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If you live in New York, you may have caught the Broadway musical Rock of Ages, and left high on hairspray and Whitesnake. But most of us will be encountering this little-hit-that-could in its big screen incarnation. Late last year, Tobey Maguire and New Line bought the rights to the musical with an eye to bringing it to the multiplex (a bidding war that involved three studios). Now Variety reports that it's setting out on the right foot by hiring Adam Shankman as its director. The film will go into production next summer, and is aiming to hit theaters in 2011.

The story of Rock of Ages isn't terribly original. A couple meets at the Sunset Strip club Rock of ages, fall in love, and try to stay together amid the sex, drugs, and excess of 1980s rock. Their turmoils are all set to the tunes of Journey, Pat Benatar, Foreigner, Joan Jett, and Jon Bon Jovi. Like Mamma Mia!, it's all an excuse for a great nostalgic soundtrack, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Shankman tells Variety that he was itching to get back into musical territory after Hairspray, and sees Rock of Ages as a distinctly masculine musical: "When I watched Rock of Ages, I was struck by the fact that not only had much of the audience seen it more than once, every guy in the audience knew the words to the songs. I thought, 'This is Mamma Mia! for dudes.' What an extraordinary opportunity to open the genre to an audience that otherwise wouldn't go see a musical." If this could succeed in converting ordinary men to musicals (something Hugh Jackman hasn't even managed), I will love it on principle. Maybe it'll even bring back big hair -- and yes, I wish for that every day because I never got to rock that look.

Pop below the jump for a little Rock of Ages from the Tony Awards. Think it'll convert the menfolk out there?

Lately, I've noticed a blogosphere backlash when it comes to remakes and sequels. Because so many are whining about reboots / remakes, the contrarians now assert that remakes are something akin to a new performance of Hamlet. But I'm not sure even the remake champions can defend New Line going back to the Vacation (formerly of National Lampoon, now owned by Warner Bros) well. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the studio has brought on David Dobkin to develop the project. He may also be lucky enough to direct.

New Line plans to relaunch the Vacation series by centering it on Rusty Griswold, son of Clark. He's now married with children of his own, and (brace yourselves) takes them on a vacation. THR is quick to point out that because Rusty will think back on the horror that was the trip to WallyWorld it's not a reboot, but a sequel. The studio is currently looking for writers to pen the screenplay, and note that they're hoping for Planes, Trains, and Automobiles over RV.

Now there's always room for a funny travel movie, but who knew the Griswolds would have a saga that rivaled the Skywalkers. I understand the need for familiarity, but the Griswold family weren't intended to be entertainment icons. They were just a mirror of our own families, so why not trot out a new family? But that's assuming we even need a new Vacation movie. The original
may feature outdated cars and clothes, but nothing in the way of family vacations has changed since 1983. But hey, if it was worth doing once, then it's worth rebooting a dozen times to avoid those piles of original scripts ... right?

A while back I wrote a little post about a movie that I would never see, and plenty of folks lined up to tell me that it was impossible to make a decision about a movie through word of mouth or what I had read on the Internet. Of course, I disagreed, because frankly how else can I make a decision about where to spend my hard earned time and money? But if I had to blame anyone for keeping me away from the movie theater that day, I'm going to have to blame the Internet. Yup, it was thanks to those sneak peeks and early screenings described in detail online that helped me make my decision before those battling robots ever took the stage. People are talking about movies more now than ever before thanks to social networking tools like Twitter and Facebook, and a new study from New Line's Web guru Gordon Paddison has proven that when it comes to movie marketing, all the action really is on the web.

What the report seems to be saying is that you need to know your audience if you want to sell your movie. Now, there are some daunting statistics that prove the power of the Internet when it comes to going to the movies, and if you aren't buying the effect the net can have on a film's success, keep in mind that 94% of all moviegoers are online, and 73% of moviegoers surveyed have profiles on a social networking site -- and if people are talking, you want to make sure it's positive because as the old commercial goes, they tell two friends, and they tell two friends, and before you know it, you have a flop on your hands.

After the jump: so what does this all mean for movie marketers?

When we last heard about New Line's adaptation of Jack and the Giant Killer, the fantasy tale was being helmed by D.J. Caruso. It started popping up on Bryan Singer's To Do list when they announced the inexplicable Excalibur remake -- but now it's become official, as The Hollywood Reporter has announced that Jack will be Singer's next film, leaving Caruso free to work on Y: The Last Man if he so chooses.

Jack is a slight reworking of (shocker!) Jack and the Beanstalk with a dash of The Brave Little Tailor. It dispenses with that "I'll sell you some magic beans, and some oceanfront property in Arizona" trope, and is instead set in motion when a giant kidnaps a princess. Obviously, that premeditated action is unacceptable, and it threatens the longstanding peace between men and giants. A young farmer named Jack is given the task to lead an expedition to the giants' kingdom in the hopes of rescuing her. Mark Bomback and Darren Lemke penned the script, which is reportedly a more mature take on the fairy tale than you or I might expect. I don't think that means any rampant sex, violence, or cussing but rather that it'll feature the kind of unblinking action that Lord of the Rings did. I mean, Jack's fighting giants. That's hardcore when done realistically.

The project has no start date, but is being fast-tracked and will be Singer's next film if something else doesn't catch his eye. There's no rumors yet as to who might play farmer Jack, but if they run into a crunch, I think our own Erik Davis still knows the script by heart. He already did a fine job on stage from all reports, and going with an original cast member is always good for the material.

