(L to R): Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried in ‘Jennifer’s Body’. Photo: 20th Century Fox.
Preview:
Director Karyn Kusama has offered an update on the ‘Jennifer’s Body’ sequel.
Original writer Diablo Cody is working on a script.
The 2009 original has become a cult favorite.
While it may not have set the box office alight back in 2009 (partly due to some questionable marketing decisions), horror comedy ‘Jennifer’s Body’, which starred Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried, has become something of a cult classic.
And now its director, Karyn Kusama is confirming previous chatter that a sequel is in the works.
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Talking to Deadline, Kusama revealed that she had spoken to Diablo Cody, who wrote the original and learned some details about the sequel –– more on that below.
She’s also happy that the movie has a following:
“I’m just so grateful that the film managed to find its audience, perhaps on a different timeline than any of us might have expected or hoped for, but I’m just so thankful that the work continues to speak to people. I’m just so satisfied by that.”
Megan Fox in ‘Jennifer’s Body’. Photo: 20th Century Fox.
The 2009 film follows Jennifer Check (Fox), a demonically possessed high school student who kills her male classmates and devours their flesh in order to survive, while her bookworm best friend Anita “Needy” Lesnicki (Seyfried) must find a way to end her killing spree.
What has Karyn Kusama said about the sequel?
Amanda Seyfried in ‘Jennifer’s Body’. Photo: 20th Century Fox.
This was what Kusama had to say about the sequel following Cody saying she was ready to write it and Seyfried had teased the possibility of one:
“I know she’s working on it right now, and I’m very excited to hear what comes of it. I know some of the bones of it, so I’m not going to give anything away, but it sounds fun and crazy like the first film. And I have no doubt that Diablo will do something absolutely incredible with it.”
When will the ‘Jennifer’s Body’ sequel be on screens?
With the movie still at a very nascent stage, there is zero word on when it might start shooting, let alone arrive in theaters.
Megan Fox in ‘Jennifer’s Body’. Photo: 20th Century Fox.
(Left) Madonna in ‘Dick Tracy’. Photo: Buena Vista Pictures Distribution. (Right) ‘Star Wars: Starfighter’s director Shawn Levy at Star Wars Celebration 2025. Photo: Lucasfilm.
Preview:
A limited series based on Madonna’s life is in the works.
Madonna herself is involved.
‘Stranger Things’ Shawn Levy is also involved.
Madonna certainly has had the sort of life and career you’d think companies would be scrambling to bring to screens.
And indeed, in 2020, she began hinting that she had a new cinematic idea brewing, including cryptic messages to ‘Juno’ writer Diablo Cody about collaborating on something.
That turned into an official Madonna biopic for Universal, which she announced she would co-write with Cody and Erin Cressida Wilson.
Yet the search seemed to end when Julia Garner was offered the lead.
Here’s what Madonna said at the time:
“I want to convey the incredible journey that life has taken me on as an artist, a musician, a dancer – a human being, trying to make her way in this world. The focus of this film will always be music. Music has kept me going and art has kept me alive. There are so many untold and inspiring stories and who better to tell it than me. It’s essential to share the roller coaster ride of my life with my voice and vision.”
Still, there seemed to be very little forward movement, and in early 2023, word began to trickle out that the movie was on hold, possibly indefinitely.
Now, though, after some comments a while ago from the musician herself that she was looking to switch tracks and instead bring her story to life as a TV show, Deadline brings word that she’s collaborating with prolific producer/filmmaker Shawn Levy to make a limited series for Netflix.
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Levy, of course, has a wealth of credits to his name, including several projects for Netflix such as mammoth hit ‘Stranger Things’ and ‘The Adam Project.’ And not forgetting his most recent theatrical effort, ‘Deadpool & Wolverine,’ which made more than $1.33 billion dollars at the box office after its release last year.
Madonna in ‘Madonna: Truth or Dare’. Photo: Miramax Films.
