FROM HOLLYWOOD CRUSH: You may have thought that “The Runaways” had completed their band’s lineup when they finally cast Scout Taylor-Compton as Lita Ford, but there was still one piece missing — the girl who didn’t become a Runaway: bass player Micki Steele.
Well, reportedly Floria Sigismondi’s biopic has found its bass player … but it won’t be the real life Steele. According to the Latino Review, Alia Shawkat (”Arrested Development”) has joined the band as fictional band member Robin.
Continue reading ‘The Runaways’ Film Adds Another Member: ‘Arrested Development’ Star Alia Shawkat
"The Runaways" have found their Lita Ford, and the band is now officially complete. According to Variety, Scout Taylor-Compton (Rob Zombie's "Halloween") has joined Floria Sigismondi's biopic as the Runaways' lead guitarist and future solo rock goddess. Earlier reports had pegged actress Alessandra Torresani for the part, and Taylor-Compton for bassist Jackie Fox, but they've either switched roles or deals have fallen through.
Ford joined the Runaways in 1976 along with Cherie Currie, a year after the band was formed by Joan Jett, bassist Micki Steele and drummer Sandy West. Ford remained with the band until their break-up in 1979, and enjoyed a very successful career as a solo artist. Read more...
FROM HOLLYWOOD CRUSH: All that vampire romance in “Twilight” and “New Moon” has evidently pushed Kristen Stewart over the edge. She’s shredded up and dyed her hair to star in the new Joan Jett biopic “The Runaways” and seems to be slipping comfortably into the dark and dangerous look.
Stewart is currently filming “The Runaways” in Los Angeles with co-star Dakota Fanning, who will hopefully also go off the fashionable deep to come out to the world as an adolescent. The movie, tagged for a 2010 release, features the pair of actresses as Jett and Cherie Currie, who formed their landmark all-girl band in the 1970s and went on to inspired bands from Blondie and Garbage to Bikini Kill and Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
Editor's note: That's not the picture! Click the link below to check out KStew's Joan Jett look on our NEW Hollywood Crush blog!
Continue reading Kristen Stewart Messes Up Her Hair To Play Joan Jett
Floria Sigismondi's punk girl biopic "The Runaways" may still be short a few bandmembers, but the director may be making room for a boy: Michael Shannon, the buzzed-about character actor who finally snagged an Oscar nomination this year for his performance in "Revolutionary Road." Scheduling conflicts could keep him from rocking out in "The Runaways," but The Hollywood Reporter reveals that Shannon is currently "in negotiations" to play alongside Kristen Stewart's Joan Jett and Dakota Fanning's Cherie Currie.
What's not specified is which of the few male roles Shannon is interested in. It is possible that the actor might be playing music producer Kim Fowley. While the idea of an all-girl band really belonged to Joan Jett and Sandy West, it was their associations with Fowley that helped them recruit other the other band members. Fowley's marketing helped The Runaways become a phenomenon, but rumors abound about his treatment of the musicians. In the 2004 documentary "Edgeplay," members of The Runaways accused him of pitting the girls against each other professionally, as well as subjecting them to verbal and sexual abuse.
A controversial character like Fowley is certainly something an actor like Shannon could sink his teeth into. However, there are other men who were involved in the personal and professional lives of The Runaways, so this is all speculation on my part. For now, let's just be happy that the biopic is attracting such a variety of talent.
MTV readers: are you looking forward to "The Runaways"? Who else would you like to see cast in the all girl band? How do you feel about "Twilight" star Kristen Stewart or Dakota Fanning being on board?
Kristen Stewart's Joan Jett may finally have her Cheri Currie. Variety reports that Dakota Fanning is in talks to play Currie for "The Runaways," the biopic of the groundbreaking punk rock band.
This could be the mature role that finally convinces audiences that Fanning is all grown up, and ready to be taken seriously. Though only fifteen, she's the same age Currie was when she made her debut with the band in 1975. In her lingerie and blue eyeshadow, she indulged in drugs and hard partying before leaving the band in 1977. But she made her mark while she was fronting it -- the Runaways' biggest hit, "Cherry Bomb, was written for the singer when she auditioned for the band. Read more...
FROM NEWSROOM: Forget Avril Lavigne and Paramore’s Hayley Williams.
Forget Hole, Kittie, Evanescence, Garbage, the Go-Go’s, Be Your Own Pet, Sleater-Kinney, Blondie, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Le Tigre, Breeders, Bikini Kill, Babes in Toyland, the Gossip and the Donnas.
Without the Runaways, many of these bands might never have existed. So now that “Twilight” star Kristen Stewart has been tapped to play Joan Jett in a Runaways biopic, it’s worth asking: Just who were the Runaways?
For more on just who Joan Jett and the Runaways were, head over to Newsroom.MTV.com.
FROM MTV.COM: Kristen Stewart is officially a star. Fresh off her well-received turn as Bella Swan in the smash hit "Twilight," she's taking on a daunting role: playing Joan Jett in a biopic produced by the rock legend herself and directed by music-video helmer Floria Sigismondi.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Stewart will star in "The Runaways," which will chronicle the rise and fall of the first successful all-girl hard-rock band. Their lineup included guitarists Jett and Lita Ford, drummer Sandy West and singer/keyboardist Cherie Currie; Micki Steele and Jackie Fox were the most prominent of their rotation cast of bassists. The band was initially seen as a novelty act, something that could be easily marketed as "jailbait on the run" dressed in leather and lingerie. However, the girls were all serious and skilled musicians who made their mark on the punk-rock scene and became hugely influential.
For more on Kristen Stewart joining "The Runaways" as Joan Jett, head over to MTV.com.
