Veteran writer Christy Marx took on the head writer and story editor position of the hit 80s cartoon series ‘Jem’ (often referred to nowadays as ‘Jem & The Holograms’ perhaps to differentiate the property from the real life singer Jem). Marx crafted the back story for ‘Jem’ based solely off of photographs of the dolls manufactured by Hasbro, creating the individual characters’ personalities and histories. Marx also wrote most episodes of the series and heavily edited the remainder. Unfortunately, she will not be part of the new movie that was just announced by director John M. Chu as well as producers Jason Blum and Scooter Braun.
After the movie was announced, understandably Marx was inundated with questions from longtime fans. Unfortunately, Marx had little to say on the matter, as she wasn’t invited to be part of the process of bringing the truly outrageous, pink-haired pop star to the big screen.
On her Facebook page, Marx released the following statements:
“I don’t think I can hide that I’m deeply unhappy about being shut out of the project. That no one in the entertainment arm of Hasbro wanted to talk to me, have me write for it, or at the very least consult on it. I wouldn’t be human if that failed to bother me… My other unhappy observation is that I see two male producers, a male director and a male writer. “Where is the female voice? Where is the female perspective? Where are the women?”
Marx did state that she’d spoken to potential director Chu and they had a “wonderful talk,” and remarked:
“He treated me with honesty and respect. He is sincere, passionate, and filled with a desire to make the best Jem movie he can make. He wants to reinvent Jem for a current audience. His take is somewhat different from the approach I wanted to take, but that just means it’s different, not that there’s anything wrong with it. I urge everyone to judge the merits of his work on the result and I hope he delivers us an excellent, truly outrageous movie.”
John M. Chu directed the second ‘G.I. Joe’ movie ‘Retaliation’ and was previously linked to a live action ‘He-Man and the Masters of the Universe’ movie.
‘Jem’ focused on orphaned record executive Jerrica Benton, who thanks to a holographic computer called Synergy, which was invented by her father, adopts the alter ego of Jem, jet-setting pop star. Her sister Kimber and adopted sisters Aja and Shana formed Jem’s backup band The Holograms. (They were later joined by drummer Raya.) Jem was rivaled by bad girls The Misfits, their duplicitous manager Eric Raymond and later the conniving band The Stingers.
Though ‘Jem’ may not have been as huge a pop culture event as ‘G.I. Joe’ or ‘The Transformers’, it is certainly still beloved by fans is notably one of the few “girl”-themed animated series that was sophisticated and intelligent, as opposed to cutesy and juvenile. And the pop songs featured on each episode could easily have been Top 10 hits at the time.
Are you excited to see ‘Jem’ brought to the big screen? Are you disappointed that creator Christy Marx won’t be involved? Do you have any casting suggestions? Comment below!