It's actually kind of amazing how often the time-travel subgenre marries to romance stories. Longing to return to a simpler past or hoping for a brighter future are staples in any love affair, especially tragic ones. (Not to mention the similarity between a clock's ticking and a human heartbeat.) Just look at Somewhere in Time (1980), Peggy Sue Got Married (1986), The Love Letter (1998), Happy Accidents (2000), Kate & Leopold (2001) and The Lake House (2006) for a few interesting examples. What I don't understand is the very soft, goopy tone that most of these movies automatically adopt, with the exception of Brad Anderson's dark, tense Happy Accidents and James Mangold's standard-issue romcom Kate & Leopold.

Consider the new film The Time Traveler's Wife. It comes complete with a screenplay by Bruce Joel Rubin, who won an Oscar for his hugely successful sci-fi romance Ghost (1990) as well as writing very twisty sci-fi stories like Jacob's Ladder. In its favor, Ghost had a very amusing supporting performance by Whoopi Goldberg, and some action and suspense scenes, as well as a show-stopping love scene in front of a pottery wheel, set to the tune of the Righteous Brothers' "Unchained Melody." In other words, it pleased most of the male dates who were forced to see it. So Rubin turns in his new screenplay, which was based on Audrey Niffenegger's 2003 novel. And, who knows? It may have once been funny like Ghost or twisty like Jacob's Ladder. Then comes director Robert Schwentke, a German transplanted to Hollywood whose last film was the generic thriller Flightplan (2005).

Color me surprised.

I feel like I shouldn't be any time something gets in line to be remade, but I thought we would've heard about a remake of the J.A. Bayona-directed, Guillermo del Toro-produced thriller The Orphanage by now. Well, it's indeed in the works, with del Toro remaining on board as producer and Larry Fessenden (The Last Winter) being brought on as director, according to THR.

An actor, producer, director, writer and editor in his own right, Fessenden has no small familiarity with the horror genre -- even presently starring as a grave robber in this Friday's horror-comedy, I Sell the Dead -- and his more considered filmmaking style seems ideal for a story that turns out to have as much sorrow in store as spooks.

The Reporter notes the the project is still in need of a lead actress. The original hinged on Belén Rueda's wonderfully empathetic performance; who do you think could fill the role of leading lady in this case? Not to dwell on that Lovely Bones post, but I really do think Rachel Weisz could bring the right sensibility to this, or maybe Diane Lane... Your thoughts?

So amidst yesterday's set visit preview and our first little look at Freddy Krueger, it would appear -- according to Fangoria -- that the remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street has been pushed back a bit from April 16th to April 30th, 2010, the same weekend that happened to bring in nearly $30 million for Obsessed this year.

And the same Fangoria piece brings up a move for Josh Brolin's scarred gunslinger, Jonah Hex, up from August 6th to June 18th, 2010. It seems like a vote of confidence, either because Megan Fox is such a big box-office draw now or because Will Arnett will be once G-Force drops this Friday.

We've also confirmed that Nimrod Antal's heist thriller Armored has been bumped from this September 4th back to December 4th. The week after Thanksgiving is usually somewhat of a no-man's-land for the holiday flops to fall away and the awards magnets to work their way up and out, but for every Aeon Flux, we get something fun like Punisher: War Zone, and early rumblings on Armored are that we might not have a dud on our hands. Having enjoyed Antal's Kontroll and 98% of Vacancy, and knowing that this flick helped him land the gig directing Predators, here's hoping.

A couple of us onliners got an up-close look at the fresh flesh of Jackie Earle Haley's Freddy Krueger last month on the Chicago set of the remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street, and from the sound of things, he'll be making his first public appearance at the San Diego Comic-Con later this week. Though the bulk of our set visit coverage will have to wait until closer to the film's release next April, we can share a bit on what Haley's bringing to the legendary character and what the producers are bringing to the franchise...

Haley: "Robert Englund's done an amazing job over the years playing Freddy. Everybody's that's a fan of Nightmare loves Robert and, you know, that's a challenge when you've got to step in a big man's shoes like that, so it's scary but also exciting. You can't please everybody. All I can do is really just try to work from the heart and do the best job at playing Freddy that I can and hope for the best."

More on HorrorSquad!

How faithful should film adaptations be? The issue arises both with novels and with films that are remade: fans of the original are none-too-pleased to see the personality of beloved characters changed, settings or time periods moved, or -- horror of horrors! -- the ending changed. Watchmen ignited a mini-firestorm with the decision to alter the ending of the original graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. On a somewhat smaller scale, faithful readers of Jodi Picoult's novel My Sister's Keeper are upset that the ending was changed for Nick Cassavetes' just-released movie version.

Author Picoult disclaims responsibility while trying to be diplomatic. "Yes, I know the ending is different," she writes on her official site. "Yes, I know some of you are very upset. I didn't change it. The author has no control over the movie, and it was hard for me to accept too. However, there's a great deal in the movie that I think is great, and I enjoyed watching it - and I hope you did too." She suggests that her fans let Warner Brothers know how they feel. As a point of interest, four out of five comments on my review for Cinematical have complained about the ending.

It seems foolish to try and establish a hard-and-fast rule that original endings should never be changed -- filmmakers should have the artistic right to exercise dramatic license when adapting a work to a different medium. Yet how often have film versions actually improved endings that they've changed?