As you may have heard or read, Hasbro has teamed up with John M. Chu (the guy that brought you G.I. Joe: Retaliation) to develop a live-action Jem and the Holograms movie. As part of their creative process, they have enlisted the help of pretty much anyone with access to the Internet to submit their suggestions for storylines, actors, designs, etc. I think this is marketing genius as making these nostalgic characters a collaborative project will not only generate buzz for the movie, but also allow fans to feel as if they had a part in producing a movie for one of their beloved childhood cartoons.

(via Wikipedia)

What you might not have heard is that the creator of the animated series was never approached to become part of the creative team. On March 20, Christy Marx posted on her Facebook page:

No, I had no inkling that the movie was being developed or had reached this stage until a couple of days ago. Someone high in the Hasbro PR department thoughtfully reached out to me to let me know about the movie and the impending announcement so that I wouldn’t be blindsided by it. I appreciated that gesture.

Note that John M. Chu had spoken with Christy on the phone that same day, and had a productive conversation about their admiration for Jem. Christy went on to say in her Facebook post that “He wants to reinvent Jem for a current audience.” Which is very interesting to read, and will cause much anticipation on how this movie will turn out. Kinda makes sense now why he enlisted the help of the public to create the movie, seemingly so he can gauge the public’s current view of Jem and what they expect from the end-product.

Christy also voiced a concern about the fact that there are no women voices among the top head honchos of the development of this movie. This movie is still in the development process, so it will be interesting to see how they deal with some of the backlash they have received. I can only hope that they do plan on bringing on some women as head honchos in order to stay true to the series. Although, is it a fact that men would not do justice with portraying a series that is so woman-centric? If roles were reversed, and it was women who were directing and developing a movie for, let’s say, G.I. Joe, would there be similar backlash?

However this movie gets made, hopefully it stays true to the soul of the animated series, and satisfies the show’s true fans who have been delighted and invigorated by the announcement of this developing movie. =)

(via iHEARTcartoons)

(via Blastr and Comics Alliance)