Diablo Cody to Adapt Sweet Valley High for the Big Screen

By Sherrie Gulmahamad on September 24th, 2009

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People love to loathe Diablo Cody, and by people, I mean the  jealous development girls(D-Girls) and seething over-worked interns that populate this tawdry city of Angels.  And why? Her credits thus far: A Sundance hit that turned into an Oscar, a Showtime TV drama produced by the almighty Steven Spielberg that garnered an Emmy win for actress Toni Collette one season in, a prominent column in Entertainment Weekly, a chick-centric horror flick. One future credit: she is also set to produce an adaptation of Breathers: A Zombie’s Lament. Let’s just come out and say it in plain English, the sassy scribe is certainly on a roll.

And now this!?  Variety announced that Diablo Cody would be bringing Francine Pascal’s teen novel series Sweet Valley High to the big screen.  Cody will breathe her trademark vibe into Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield and make them live again.

Were you obsessed with these books?  I started in middle school with the Sweet Valley Kids and graduated to the high school series. Let’s be honest, they were pretty easy to read and easy to tear through, I was constantly hunting down a new one to devour. The predicaments were always solved in one book, unless it was a special 3 book arc, but don’t worry, it’ll come to a neat conclusion at the end no matter what.  Elizabeth was older by 4 minutes, was serious and sweet, while Jessica was flirtatious and flighty.  Romantic entanglements, amnesia, cheerleading, mysteries!  It was the stuff of my girly pre-adolescence, those lazy afternoons spent curled up on a couch with a bag of candy, half a liter of soda, and a little pile of Sweet Valley Highs.

My big question is whether Diablo Cody will keep her version sunny and light like the books themselves, making the movie slanted toward a teen audience, or take it in a more satirical direction, in which case us old ladies can enjoy it too.  And let’s also not forget that she’s a big fan of 90210; she wrote about it for EW and earlier this year also guest starred on an episode of CW’s spin-off.  Sweet Valley High is going to be Cody’s chance to make her own kind of 90210. The level of sincerity vs. snark plus the casting of the Wakefield twins will certainly make or break this movie.

So what do you think, readers? Should she jazz it up or stay true to its fluffy spirit? Should they find twins or one actress to play both girls?!  Who could step into the bouncy shoes of the Wakefield twins?