Naturally the world was heading this way. Kids like dance movies. Kids don't read enough books. How to get children more interested in literature? Dance-ify them.
Screen Gems is planning a hip-hop musical version of Jane Austen's Emma, which will be shifted to a modern-day high-school attended by a step-brother and sister. The movie, written by Tyger Williams (Menace II Society) will feature at least fifteen song-and-dance numbers and will be directed by Clint Culpepper. According to Variety, the film, which was inspired by Lil Mamma's video for her single Lipgloss (no, we have no idea), will probably be called Emme, because it's really hard to get a 2, Z or other denotion of youth into that title. We thought they might have gone with Emm@.
This might sound initially like a travesty, but let's remember that the idea of a version of Emma set amidst high school cliques doesn't necessarily sound promising, and that gave us the excellent Clueless. So, let's give it a chance. In fact, this sounds more like an adaptation of Clueless than Emma. The step-brother and step-sister thing comes straight from that movie, not the book (if, in fact, the step-siblings will be the Emma and Mr Knightley of the piece). The book goes with something entirely less incestuous.