Taglines: It’s 1975 and they’re about to explode.
Los Angeles 1975, Joan Jett (Kristen Stewart) and Cherie Currie (Dakota Fanning), two teenage valley girls with punk in their blood, meet and become the heart and soul of the seminal all girl band, The Runaways. Floria Sigismondi brings The Runaways to the big screen in this story of a group of extraordinary young women as they rise from rebellious Southern California kids to rock stars of the now legendary band that paved the way for future generations of girl musicians.
Under the Svengali-like influence of rock impresario Kim Fowley (Michael Shannon), the group evolves into an outrageous success and a family of misfits. With its tough-chick image and raw talent, the band quickly earns a name for itself-and so do its two leads: Joan is the band’s pure rock’ n’ roll heart, while Cherie, with her Bowie-Bardot looks, is the sex kitten.
The Runaways is a 2010 American drama film about the 1970s rock band of the same name written and directed by Floria Sigismondi. It is based on the book Neon Angel: A Memoir of a Runaway by the band’s original lead vocalist Cherie Currie. The film stars Dakota Fanning as Currie, Kristen Stewart as rhythm guitarist and vocalist Joan Jett, and Michael Shannon as record producer Kim Fowley. The Runaways depicts the formation of the band in 1975 and focuses on the relationship between Currie and Jett until Currie’s departure from the band. The film grossed about $4.7 million worldwide and received generally favorable reviews from critics.
Apparition acquired distribution rights to The Runaways in December 2009.[7] It was slated to open nationwide March 19, 2010, in 1,400 theaters. The film’s world premiere took place on January 24, 2010, at the Sundance Film Festival.[9] Jett performed live in Park City the evening before the premiere and premiere night. Its Hollywood premiere took place March 11 at the ArcLight Hollywood.
The Runaways opened in the United States on Friday, March 19, 2010, at 244 theaters. Its opening weekend gross was $805,115—placing it at #18 at the box office—averaging $3,300 per theater, and most of its audience that weekend were 25 or older. Apparition changed their marketing strategy due to the company’s sudden shut down and reduced their planned wide release of 1,400 theaters to less than 300. It left theaters June 3 with a domestic gross of $3,573,673. Variety reported that the film’s underperformance at the box office could have been due to underfunded marketing and a failure to find an audience with either an age demographic that would remember the band or with fans of Stewart for her performance in Twilight (2008).
Introduction
At the core of The Runaways is the relationship between Joan Jett and Cherie Currie (Stewart and Fanning). A tumultuous, love-hate partnership on and off stage that bloomed over the course of the band’s meteoric rise, their wild life on the road fueled by sex, drugs and booze and the eventual dissolution of The Runaways just three years and five albums later. The Runaways is as much a coming of age story as it is the story of a band set against the backdrop of the colorful crowds at Rodney Bingenheimer’s famed LA club English Disco where Jett and Currie met; the arduous and often abusive recording process which led to hits like “Cherry Bomb,” and the Beatlemania-like reception upon their arrival in Japan.
Academy Award-nominee Michael Shannon plays the über-eccentric Kim Fowley who helps form The Runaways and serves as the band’s foul-mouthed manager caught between manufacturing the girls’ “jailbait” image and keeping the teenagers in line and out of trouble long enough to get them to the next gig or cut the next record.
Scout Taylor-Compton (Halloween, Love Ranch) and Stella Maeve (Gossip Girl, Brooklyn’s Finest) play Runaways founding members Lita Ford and Sandy West, respectively. Alia Shawkat (Whip It, Arrested Development) plays “Robin,” a fictional composite character representing the numerous personalities who’ve played bass for the band. Model and Elvis Presley’s granddaughter, Riley Keough joins as Cherie Currie’s twin sister Marie and Oscar winning- actress Tatum O’Neal rounds out the cast as Marie Harmon, Cherie’s former actress mother.
Oscar-winning production designer Eugenio Caballero (Pan’s Labyrinth) lends his remarkable talents to recreate the look of the mid-to-late 1970s –moving from the dreamy innocence of Southern California to the metallic, stark grey and white of Japan — and a group of girls losing their way.
Noted music supervisor George Drakoulias (The Hangover) not only delves into a treasure trove of mid-seventies rock hits, but was instrumental during the process of re-recording tracks with Stewart and Fanning singing, to avoid as Stewart puts it, “coming off as frauds.”
John and Art Linson (Fight Club, FX’s Sons of Anarchy) produced the film along with River Road CEO Bill Pohlad (Into the Wild, Brokeback Mountain). Executive producer and music legend, Joan Jett, was on set nearly every day to offer firsthand guidance on what it was like to have lived out this extraordinary story of a couple of young girls who dream to be rock stars, and then have to face all that comes with having that dream come true.
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The Runaways (2010)
Directed by: Floria Sigismondi
Starring: Kristen Stewart, Dakota Fanning, Scout Taylor-Compton, Stella Maeve, Alessandra Torresani, Hannah Marks, Alia Shawkat, Riley Keough, Johnny Lewis, Tatum O’Neal, Allie Grant, Jill Andre
Screenplay by: Floria Sigismondi
Production Design by: Eugenio Caballero
Cinematography by: Benoît Debie
Film Editing by: Richard Chew
Costume Design by: Carol Beadle
Set Decoration by: Fontaine Beauchamp Hebb, Mark Walker
Music by: Lillian Berlin
MPAA Rating: R for Language, drug use and sexual content – all involving teens.
Distributed by: Apparition
Release Date: March 19, 2010
