Back to School, Dude

Adam Herz was bombing out in Hollywood. Three months ago, the 25-year-old screenwriter hadn’t sold a film script. His TV pilot scripts had been rejected. None of the major talent agencies would represent him. He’d even been turned down by a studio writer’s workshop.

Before he went back to Michigan, he wrote one more script. It had a simple premise: Four high school pals make a pact--they will all have sex by graduation day. Full of such old reliable escapades as barfing, toilet humor, condom gags and the obligatory scene in which a girl is secretly filmed as she disrobes, the film could make “Porky’s” look, in retrospect, as highbrow as “Kundun.”

A few years ago, Herz might have remained just another un-produced screenwriter. But with the runaway success of teen horror films like “Scream” and “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” as well as the surprise acceptance of Amy Heckerling’s “Clueless” and Baz Luhrmann’s updating of “Romeo and Juliet,” Hollywood has a serious case of Teen Movie Fever.

According to one studio estimate, there are currently as many as 60 high school-themed films in production or active development. Hollywood executives now make regular stops at newsstands to stock up on teen magazines. Producer David Friendly, who is already developing one high school script, says he’s been deluged with teen pitches, including one touted as “ ‘Double Indemnity’ set in high school.”

Still, when Herz finished his script, his managers Warren Zede and Chris Bender didn’t take any chances. To ensure their project wouldn’t get short shrift from studio readers, they spent a week dreaming up a title that would get everyone’s attention. The result: “Untitled Teenage Sex Comedy That Can Be Made for Under 10 Million Dollars Which Readers Will Most Likely Hate But We Think You Will Love.”

One morning in January, Zede sent the script out to three studios. By midafternoon, all three made offers to buy it. “The result was phenomenal,” says Zede, who sold the script for $650,000 to Universal Pictures, where it is slated to shoot this summer with the more prosaic title “East Grand Rapids High.”

“Our formula was very simple. We told Adam to write the raunchiest, funniest, most vulgar teen movie he could.”

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The mad scramble for teen-friendly movies has taken on land-rush proportions. Universal recently announced it will pay up to $1 million to first-time screenwriter Greg Berlanti, a 25-year-old former story editor, for his pitch about a teen romantic comedy called “Her Leading Man.” Kevin Williamson, who wrote “Scream” and “I Know What You Did,” will earn about $2 million as producer on the project.

The big-money script sales are another sign of Hollywood’s eagerness to surf the teen tidal wave that has broken across every pop culture boundary.

Census data shows that America now has 37 million 10- to 19-year-olds, all programmed by a lifetime of TV ads to be voracious consumers. “It’s a demographic imperative,” says Amy Pascal, president of Columbia Pictures, which has a number of teen projects in production.

“We have between 3.5 [million] and 4 million kids turning 13 every year between 1993 and 2005. They’re going to be the most frequent moviegoing audience for years to come.”

This surge has sparked a youth-quake in teen and preteen entertainment. In pop music, bubble-gum is back in the form of Hanson, Aqua and the Spice Girls. TV has spawned a host of youth-driven hits like “Party of Five,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Dawson’s Creek.” Bookstores are packed with an array of Leonardo DiCaprio quickie bios.

“It’s a great time to be an 18-year-old actor,” says Beau Flynn, a leading independent film producer, who is making two films set in high school, including “Strike,” a high school updating of Aristophanes’ “Lysistrata.”

“A year ago, these young actors were dying to just come in and read for you. Now not only is everyone booked, but they’re carrying $10-[million] to $15-million movies.”

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Most of the movie talent is spinning off from hit TV shows. The teen A-list starts with Neve Campbell and Jennifer Love Hewitt from “Party of Five”; Sarah Michelle Gellar from “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”; Katie Holmes, James van der Beek and Michelle Williams from “Dawson’s Creek”; and Brandy from “Moesha,” as well as Reese Witherspoon and Jared Leto from “My So-Called Life.”

For studio executives, modestly budgeted high school films offer a much-needed respite from skyrocketing budgets and star salaries. “It offers us the opportunity to make movies for a reasonable price without having to hire a major star or an A-list director,” says Touchstone Pictures chief Donald DeLine. “And because the films attract young moviegoers, they also lend themselves to great soundtrack and cross-marketing possibilities.

“Until recently, this was a market that just wasn’t being served--it was under the radar screen.”

“Scream” changed all that. Cathy Konrad, the film’s producer, recalls Variety writing off the movie before release as “DOA--dead on arrival.” But fans, especially young women, not only came out in droves, but came back again and again. The film eventually made $103 million. Its sequel, “Scream 2,” made $96 million last Christmas, following on the heels of “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” which reaped $72 million.

The movies supplied what kids crave--an intense adrenaline rush. “Kids want to be scared,” says Neil Moritz, producer of “I Know What You Did” and its sequel, “I Still Know,” due in November. “After our first screening, they were scared, but it was obvious they wanted more, so we went back and added a new scary shower scene and a killing.”

In Hollywood, where imitation is, more than flattery, a business plan, it was inevitable that a blitzkrieg of teen projects would follow. “Obviously this is an audience that is a lot easier and less expensive to market to,” Pascal says. “But you still have to make good movies. If you do anything cynically, then you’re talking down to kids. And when you do that, you start making bad movies.”

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High school movies are nothing new, of course. In the 1950s the urban schoolroom drama “Blackboard Jungle” shocked the country. With the youth-culture explosion of the early ‘60s came party films like “Beach Blanket Bingo,” then late-’60s teen rebellion movies like “Wild in the Streets.”

