Maybe even bigger connections that she can plug into. So there’s more secrets to Synergy that we don’t know, more capabilities. So for me, this is our Batman Begins - our Gotham - to Jem and the Holograms. I think you’d be like, "Wait, what, she’s waiting for him to choose her, or the other her?" Some of those things, even though it’s core to the cartoon, we have to make it something that people who don’t know anything about Jem can accept. She’s constantly debating whether to tell him or not, and which one is he going to choose? And those type of things just don’t translate to live action. The hard part was, in the cartoon she’s Jerrica and Jem, and Rio doesn’t know that. "This our our Batman Begins - our Gotham - to Jem and the Holograms." It was sort of a point-by-point thing as we went along. It was a multi-movie idea, that we could establish a character, and then go with those crazy things - but at least you have a character that people can believe and know exists today. What elements did you and the team feel like you could reinvent freely, and what was core to it staying Jem, the property?Īt a certain point we had to let go and say, "Let’s just make the best movie." What’s the best way to express this girl Jerrica, who becomes Jem, and what are the elements we need to do that? And there’s the longer term to me this was always a longer story than even just one movie. Jem’s now a YouTube star Synergy is a cute little robot that doesn’t really talk. You’ve made some mythology changes here that some fans have been worried about. #Jem and the hologram desktop icon crackedThat’s when we sort of cracked it and got them to say yes to make this movie. It just meant the themes of Jem and Jerrica were very apparent now, and very accessible to a lot of different people, so I thought that was an interesting way to do it. And let’s use social media as part of the storytelling device, because everybody has a secret identity. It brings new story to the canon, and we get to establish a real character in the real world that you can root for and cheer for, and as she goes along we can add all the craziness and fantasy and sci-fi that the cartoon has. This is the thing." We’re focusing on Jem and the Holograms, when we should be focusing on Jerrica. And then social media, and I was all, "This is it. So I was sort of discouraged, but for those 10 years I kept thinking about Jem because I loved the property, I loved the idea of this empowerment story. I pitched it to Hasbro and Universal, and it was trying to do the cartoon exactly how it was, and there was just something missing. I’d actually pitched Jem about 10 years ago to Hasbro, before I ever made my first feature. #Jem and the hologram desktop icon movieJoe movie already, then why not just keep going down the line? "Let’s use social media as part of the storytelling device, because everybody can get fame overnight." I’m the youngest of five kids, so it was around. On the eve of the movie’s release, I chatted with him about the challenges of adapting the show, the influence Justin Bieber had on Jem, and how the internet became a character unto itself.īryan Bishop: So one of the first questions I’m sure a lot of people have is: why Jem? What led you to the property and how did you get involved? #Jem and the hologram desktop icon seriesJoe: Retaliation Justin Bieber: Never Say Never) describes as the Batman Begins of what could become a series of Jem films. It’s a broad reinvention, leaving behind much of the sci-fi strangeness for a more earnest take that director Jon M. Thirty years after Jem first debuted, it’s getting a big-screen reinvention - only this time Jerrica is a shy singer-songwriter who stumbles upon YouTube fame and is quickly thrust into the Hollywood spotlight. Providing guidance and some sweet holographic costumes was Synergy, a massive computer / synthesizer housed in a secret Batcave-like facility. A flashy combination of rock musical and superhero soap opera, it followed music executive Jerrica Benton - living a double life as the mysterious rock icon Jem - as she and her band The Holograms battled against the nefarious evil group The Misfits. In the era of bizarre 1980s children’s cartoons, nothing stood out quite like Jem.
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