Jason Blum Confirms The Misfits WILL NOT Be in Jem The Movie

Jason Blum has confirmed in an interview with an Italian movie news site that the Misfits will not be the Jem & The Holograms movie.

Here is our horrible Google translate version of what was said:

"Among his future films will be Jem and the Holograms, directed by Jon M. Chu. It is rumored that the Misfits, historic rivals of Jem, will not be in the movie for a rights issue. It's all right?"

Basically a coming-out journalism. I really wanted to have in the background Cristina d'Avena. I know I'm just a ricchiona (???)  but the world must know.

And this was the response from Blum: "They will not be in the film. Since apparently in Italy everyone knows this series better than me, maybe I'll do a preview of the movie here! No, however there will be but the reason is not related to the rights ".

It's interesting that Jason says the reason the Misfits are not in the movie is not related to the rights. There had been rumors going around that there are still copyright issues with the Misfits due to the real life band of the same name. There's urban legend online the cartoon was forced to remove the Misfits and replace them with the Stingers (which is untrue). However, a copyright and trademark search shows that the real-life band doesn't have the name currently trademarked or copyrighted.

So, why no Misfits?  Here are the possible reasons:

1) Budget - It's a $5 Million dollar movie.  Having the Misfits adds more members to the cast, along with songs that need to be recorded.

2) Limiting the number of characters - When properties with a large number of characters get the movie treatment, there's a trend to limit the number of characters.  GI Joe and Transformers had this sort of treatment and the producers specifically limited the cast to a small group of characters - which they then never developed past being cardboard charitcurles.

3)  The Holograms Are the Mistfits - The leaked pictures of what Jem & the Holograms are wearing look more appropriate for the Misfits than the Holograms - even in the finale big concert.  And Jem costume designer Soyon An talked in a recent interview that the style for them is clearly punk & rock.

This is how Soyon An describes the characters and their styles: "For Jem aka Jerrica, she's indie rock-n-roll, but in a subtle, simple and fashionable way. Aja is totally punk rock and doesn't give a f*ck. Shana is a wannabe fashionista who's willing to try anything trendy and fabulous. Kimber is a girly-girl but in a tomboyish kind of way."

This doesn't sound like the Holograms, this sounds like the Misfits.  
In the original cartoon, Jem & the Holograms were the good girls who followed the typical get-along-gang mentality of 80s cartoon teaching elementary school kids right from wrong.  The Misfits were the baddies who were greedy and self-centered.  Cartoons even had educational consultants to make sure there was messaging to balance out trying to sell toys.

Now, the Jem movie is aimed at preteen girls and likely trying to separate itself from being too Disney.  Our guess is that the Holograms are somewhere in the middle between the Misfits and Holograms.  They won't be the "bad girls" like the Misfits trying to run Jem off the road, but they won't be squeeky clean singing about People Who Care. Their style will be more Misfit-like and they will fit more with the typical preteen rebellion.

The Synergy Conundrum

A lot of speculation and articles have been going around about whether Synergy will or won't be in in the Jem & The Holograms movie.

For the record, Cool Trash has never said that Synergy won't be in the movie.  Our guess is that some form of something similar to Synergy may appear - probably at the very end.

In the initial Hollywood Reporter article about the film, the plot includes "(Jerrica) and her sisters embark on a music-driven scavenger hunt -- one that sends them on an adventure across Los Angeles in an attempt to unlock a final message left by her father".  Hollywood Reporter cites the producers as the source of this plot info.

Many have concluded that the "final message" is related to Synergy.  But it's not much of a plot of a movie if it's resolved in the first 10 minutes, so much of the movie (perhaps nearly all of it) wouldn't involve Synergy if she's what they are searching for. 

Several extras from the filming on May 14/15th have come forward with tidbits of information.  Roxy Tart posted a podcast where she talked about her experiences as an extra and said that what was being filmed was the big finale concert which was the final scene.  Wondermann5 tweeted that there were "No Jem Star earrings".

If it is the final scene, then that would eliminate finding the Jem starearrings in the last act before the finale concert.  There could be an epilogue or scene following the concert or possibly after the credits. However, lack of the Jem star earrings do not necessarily mean that Synergy hasn't been found by that point in the movie.  It could simply suggest that there aren't Jem star earring and Synergy uses other means to transmit holograms.

They could have found the final message from Emmett (or whatever his name is in the movie) and it doesn't include the earrings. Or it the message has absolutely nothing to do with Synergy. 

From just the typical formula used for movie (and nearly all movies are formula driven), finding the message  before the big finale concert would fit - especially for a music focused movie like this. 