After a ‘70s slump, teen films resurfaced on two fronts. The first wave featured such “blood and bras” thrillers as “Halloween” and “Nightmare on Elm Street.” The early- to mid-’80s also spawned a string of coming-of-age stories, including “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” “Risky Business” and “Valley Girl.”

Today’s young filmmakers were especially influenced by John Hughes, the Phil Spector of high school Hollywood. Hughes wrote and produced “Pretty in Pink,” “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and “The Breakfast Club,” a high school misfit drama that Courtney Love has called “the defining moment of the alternative generation.”

You’d have to be a cockeyed optimist to predict that the current crop of films will be as fondly remembered. Even some of the more ambitious films seem to have been green-lighted because they refurbish proven material that can be pitched in catchy shorthand. “Carrie 2” is on the way, as well as a new “Halloween” sequel. “Cruel Inventions,” now in production at Columbia Pictures, is “Dangerous Liaisons” set among wealthy New York high schoolers. “Ten Things I Hate About You,” due out this fall from Touchstone Pictures, is “The Taming of the Shrew” in high school.

“I loved ‘Dangerous Liaisons’ as a book,” says “Cruel Inventions” writer-director Roger Kumble. “And I thought, ‘What a great way to capture how cruel high school kids really are.’ ”

For David Nutter, a veteran “X-Files” director who’s making “Disturbing Behavior” (“The Stepford Wives” set in high school), the key is reality. “Kids want to see something on screen that they see in themselves. If they care about what they’re watching, if what takes place matters to them, then you’ve got them.”

But don’t expect savvy young moviegoers to buy into every new self-referential thriller. “Kids’ tastes change very radically,” says David Gale, head of MTV Films, which is making a host of high school-oriented films. “If you make your decision based on what kids liked last week, they’ll outsmart you. They’ll know you’re trying to feed them the same thing. If there are 10 copycat teen movies out next year, you’re going to see a lot of failures.”

Just ask “Scream” producer Konrad, who’s making a film called “Prom Wars,” although she insists she had the project long before the current fad.

“That’s how Hollywood works--everyone jumps on the bandwagon,” she says. “There isn’t anything especially original about many of the scripts I see. They’re all about the guy who can’t get a date or the ugly duckling girl who turns into a swan. People are buying them because they have teens in them.”

Konrad breathes an audible sigh. “Oh, well,” she says. “All good things come to an end.”

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Hollywood Goes Back to School

Here’s a sampling of the high school film projects due for release or in production or development at various Hollywood studios:

“Can’t Hardly Wait,” due out June 12 from Columbia Pictures, stars Ethan Embry and Jennifer Love Hewitt in a comedy about an aspiring writer with a crush on the most popular girl in high school.

“Dancer, Texas,” due in May from TriStar Pictures, stars Ethan Embry, Peter Facinelli and Breckin Meyer as best friends who vow to leave their tiny Texas town after graduating from high school.

“Disturbing Behavior,” which stars James Marsden and Katie Holmes as teen outcasts in a creepily conformist small town, is due in August from MGM/United Artists.

“Election,” due in October from MTV Films, stars Reese Witherspoon and Matthew Broderick in a black comedy about a high school election that goes awry when a civics teacher gets overly involved in the campaign.

“Halloween H2O,” a sequel to the John Carpenter horror classic, is due in September from Dimension Films, starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Adam Arkin and Michelle Williams.

“Rushmore,” a romantic comedy about a high school boy who falls in love with a first-grade teacher at his private academy, co-stars Olivia Williams and Jason Schwartzman. It’s due this fall from Touchstone Pictures.

“Rocket Boys,” stars Jake Gyllenhaal in a 1950s-era drama about a gifted high school student who enlists his friends in a quest to launch his own rocket. It’s due in October from Universal Pictures.

“Carrie 2,” which stars Jason London and Emily Bergl in a horror tale of high school cruelty triggering a young girl’s supernatural powers, is due in October from United Artists.

“Ten Things I Hate About You,” which stars Julia Styles and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, is a high school version of “The Taming of the Shrew.” It’s due in early 1999 from Touchstone Pictures.

“Cruel Inventions,” a modernized “Dangerous Liaisons” set among wealthy New York high school students, stars Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Philippe and Reese Witherspoon. It’s due in the spring of 1999 from Columbia Pictures.

“Killing Mrs. Tingle,” a Kevin Williamson thriller about a young girl who will stop at nothing to graduate as valedictorian of her high school class, stars Katie Holmes and Helen Mirren and is due out in 1999 from Dimension Films.

“Idle Hands,” a horror comedy starring Devon Sawa as a high school student whose hands are possessed by the devil, is due out in 1999 from Columbia Pictures.

“Varsity Blues,” which stars James van der Beek in a coming-of-age comedy about a Texas town’s obsession with high school football, is due out in 1999 from MTV Films.

“The Wood,” an African American coming-of-age story from MTV Films, due to shoot this summer, is about three high school friends in 1980s-era Inglewood.

“Freddie Vs. Jason,” a merger of two of the most successful high school horror franchises of all time, “Nightmare on Elm Street” and “Friday the 13th,” is tentatively due in summer 1999 from New Line Pictures.

“Strike,” a high school updating of Aristophanes’ “Lysistrata” (a satire written in 411 BC in which women strike against war by practicing celibacy), is in development at DreamWorks.

“Dairy Queens,” a comedy about a documentary crew recording a small town’s obsession with a high school beauty pageant, is in development at New Line.

“Starkers Texas,” in pre-production at Universal, is about an unscrupulous sports agent who gets roped into coaching the high school football team in a small Texas town obsessed with football.

“School Slut,” about a girl unfairly branded as a sex maniac by a high school rival, written by former “Fall Guy” star Heather Thomas, is in development at Touchstone.