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Catherine Hardwicke to direct adaptation of “The Bitch Posse”

Kate Erbland

by: Kate Erbland
May 6th, 2011

I've never made any bones about not being a huge fan of Catherine Hardwicke as a director (I hated her TWILIGHT, I mocked her Hamlet adaptation that never got off the ground, I didn't even see RED RIDING HOOD), but even I won't deny the power of her directorial debut, THIRTEEN. Now it looks as if Hardwicke is getting back into that sort of tough girl teen angsty grove and, for once, I am genuinely excited about her take on the material.

Deadline reports that Hardwicke will direct an adaptation of Martha O'Connor's 2006 novel, The Bitch Posse. With a script penned by Tristine Skyler, the plot of the book sounds right in Hardwicke's wheelhouse, with some additional, more mature material for her to sink her teeth into.

The book revolves around "three friends, Cherry, Amy and Rennie, high school seniors who come from troubled homes and form a dangerous alliance called the Bitch Posse. Something occurs that rips apart the friendship and haunts them into adulthood." If all that high school stuff doesn't already sound tough enough, the book also looks at the girls in their adult years, switching between high school and adulthood. And, let me tell you something, those adult years are just as bad as the high school ones. Check out the book's full synopsis after the break.

From Google Books:

"These are the confessions of the Bitch Posse. Cherry, Rennie, and Amy were outcasts, rebels, and dreamers. And their friendship was so all-encompassing that some would call it dangerous. This is the story of three women-as seniors in high school and as women in their mid-thirties---who formed a bond in order to survive the pitfalls and perils of their lives. In the present day, one of them is a wife and mother-to-be, trying to live a 'normal' life. One of them is a writer who engages in a number of self-destructive relationships. And one of them is in a mental hospital---and has been ever since that one fateful night fifteen years ago, when a heart-wrenching betrayal and the unraveling of relationships led them to a point of no return, where their actions triggered unimaginable consequences. These secrets have torn them apart while inextricably binding them to one another. What happened to them? And can they survive their shared history, even today?

The Bitch Posse is an anthem for friendships that defy society's approval or disapproval. It's a novel of secrets, courage, sacrifice, and hope against the odds. It is both a journey back to being a girl on the verge of adulthood, and a journey forward, showing how the events of our past can unearth the best in us today."

Taking a quick peek at the book, it opens with a bang (literally). Within the first few pages, there's already a sort of breathlessness and wild abandon that should burst off the screen. The book also alternates between the girls' different voices, so I hope Hardwicke and company do right by it and cast some strong, gutsy young actresses for the roles.

I sense a new A Novel Idea from this one. Have any of you read The Bitch Posse? How would you like to see it on screen?

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  • http://literarydilettantes.com Nicole

    I’ve read The Bitch Posse, it’s actually one of my all time favorite books (in the top 3, really). I honestly don’t really want to see it adapted into a film (I’m opposed to a lot of book to film adaptations, especially when the book employs unusual techniques — in this case, the alternating between past and present, telling the story from all three points of view — whose effects can be lost or diminished on screen), and though I did like Thirteen, I can’t help but remember how awful Twilight and Little Red Riding Hood are (the latter especially…at least with the former one can blame the source material but with Riding Hood, she had the opportunity to do something really interesting with this fairy tale and she failed). I basically have a hard time taking her efforts seriously anymore. The only thing I am happy about is that they chose to go with a female director

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