Shankman Will “Rock”

“Rock of Ages”–big hair, bad fashion, and lots of crazy fun music.

Variety reports that Adam Shankman will direct the film version of the Broadway kind of hit, “Rock of Ages.” Shankman is best known for his direction of another Broadway musical (which, yes, I know, was a film first), “Hairspray.”

“Rock of Ages,” which started out off Broadway, is an unpretentious nostalgia fest of fun for those who miss the hair bands and spandex of the 1980s. The story is about two kids who meet at the Sunset Strip rock club “Rock of Ages” sometime in the 1980s and try to find love in a crazy world of rock, glitz, money, and fame. As Pat Benatar would say, “Love is a Battlefield.” Actually, someone may say that in the show. Anyway, the point of the slim boy meets girl plot is really just to work in as many songs of the ’80s as possible, from survivors Bon Jovi, Journey, and Joan Jett to one-hit wonders such as Poison and Twisted Sister (New Line has been clearing the film rights for all the music, a fun task, I’m sure).

Shankman is enthusiastic:

“I had the best time of my life making ‘Hairspray’ and badly wanted another musical, and when I watched ‘Rock of Ages,’ I was struck by the fact that not only had much of the audience seen it more than once, every guy in the audience knew the words to the songs,…What an extraordinary opportunity to open the genre to an audience that otherwise wouldn’t go see a musical.”

Then he said that he plans to go really “big” with it, and is “going to attempt to cast with movie stars. Now that musicals are working again, actors are much more open to it.” 

Gosh, that’s cool. Could I suggest something else? How about casting people who can sing? Unless the movie is going to have them lip sync to the original recordings rather than sing their own versions. Which would be weird–does anyone really find the idea of Steve Perry’s voice coming out of a bewigged Zac Efron’s mouth very appealing?