks the 35th anniversary of the founding of The Runaways.

Jett was born and spent her early years in Wynnewood, Montgomery County, then moved to Pittsburgh, Erie and Rockville, Md., before her family relocated to California. There, at 15, she formed The Runaways in 1975 with drummer Sandy West.

The group, guided by Svengali-like manager Kim Fowler, used its jailbait sex image -- only one member was older than 18 when the band started -- to get a record contract and publicity. It played ground-breaking female rock and roll from 1975 to 1979, but never had a hit even though it released four albums, toured the world and became an influence for generations of girl rock groups.

In addition to Jett, the band included guitarist Lita Ford, who went on to solo success in the late 1980s, and bassist Michael Steele, who later played in The Bangles. The group's singer, Cherie Currie, also later performed as a solo act. Jackie Fox later replaced Steele as bassist.

Jett, an executive producer of the movie, says in a telephone interview she can't answer questions about how the movie got made because "I was the last person in -- deciding whether or not I wanted to let it proceed." Laguna, she says, "was involved in it from the beginning and it has many, many, many twists and turns that I can't follow."

Laguna says the seeds of the film were sown in the mid 1990s, when he and Jett initiated legal action against The Runaways' former managers and labels to collect royalties owed to group members.

Laguna says they took the action largely to stop having to lend money to West, who later died of lung cancer in 2006 at age 47.

"She was a great friend, a great kid, but she was always broke, always in trouble," Laguna says. "And after The Runaways broke up, she was never really able to fit into the real world. So we went after the money and we got it."

He says the process acquainted him with Currie, whom Fanning plays in the film and who in the 1980s wrote "Neon Angel," a young adult book about her experience in The Runaways. The book had been out of print.

But Laguna says Currie was rewriting the book to add "salacious details" and make it more mature, and he thought he could market it.

"But I was wrong," he says. "No one wanted to even entertain the book."

He says it reminded him of when, after The Runaways split up, record labels had so little interest in Jett as a solo performer that she was forced in 1980 to start her own label, Blackheart Records. During that time, Jett and Laguna say, she played frequently in the Lehigh Valley area: at the former Nikko's club, Castle Garden and other Allentown venues, and Castle Inn in Phillipsburg, N.J.

Ultimately, Jett released 21 albums and had a dozen Top 40 hits, including "I Love Rock 'N Roll." That song topped Billboard's singles chart for seven weeks and ranked in Billboard's list of Greatest Songs of All Time.

Laguna says that after getting rejections for the book, he tried to get it made into an MTV movie.

"I got really close to them giving it the green light, and then one day I got a call from one of my good buddies over there and he says, 'Well, I got to do big stories, like Michael Jackson,' " Laguna says, laughing. "That's exactly what they said. And they did make that Michael Jackson movie."

Laguna says Hollywood had largely passed on the film until he connected with a management firm that had an actor in the movie "Lords of Dogtown," a 2005 film by producer John Linson about a group of skateboarders who revolutionized the sport in the mid-70s -- the same timeframe as The Runaways.

"He's obsessed with that era," Laguna says of Linson, whose father, Art, did films such as "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" and "Fight Club."

Laguna says Linson agreed to do the movie, but, working independently, it took him three or four years to get financial backing. It came from writer/director/producer William Pohlad, the son of a billionaire who started his own entertainment company, River Road, that made films such as "Brokeback Mountain" and "Into the Wild."

"So it's all guys who had a lot of success, and they're all indie people, so they're kinda like me and Joan in their own world," Laguna says. "They're entrepreneurs. They march to their own drum and they made it work."

Laguna says it was in late 2008 that the producers called him to say they had signed Kristen Stewart -- then hot because of the first ' 'Twilight" movie -- to star as Jett.

"All of a sudden, people took it seriously," Laguna says. "And then six months later they got Dakota Fanning. Now you're in business, because you have maybe the two biggest teen stars playing Cherie and Joan. And then we're off and running."

Other stars lined up: Tatum O'Neal plays Currie's mother; Michael Shannon, a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominee last year for " Revolutionary Road," plays The Runaways' manager Kim Foley; and Elvis Presley's granddaughter, Riley Keough, plays Currie's sister Marie.

One stumbling point was Ford, who after The Runaways broke up had a falling out with Laguna.

Laguna says "The Runaways" producers offered to buy the rights to Ford's life story for the film for the same amount given Jett, Curie and Foley. Rolling Stone magazine quoted Ford as saying it was $1,000; Laguna says it was "many times more than that."

Ford's husband/manager, Jim Gillette, says in a telephone interview the offer came from Laguna and, while he wouldn't disclose the amount, says it wasn't a serious offer.

"I can call up General Electric and offer them $100," Gillette says. "Did I make them an offer? It's ridiculous. I don't care if he ripped off the other girls; of course he ripped them off."

Gillette says Ford, who in the late 1980s had the hits "Kiss Me Deadly" and "Close My Eyes Forever," a duet with Ozzy Osbourne, has no feelings about the film. "It's not based on the real Runaways. It's based on Cherie's book," he says.

Ford in October released "Wicked Wonderland," her first disc in 14 years, and is scheduled to play Las Vegas concerts in April. Asked whether she'll ever tell her own story, Gillette says, "She might. And I'll tell you what -- it'll be a lot different from theirs."

Jett says in the telephone call that she was on the set most of the days "The Runaways" was filmed, and worked extensively with Stewart.

"I could not be happier," Jett says. "I'm absolutely thrilled with her as a person, as an actor. I've gotten to know her a bit over this time, and I can't speak highly enough of her."

Laguna agrees: "She's amazingly talented," he says. "You want a star, but some stars are less talented than others, and some are challenged. But this girl is just unbelievable and is able to really channel Joan."

Jett says that watching her story being filmed was "a really, really good experience, and interesting experience, and a very surreal experience."

It brought back "probably a lot of good memories and probably a few bad ones, as well," she says. "But in the context of life, bad things happen a lot, and you can't really have good without the bad. So it's kind of a moot point to think about it that way."

The movie also has given Jett a chance to revisit The Runaways musically. To coincide with the film's release, Jett last week released a two-disc "Joan Jett and the Blackhearts Greatest Hits" that includes eight songs featured in the film.

Currie also is reaping the benefits of the renewed interest the film is bringing. "Neon Angel" was re-released Tuesday.

Laguna says he's excited about the film and encouraged by the attention it's getting.

"I know that we are in a position that nothing could have gone better than it's gone now," he says. "The hype on this film, the excitement in Hollywood. I mean, everyone's talking about this film."

But as for getting movies made, Laguna says he'd be happy to never get involved in another.

"It's a different culture," he says with a laugh. "It's an amazing culture, but I'm happy where I am."

'THE RUNAWAYS'

Cast: Kristen Stewart (Joan Jett), Dakota Fanning (Cherie Currie), Michael Shannon (Kim Fowley), Scout Taylor-Compton (Lita Ford), Stella Maeve (Sandy West), Tatum O'Neal (Marie Harmon), Riley Keough (Marie Currie)

When: Opened Friday in Philadelphia and New York. Nationwide release April 9.

Running time: 1 hour, 42 mins

Rating: R (for language, drug use and sexual content, all involving teens)

Related discs: Soundtrack in stores Tuesday. "Joan Jett and the Blackhearts Greatest Hits" two-disc package released March 9 includes eight songs in the film.

Related book: Runaways vocalist Cherie Currie's "Neon Angel: A Memoir of a Runaway," on which the movie is based, was re-released Tuesday.