Choreographer-turned-filmmaker Adam Shankman has fortunately found another musical to direct following his success with the "Hairspray" remake. Variety reports that he's set to helm the movie version of Broadway's "Rock of Ages," which incorporates popular '80s rock anthems, such as Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" and Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna take It," into a Sunset Strip-set love story about an aspiring musician and a girl who's just off the bus.

Shankman, who also made the hilarious online short "Prop 8: The Musical" and will be doing a "Hairspray" sequel, feels he knows the material well enough from having worked on an Extreme video back in the early '90s and from growing up with a dad in the music biz. He also was a choreographer on "Boogie Nights," which means he probably has experience setting a scene to Night Ranger's "Sister Christian," one of the songs appropriated for one of the numbers in "Rock of Ages." Read more...

First came the ABBA renaissance in "Mamma Mia!", then came love by way of the Beatles in "Across the Universe." Now the 80s will be returning in more ways than remakes. According to Variety, the off-Broadway musical "Rock of Ages" is getting the big screen treatment from New Line -- and Tobey Maguire is set up to be one of several producers under his banner, Maguire Entertainment.

The movie will be written and directed by Chris D'Arienzo, the show's creator. The story takes place in a Sunset Strip club called Rock of Ages, where a man and woman fall in love, but are torn apart by the sex, drugs, and excessive hairspray use of the rocker's life. Actually, I made that last one up, but you know hair products had to have been at the root of a few '80s break-ups. Read more...