She may be one of the key reasons why Twilight is currently sucking up tons of cash all over the world, but Kristen Stewart has always maintained that a blockbuster career isn’t for her – as evidenced by today’s announcement of her first post-Twilight, non-Twilight, Twilight-isn’t-involved-at-all-so-please-stop-screaming project.
For Stewart has signed on to play Joan Jett in The Runaways, a biopic of the rise and fall of Jett’s eponymous rock band in the 1970s, which lasted for four years before falling apart due to the usual creative differences and recriminations about money, power, and management.
It’s hard, frankly, to see what separates this tale from any other rock-band-falls-apart movie, but writer-director Floria Sigismondi clearly has a plan up her sleeve. Jett – whose most famous track, I Love Rock’n’Roll, was written after The Runaways split up, will executive produce, which should ensure that the film is fair and balanced.
It’s unlikely that a movie about a rock band that relatively few people will have heard of will pull up any trees at the box office, but it’s clearly a project that has appealed to Stewart’s actorly instincts. And Sigimondi can be forgiven for hoping that Twilight fans follow their Bella across to her movie.
Filming will start next year, and will be scheduled around Stewart’s commitment to the Twilight sequel, New Moon. You can start screaming again, Twilight fans.