Update: The trailer is now online too, and can be watched at the bottom of the page.
The latest title that was once a toy line and associated cartoon to get a trip to live-action territory is** Jem And The Holograms**. And some new images from the film, courtesy of USA Today, find the main group both on and off stage.
Jem And The Holograms was birthed as a toy line back in the 1980s and appeared in TV ‘toon form between 1985 and 1988, selling like hotcakes and becoming a minor sensation, albeit more across the pond than here. Now G.I. Joe: Retaliation director Jon M. Chu and low-budget horror maestro are betting that they can still be a hit with the YouTube crowd (but don't go expecting terrors aside from some of the wigs – this is Blumhouse Productions in non-horror mode.)
The new movie chronicles the rock star coming-of-age of Jerrica (Aubrey Peeples), who has to fight the pain of her father’s death to find her voice and start to perform alongside sister Kimber (Stefanie Scott) and foster siblings Aja (Hayley Kiyoko) and Shana (Aurora Perrineau), who make up the Holograms group. Jem – a nickname her father used to call her – is unhappy about embracing the big hair and OTT costumes, but realises she needs to for the good of her family.
"It's actually about a group of young people who are going to be inundated with this idea of fame and fortune and products and stuff, and within all that, how do you stay true to who you really are?" Chu tells USA Today. "That's the real soul of the movie."
He and Blum weren’t certain about the movie themselves until they cracked how it should fit into today’s music scene. “How can you even have a secret identity with all this social media? But then it dawned on us: Wait, everybody has a secret identity. The idea of 'Who are you really?' is more relevant today than ever. That's what inspired me to say, 'Let's roll the dice and try to make this movie.'”
Jem And The Holograms is out in the UK on December 21. Happy Hologram-mas?