Actor Jeffrey King, who claims to have worked on Jem, posted on Instagram "I worked on it... It's not like the cartoon at all. They went more normal with it."

Pretty much what it seems like the Jem movie doing is using the name of characters from the cartoon as elements of the movie - like using "Astral" and "Mrs Bailey".   So, our guess is there will be something called Synergy but may not be anything like what Synergy is in the cartoon.  

More Pictures of Isabella Rice on the Set

8 year old Isabella Rice (Young Jerrica) was back on the set of Jem & The Holograms last week and filmed in Santa Monica.  We had a hunch she was there, based on something a crewmember tweeted, but we have confirmation from pictures just added to IMDb.

That means that Young Jerrica has a fairly 
substantial part in the movie.  Based on the pictures from Isabella's IMDb page, she filmed at least 3 days at the locations in Van Nuys, Simi Valley and Santa Monica.

Cool Trash's guess is that flashbacks will be used used for more than a quick introduction to the characters. 

The story is suppose to be a musical treasure hunt with messages left by Jerrica's father.  That could be a much longer hunt for Synergy (more on that topic in a post later this week) then what was in the cartoon.  It's possible that each of the locations is tied to Jerrica's past and there are flashbacks related to them - which could be why Isabella has to be at so many locations.

Stunt Double Confirms Juliette Lewis as Erica

Juliette Lewis' stunt double, Jenn Elizabeth, confirmed on Twitter that Juliette's character indeed is named Erica:

While many have speculated that Juliette is playing "Erica Raymond",  this isn't exactly confirmation about her character's last name since Jennifer only tweeted that the character name was "Erica" and not "Erica Raymond". 

The picture of Juliette with E! News' Jason Kennedy has the name "Astral Recording" behind her, and it seems like from her attire that she's playing a record executive type character like Eric Raymond.  Could her last name be something else, like Gabor or Benton? With Jerrica and Kimber being minors, then they could have an "evil" relative controlling their inheritance (which might explain why there is a Jerrica and Erica if they were related)  Or Erica could be completely unrelated to any existing Jem character.

Stefanie Scott Posts Video Following Santa Monica Beach Filming

Stefanie Scott posted a video on Instagram of the girls celebrating completing three days of filming at night on the Santa Monica beach.

It's hard to tell much from the video, but you can see that Stefanie and Aurora have colored streaks in their hair.  Here are some screencaps:

 

 

More of Molly Ringwald On Set

Molly tweeted a picture from the set yesterday with Aubrey Peeples, but it looks like it was taken back in April.  It's very clearly taken at the yellow house they filmed at on Peach Street in Van Nuys CA that we posted about on April 24.

Molly refers to her outfit as "vintage" Todd Thomas NYC and that could be for a reason.  Aubrey is wearing the same clothing as she wore in a picture with the actress playing Young Jerrica, Isabella Rice:

From Google Street View, you can tell another picture of Isabella with Stefanie Scott was taken at 6648 Peach St (the yellow house), so Isabella filmed there.

So, it looks like Molly filmed a flashback scene with young Jerrica.  Considering all the emphasis on Jerrica being an orphan and that flashbacks will be when she was around 8, it's possible that Jerrica and Kimber's backstory could be changed.  Rather than their mother dying when Jerrica is around 12, leaving their father to run a foster home by himself until his death 8+ years later which precipitates Jerrica becoming Jem, perhaps both of their parents die when Jerrica is 8 and she and Kimber go to live at Starlight House which is run by Molly Ringwald's character?

A photo from the wardrobe department from April 29th shows a label with the character name "Aunt Bailey", which has led to speculation that Molly is playing Jerrica and Kimber's aunt.  Her character could be a sort of hybrid between Mrs Bailey and Jacqui Benton.  With Jerrica and the Holograms all under the age of 18, they would need to have a parent/guardian involved and aren't old enough to run a foster home, and that would be Mrs (or Aunt) Bailey.

Jem & The Holograms Make One Final Splash

On the final day of filming Jem and the Holograms, the action moved to a large water tank located at Tank One Studios in Signal Hills CA near Long Beach.

Jon Chu posted the following photo on Instagram:

This looks very similar to a photo on Tank One's website:

This followed three day of nightshoots on the Santa Monica Pier.  While we hope that they were filming a live action reenactment of the Come On In (The Water's Fine) video, chances are the two shoots were related.  We know Zipper was at the pier location due to Nathan Moore's incredible sunset photo he posted on Instagram.  The pier location has to be more than just a quick scene with so many days spent there, so it could be an action scene with Zipper doing something and someone ending up in the water sounds likely.