Since Madonna Louise Ciccone dropped out of college and got on a plane for the first time in her life to pursue a career in music and dance in New York with $35 in her pocket, the Michigan native has defied expectations.
Certified the best-selling female music artist in history, Madonna has sold 400 million records worldwide and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008, and has long been known someone who can endlessly evolve her style and vibe to whatever is in vogue.
Her impact on society and pop culture have gone beyond her influence in the music industry as a revolutionary pop star who challenged sexism to redefine what it means to be a powerful woman in the field, and her movie career.
Fearless and provocative, the “Like a Virgin” singer has been outspoken on women’s rights and sexuality, pushing boundaries and challenging societal norms, and a strong advocate of the LGBTQ community.
Who might star as Madonna?
Julia Garner in ‘The Royal Hotel.’ Photo: Neon.
While the show has yet to reach the casting stage, Julia Garner certainly has a leg up in more than one regard.
Deadline reports that Garner may well cross from the movie version into this new project (but has yet to be officially confirmed or indeed make a deal to do so, which means it’s up to the vagaries of business and scheduling).
But as recently as this year’s Vanity Fair Oscar party, Garner was dropping hints on social media:
On the Netflix front, Garner is herself a regular –– she broke out with her role on ‘Ozark’ and appeared in con artist limited series ‘Inventing Anna.’
She’s working with the streaming service again, signing on to play the female lead and executive produce a limited series about the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX and the relationship between FTX co-founder and chief executive Sam Bankman-Fried and his girlfriend and business associate Caroline Ellison (the role she would take).
When will the Madonna series be on screens?
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here –– this show isn’t moving quicker than a ray of light at this point; it’s still at an early stage.
Netflix has yet to even confirm any of Deadline’s story (which assumes the deals are still being hammered out), so right now this is more a development than an actual show. And given how the proposed movie has yet to surface, the show is far from a certainty. Still, we won’t count out anything that has Levy attached…
Madonna in ‘Madonna: Truth or Dare’. Photo: Miramax Films.
(Left) Jennifer Aniston in ‘The Morning Show,’ premiering September 13, 2023 on Apple TV+. (Right) Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton and Jane Fonda in ‘Nine to Five.’ Photo: 20th Century Fox.
Preview:
Jennifer Aniston will produce the remake of ‘9 to 5’.
The original starred Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton.
Diablo Cody is writing the script for the new version.
But she’s stayed active behind the scenes on movies via her Echo Films company, and has now found something that could be big, if it works to the level of its inspiration.
According to reporter Jeff Sneider, Aniston will produce the re-imagining of classic workplace feminism comedy ‘9 to 5’.
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What’s the story of ‘9 to 5’?
(L to R) Lily Tomlin Jane Fonda and Dolly Parton in ‘Nine to Five.’ Photo: 20th Century Fox.
It was a massive hit in its day, earning more than $103 million at the box office. Parton contributed the iconic theme song, which was nominated for an Original Song Oscar, went platinum and was also nominated for four Grammy Award nominations, winning Best Country Song and Best Country Vocal Performance.
In terms of spin-offs, it inspired a sitcom (starring Rita Moreno), ‘Nine to Five’ that ran for five seasons in the 1980s, while a 2008 Broadway musical (with music and lyrics by Parton), earned four Tony nominations.
More recently, a documentary released in 2022, ‘Still Working 9 to 5’ looked at the movie’s continuing cultural impact.
‘9 to 5’: What has happened with the remake so far?
(L to R) Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton and Jane Fonda in ‘Nine to Five.’ Photo: 20th Century Fox.
Even before the latest remake chatter gathered pace, there was talk of a sequel with original co-writer Patricia scripting and Rashida Jones starring.
Yet talk of a remake has also circulated for years, with Lily Tomlin as one of driving forces.
