At first, I thought this was a joke, but it appears to be real. A movie based on 1980’s cartoon/toy property Jem and the Holograms is coming, and director John M. Chu (GI Joe: Retaliation), horror producer Jason Blum (Paranormal Activity, Insidious), and music producer Scooter Braun (the man who discovered Justin Bieber; lets try not to hold it against him) are the men bringing it to us. They made an announcement via a YouTube video earlier today. And apparently, they want the fans to participate. Nope, this isn’t a Kickstarter type deal, they don’t want your money, they want your participation. They want the fans to be in the movie, to help design costumes, help with casting, and even want fans who are “triple threats” (dancing/singing/acting) to audition for parts, any age, any gender, if you think you’ve got what it takes, you can be a part of this sure-to-be-amazing motion picture experience. You can submit a video via their official Tumblr, or visit the official website, jemthemovie.com for updates.
Here’s the YouTube announcement they made earlier today.
If you’re too young to know who or what Jem is, let me break it down for you why Jem was was the coolest show ever; It was ’80s MTV culture distilled down to its most basic level for kids and pre-teens, with everything awesome (possibly also awful) about the decade’s pop culture encapsulated into one half hour cartoon. If you were a little girl (or a little gay boy like me), you lived for hearing that theme song every afternoon. Jem was truly, truly outrageous, and it made you want to be truly outrageous, too.
The premise of the show revolved around the lead singer of the pop group “Jem and the Holograms” and her adventures.  Her real name is Jerrica Benton, and by day she is the owner and manager of Starlight Music. Jerrica is able to instantly become Jem via a holographic computer named Synergy, which uses holograms to give Jerrica a big pink hairdo, a little make-up, a short skirt and some hooker pumps to “disguise” her (suddenly Clark Kent’s glasses ain’t so lame, eh?).  Synergy is an apparently sophisticated sentient computer which was built by Jerrica’s father to be “the ultimate audio-visual entertainment synthesizer,” and he leaves it to her when he dies. Although Synergy is sophisticated enough to become Skynet, it uses its powers for good and for making cheesy music videos. Jerrica/Jem is able to access these powerful holograms via her earrings, and by saying the phrase “showtime, Synergy.” (I’m telling you, this is the best show ever made.) Jem has a boyfriend named Rio who has purple hair, and all her bandmates have various different shades of pastel colors for hair.
Then there’s The Holograms’ rival band, The Misfits. The Misfits are bad, because they have neon hair color and wear animal print clothing. They want nothing more than to destroy Jem and have the Billboard charts all to themselves. Each week, instead of making music or touring, they are plotting the destruction of Jem and the Holograms. Eventually another rival band came into the show called The Stingers, but nobody really cares about them. They are never even mentioned in the theme song, they’re that lame.
Oh, and here’s my participation, guys; I think this movie should be entirely played by former contestants from Rupaul’s Drag Race. In fact, Ru should play Synergy, Chad Michaels should play Jem, and Sharon Needles should play Misfits leader Pizzazz. You’re welcome, John Chu and company.
The only people who should be TOUCHING a Jem and the Holograms movie are gay guys and fabulous women. Straight dudes just wouldn’t understand.
I just really need for this not to be ruined. This cartoon was a staple of my childhood. They better not put someone lame in it like Taylor Swift or Selena Gomez (no!). Make it count!!
In a world with 4 live action Transformers films, and 2 live action GI Joe films (with a third being made), I say “Showtime, Synergy!” There’s a ton of potential for a Jem feature film.
Wait, isn’t this a CHRISTY MARX project that MYA was involved in? Can we please have that version?
If you ask me, the Jem in the pic above looks like Jennette McCurdy.
Or Traci Lords, but we won’t go there.
It wasn’t just little gay boys watching, I watched it all the time too. Jerrica was my dream girl.
As a fellow gay boy of the 80’s, I just wanted to make sure you’d seen this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yf3pKaLeJc
YES!!!!
One of my brother’s and my most epic control-of-the-remote-control knock-down, drag-out battles was because I wanted to watch Jem and he did not.
I was happy to see the cartoon on Netflix so that I can share the awesome with my 3yo daughter.
This is my childhood come to life. They better not frak this up. Katy Perry should not even be a name mentioned in the casting.
do you need songs for this movie?
I can’t wait for this! My Jem and Rio dolls are still in a toy box at my Grandma’s house. The earrings only stopped lighting up about 5 years ago. I have NO clue how that happened, but I don’t question the magic of Synergy
They better not f*** it up!
There is too much for me to say about this whole thing to even fit here. I could go on forever about how much I loved this show, and how much most things just want to chew up my childhood and spit it back. Almost nothing could be more devastating than a poorly done Jem and the Holograms movie. (I mean as far as my childhood icons go, not in total.) Still, one can always hope that it will do well.
Find someone fresh, I don’t want any non acting singers to ruin my childhood!! I totally am in love with this concept just don’t reinvent her too much. I can’t even watch the new ninja turtles movie because Michael Bay ruins everything!!
I still have my Jem doll with flashing earrings and the cassette tape that came with her! I may even still have my Jem and the Holograms coloring book!
I feel like katy perry and tegan and sara need to colab on the music for this
Hopefully it will be outrageous, truly, truly outrageous.
Katy Perry!!!