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SALT LAKE CITY TRIBUNE |  |
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Sundance:
Biopic of Joan Jett's first band powers on Premiere » Film aims to capture impact of legendary female group. By David Burger The Salt Lake Tribune
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From 2000 to 2003, the 51-year-old rock icon hosted a showcase of new film and video shorts, titled "Independent Eye," for Maryland Public Television. Today she is the executive producer of the new film "The Runaways," which premieres today at the Sundance Film Festival. It will be released in theaters nationwide on March 19. Jett's first band, called The Runaways, came out of the 1970s Los Angeles music scene and the film focuses on the teenage girls and their wild and reckless lifestyle, said Jett in an interview with The Salt Lake Tribune . Adapted from a memoir written by lead singer Cherie Currie, the film follows the groundbreaking band from its formation and rise, despite an abusive manager. The movie already has attracted a buzz because Kristen Stewart, of "Twilight" fame, stars as Jett. Dakota Fanning plays Currie. Both female actors play against type as rebellious, sweaty rockers -- characters that would take a bite out of the vampire Edward. Jett and producer Kenny Laguna first met in 1979 when Jett was contractually obligated to complete a film about The Runaways. Laguna helped Jett write some tracks, but the film shut down halfway through shooting. Portions of the original footage were used in a 1984 project but were never commercially released. "It's amazing that it's taken so long," Jett said. Both Jett and Laguna say the film is not a "by-the-number" biopic. "It's a coming-of-age film," said Laguna, who also is an executive producer. The director is Floria Sigismondi, a respected music video artist who has worked with Marilyn Manson, David Bowie and Björk. It's her first full-length film. Born in 1965 in Italy, Sigismondi was too young to remember The Runaways, but she knew the music. A nightclub where she once worked played their music all the time, she said. Sigismondi, who also adapted the screenplay, helped Fanning and Stewart learn their roles by giving them binders filled with photographs and music from the period. Jett helped, too. She gave Stewart audio recordings of her full East Coast accent, which Jett has since shed. When it came time to see the film -- Stewart did her own singing -- "it was definitely surreal," said Jett. During editing, some believed that the film should strive for a PG-13 rating to appeal to a wider audience. Jett and Currie argued against it and won. The film, about the empowerment of women and owning your own sexuality, is rated R. The Runaways persona was a response to the machismo attitudes of Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones, Jett said. That kind of overt sexuality was absent from female musicians in the 1970s. "I thought it was important to do the same thing they did," Jett said, noting that pop artists always sing about what they want people to do to them . Rockers sing about what they will do to people. That kind of female strength was an over-arching theme of the movie, added Sigismondi. "They were living fast," she said. "It's interesting to see how they were so different, and how the band brought them together." 'The Runaways' at Sundance |
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