MADreads

Scripting a new generation of “John Hughes” films

August 18th, 2009 Katharine - Sequoya

Last week the world lost the visionary movie director, John Hughes. Anyone who grew up in the eighties probably has a favorite film of his, though it’s had to say which I love more, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off or Breakfast Club.  The stories were simple, but emotionally complicated like adolescent life can be at times.  The success of teen flicks continues today with films like Juno, Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist and a little movie called Twilight.

My own prediction for the next breakout teen movie is Whip It which is based on a book I just finished called Derby Girl by Shauna Cross.  Whip It will be Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut and star Ellen Page (Juno) and also include a cameo by my favorite late night host Jimmy Fallon.  I can’t wait to see it.  Seeing that the novelist Cross also penned the screenplay, I’m guessing the storyline will remain true to the book.

In Derby Girl, Bliss is the blue-haired daughter of ex-pageant queen Brooke and furniture salesman Earl and is stuck in Bodeen, TX.  She works at the Oink Joint with her best friend Pash and both have that teenage “we just don’t fit in” feeling.  Bliss promised her mother she’d do one more pageant show and compete for the Miss Bluebonnet title (a family tradition) before letting her little sister Shania handle the tiara circuit.  On a torturous shopping trip to Austin one Saturday (Bliss prefers her vintage Stryper t-shirt to the jeans with pink suede fringe her Mom picks out) a lime green flyer catches her eye advertising the Lone Star Roller Derby Girls, and her destiny becomes clear.

Bliss soon becomes “Babe Ruthless” and is sneaking out of the house riding the bingo bus down to Austin twice a week and illegally competing (she’s only 16) in derby league.  Derby girl soon falls for band boy Oliver (there’s always a boy dilemma in a teen story) and her world gets turned upside down by first love. There’s a lot of frank sex talk, a little profanity and a few exciting derby scenes in this sarcastically funny YA book.  There’s also a dramatic conclusion involving the Bluebonnet pageant and the Roller Derby championship that will make for a great movie ending.  Maybe twenty years from now this movie will be someone’s favorite Barrymore film, let’s hope it turns out as good as the book.

Entry Filed under: Recreational Fiction, Young Adult