Here’s what she told Indiewire about it:
“I have a big hope! More than Jane. Jane’s gone on to climate change, and she’s very involved in it and rightly so. I would like any material that’s just really rich and true and not dishonest and somehow its intention is communicating something better to humanity. I’m interested in any human issue, any human condition, anything about humanity that’s positive or says something meaningful about how we’re living or what we’re doing to each other, any number of things like that. But we like to get the comedy in there.”
So, why is Jennifer Aniston looking to produce the remake?
Jennifer Aniston in ‘Rumor Has It.’ Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures.
While it certainly sounds like something Aniston would be interested in regardless –– her company has, after all, been involved in projects such as ‘The Morning Show’, which also tackled attitudes towards women in the workplace.
A closer connection might be Netflix movie ‘Dumplin’, which also saw her starring and producing, and had a soundtrack featuring songs by Parton.
When will the new take on ‘9 to 5’ arrive in theaters?
With the movie still at such an early stage, there is no information about a release date yet, and 20th Century Studios has yet to announce anything.
Jennifer Aniston in ‘Rumor Has It.’ Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures.
Appropriately enough, given its title, ‘Lisa Frankenstein’ is made up of parts sewn together from other, better movies: there’s a little ‘Edward Scissorhands’ in there, a seasoning of ‘Ginger Snaps,’ and even strands of screenwriter Diablo Cody’s own 2009 cult favorite, ‘Jennifer’s Body.’ But the messaging is confusing to say the least, the jokes miss the mark, and the direction – by first-timer Zelda Williams, daughter of the late Robin Williams – falls flat.
Following the death of her mom in a home invasion, Lisa Swallows (Kathryn Newton) is forced to move to a new town and a new high school when her dad Dale (Joe Chrest) gets remarried rather quickly to high-strung nurse Janet (Carla Gugino). Despite the best efforts of her well-meaning but dim stepsister Taffy (Liza Soberano), Lisa is an outcast and loner at school, pining from afar for the editor of the literary magazine while she sits in a local graveyard and writes poetry at the grave of what appears to be a young 19th century nobleman.
After her drink is cruelly spiked by a mean girl at a party, Lisa wanders in a hallucinatory daze to the graveyard, where she wishes she could be with the young man buried in that grave. But instead of ending her own life, Lisa somehow manages to reanimate the young man himself (Cole Sprouse), whose decaying, fetid, walking corpse she stashes in her walk-in closet.
Horrified at first, Lisa soon realizes that she’s attracted to her Victorian dreamboat as she begins to clean the accumulated grue off him and get him nicer clothes. She also ascertains that he’s quite fond of her – and sensitive to her needs – in ways that soon lead Lisa and her Creature (who is never named) on a path of vengeance against those who have wronged her.
Whatever happened to Diablo Cody? The writer of such sharp satires as ‘Juno,’ ‘Young Adult,’ and ‘Tully‘ has dipped with mixed results into the horror-comedy genre before with ‘Jennifer’s Body,’ but Cody is utterly flailing here. ‘Lisa Frankenstein’ plays like a first-draft screenplay that Cody had sitting on her hard drive for years, collecting digital dust, before sending it off with barely a glance at it. While Sprouse’s Creature actually gets a decent character arc (helped by the actor’s winning, wordless performance), Newton’s Lisa is literally all over the place, bouncing from pariah to school vamp within a single cut and even introducing a tired “loss of virginity” subplot late in the ballgame. The plot pushes the characters instead of the other way around, and aside from a few chuckles here and there, most of the jokes don’t land.
The ’80s setting arguably contributes nothing to the proceedings except some nostalgia-fueled costumes, set designs, and needle drops, and director Zelda Williams’ visual aesthetic – which also includes a clever, black-and-white animated title sequence – is on point. But Williams has no idea how to give this half-baked story any momentum, stringing out jokes from scene to scene with no sense of rhythm or pacing, and often leaving her actors adrift.
The final product plays – inadvertently, we assume – like a cheapo ‘80s direct-to-video horror knockoff, complete with some funny-not-funny gore and stiff staging, but armed with the kind of post-modern self-awareness that only makes its flaws stand out more.
