MGM continues its plundering of its own library for material to remake by hiring Rachel Lee Goldenberg to direct their planned musical remake of the 1983 comedy Valley Girl.
The project has been in development at the studio for several years with Clay Weiner previously attached to direct.
The original film starred Nicolas Cage and Deborah Foreman as two teens from different social circles – he’s a punk rocker while she is a middle class girl from the San Fernando Valley – who meet and fall in love. Although it is somewhat a Romeo And Juliet redux, director Martha Coolidge keeps the film smart amidst all its 1980s New Wave trappings.
This will be the first feature film for Goldenberg, who cut her teeth directing shorts for the Funny Or Die website before moving on to direct for such television series as The Mindy Project and Angie Tribecca as well as the 2015 Lifetime movie A Deadly Adoption which starred Will Ferrel and Kristin Wigg.
None of the reporting on Goldenberg’s hire indicates who, if anyone, is writing the songs for this musical version. It is possible that the production will be using many of the New Wave songs that Coolidge placed on the film’s soundtrack, similar to how the musical, and subsequent film, Rock Of Ages used existing 80s hair metal songs. The Valley Girl soundtrack featured songs by such artists as Modern English, the Plimsouls, Josie Cotton, Bonnie Hayes and the Payolas. No matter what the source of the music, hopefully Goldenberg will be able to capture the bright, energetic visual esthetic of the original MTV era that the film is set in.
Via Variety.
