Fans of the Jem and the Holograms toy line and animated TV series from the ‘80s have every reason to be excited about the upcoming movie about the fictional pop band, producer Scooter Braun told The Hollywood Reporter at Wednesday night’s fundraising gala for his brother’s global education organization Pencils of Promise.
Braun, who’s producing the film, said he recently saw a screening of the film at director Jon M. Chu’s office. While he noted that there are “a few things we’ve got to change up,” he was very pleased with the current cut.
“It’s really good. I went in to say, ‘OK how good is it?’ And I was blown away!,” Braun told THR. “It has so much heart; it’s such a good story; the music’s so good. I thought the actresses just did a really good job, and when the movie ends you’re just like all right, all right, we got something here.”
The movie follows Jerrica Benton and her alter ego, Jem, who is the lead singer of the band the Holograms. The film has been described as a modern look at the mysterious pop star and will follow the band on a musical adventure through L.A.
Nashville actress Aubrey Peeples is playing Jem with Stefanie Scott, Aurora Perrineau and Hayley Kiyoko rounding out the Holograms. Molly Ringwald, Juliette Lewis and Ryan Guzman also star in the movie, which is also being produced by Chu and Jason Blum of Blumhouse Productions. Universal Pictures is set to release the movie on Oct. 23, 2015.
Braun also predicted that the soundtrack would be a hit, saying he told the label to get ready. “I literally went back to Universal, who we have the soundtrack with, and I said, ‘You guys, we have a serious sleeper with this movie coming’,” he added. Chu previously worked with Braun on the Justin Bieber documentaries Never Say Never and Believe and Braun said he wanted to continue that collaboration.
“I want to make a movie once a year with Jon Chu,” Braun said. “He’s one of my closest friends…Each year we’re going to try to find one project.”
The veteran music manager, best known for shepherding the careers of Bieber, Ariana Grande and others, has recently moved into producing movies and TV shows, with his SB Projects working on The Giver and Scorpion on CBS among other projects. Braun told THR that he was surprised that Hollywood was so willing to let him in.
“They could have said well you’re a music guy and try to keep me out but I’ve been invited into that community,” Braun said.