Kathryn Newton has distinguished herself as a young actor to watch with film and TV roles in ‘Blockers,’ ‘Big Little Lies,’ ‘Freaky,’ and ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,’ the latter of which introduced her as fledgling superhero and future Young Avenger Cassie Lang. But while the 26-year-old Newton effectively embodies a high school student here, the script gives her nothing else to work with. Her character’s motivations spin on a dime, buffeted by whatever the script requires, and giving us little with which to empathize with Lisa’s plight(s).
We’ll confess to not knowing Cole Sprouse’s previous work as Jughead on ‘Riverdale,’ or in his earlier Disney Channel efforts. But in a completely non-verbal role, Sprouse delivers an odd appeal and makes effective use of his own physicality. His reanimated Victorian lad is, ironically, perhaps the best-written character in the movie, even if the circumstances of his resurrection are nonsensical. Sprouse manages to bring some dignity to a role that is, especially early on, relegated to rather gross throat noises and a heavy load of goopy prosthetics.
The rest of the cast doesn’t get much of a chance to stand out, although Liza Soberano as Taffy has a few moments where she does something more than just the usual bubble-brained cheerleader trope. We also have to give a shout-out to Carla Gugino, a terrific actor who is given a thankless task here as the stereotypical cruel stepmom. Gugino understands the assignment as always, but is again hampered by the one-dimensional aspect of her shrill character and deserves better.
Aside from the appeal of both Kathryn Newton and Cole Sprouse – who are both severely hampered by the direction and writing – we can find little else to recommend about ‘Lisa Frankenstein.’ Diablo Cody’s script recycles elements of her work that she’s touched on before, but seems unpolished and unfinished. Director Zelda Williams, meanwhile, needs to focus less on clever imagery and more on making the characters and story come to life onscreen. This is a ‘Frankenstein’ monster that should be dispatched quickly and mercifully.
‘Lisa Frankenstein’ receives 3 out of 10 stars.
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What is the Plot of ‘Lisa Frankenstein’?
In 1989, a misunderstood teenage goth girl named Lisa Swallows (Kathryn Newton) reanimates a handsome corpse (Cole Sprouse) from the Victorian era during a lightning storm and starts to rebuild him into the man of her dreams by using a broken tanning machine in her garage. After going through a playfully horrific transformation, the romantic duo embarks on a murderous journey to find true love, happiness, and a few missing body parts along the way.
(L to R) Director Zelda Williams and screenwriter Diablo Cody talk ‘Lisa Frankenstein.’
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with director Zelda Williams and screenwriter Diablo Cody about their work on ‘Lisa Frankenstein,’ developing the screenplay, the themes Williams wanted to explore as a filmmaker, casting Kathryn Newton, and their experience working together on the project.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch the interview.
Moviefone: To begin with, Diablo, can you talk about developing the screenplay and is it true that you took inspiration from 80’s movies like ‘Weird Science’?
Diablo Cody: That is right. I had always been interested in the Frankenstein myth and particularly the idea of telling it from a female perspective of sort of creating the perfect guy. ‘Weird Science’ had a real impact on me as a child because of the idea of these two guys sitting and creating the perfect woman. I remember thinking to myself, “What does the other side of that look like?” So, I wrote this. I had always had the seed of this movie germinating inside of me. But then when the pandemic hit in 2020, I desperately needed to escape, as did many of us. So, at night, I would dive into the script and get to be in that world, and it was a nice escape for me.
MF: Zelda, what was your first reaction to Diablo’s screenplay and what were some of the themes you were excited to explore as a filmmaker?
Zelda Williams: I mean, surprise and joy. Because also the reason I got the script, they had completely buried the lead that it was from her. So, I got this, I opened my email, and I was like, “Diablo Cody, what on Earth?” and opened it. I read it so fast and responded to her so quickly. I think I was most excited about the tonal mashup with the violence, the camp and love being this central theme to it. It was so nice to see all of that together. Whereas usually I would be very much into that, even alone. But all of them in one script is a rare and wonderful delicacy.
MF: Can you talk about casting Kathryn Newton and what it was like to collaborate with her on this project?
ZW: Oh, I was so excited when she came along. I’d seen ‘Freaky,’ but I hadn’t seen ‘The Map of Tiny Perfect Things.’ Then I watched that, and I just found this incredible depth of character but also willingness. She’s so fearless, and comedy does really require that. It requires you to be willing to look silly and to do ridiculous things. I’ve never met someone, especially in her age range, that at that time was so excited to be that way. She tackled it 110% every single day.
MF: Diablo, what was your experience like working with Zelda on this movie?
DC: It’s the best. I mean, Zelda’s the best. I have been impressed with her since the day I met her. I’ve been fortunate enough in my career to have a lot of great collaborations with great directors, but this is up there. So, I feel really just fortunate and I’m glad that I entrusted my baby to her.
MF: Finally, to follow up on something you just said, does it feel like you’re handing your baby over to someone else to parent when you give your script to another filmmaker to direct?
DC: Yes, that’s exactly what it feels like. Jonathan Demme once said to me, we were talking about the movie (‘Ricki and the Flash’) we were making, and he kept saying, “We literally are like parents where all we talk about is the baby.” I said, “Yup, that’s what it is, and it’s pretty great.”
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What is the Plot of ‘Lisa Frankenstein’?
In 1989, a misunderstood teenage goth girl named Lisa Swallows (Kathryn Newton) reanimates a handsome corpse (Cole Sprouse) from the Victorian era during a lightning storm and starts to rebuild him into the man of her dreams by using a broken tanning machine in her garage. After going through a playfully horrific transformation, the romantic duo embarks on a murderous journey to find true love, happiness, and a few missing body parts along the way.
Madonna has been a musical superstar for decades, able to re-invent herself and stay relevant. She’s the all-time bestselling female artist—335 million records worldwide—and has the highest grossing solo touring numbers ever.
Yet despite all of her accolades elsewhere, she has rarely been able to crack into movies in a truly successful way. Certainly, there have been the roles that worked––Eva Peron in ‘Evita’, Mae Mordabito in ‘A League of Their Own’ and Breathless Mahoney in ‘Dick Tracy’ to name three––but there have also been derided failures such as ‘Body of Evidence’ and her directorial debut, ‘Filth and Wisdom.’
Now we can add her attempt to make a biopic of her life to the latter list, at least for now.
In 2020, she began hinting that she had a new cinematic idea brewing, including cryptic messages to ‘Juno’ writer Diablo Cody about collaborating on something.
That turned into an official Madonna biopic, which she announced she would co-write with Cody and Erin Cressida Wilson.
Yet the search seemed to end when Julia Garner––who scored more awards for ‘Ozark’ and appeared in Netflix’s ‘Inventing Anna’ was offered the lead.
“I want to convey the incredible journey that life has taken me on as an artist, a musician, a dancer – a human being, trying to make her way in this world,” Madonna said in a statement. “The focus of this film will always be music. Music has kept me going and art has kept me alive. There are so many untold and inspiring stories and who better to tell it than me. It’s essential to share the roller coaster ride of my life with my voice and vision.”
Despite Universal backing the movie, Variety now reports that the movie is on hold, possibly indefinitely. No reason was given as to the change in status––it’s possible that creative differences arose between Madonna and the studio––but more tellingly, she announced a new world tour last week, one which has sold out major cities in a matter of minutes and is, according to the trade magazine’s sources, her current focus.
She apparently remains committed to making a movie of her storied life one day, but for now that day is not today. This is one film that, despite finding a star, has not found a lucky star.
(L to R) Madonna as Eva Perón and Jonathan Pryce as Juan Perón in 1996’s ‘Evita.’
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