Shea: The Runaways finally get silver screen treatment

This Friday, “The Runaways,” a long overdue rock odyssey chronicling the sage of… This Friday, “The Runaways,” a long overdue rock odyssey chronicling the sage of ’70s superstars The Runaways, will finally see a wide release after a month-long limited release run.

Despite the fact that Kristin Stewart — who sucks — stars as Joan Jett, I’m pretty excited about the movie.

Unlike most other ’70s band biographies, “The Runaways” will show a different side of the rock star lifestyle by chronicling the rock ’n’ roll experience from the female perspective.

The film is based off former Runaway lead singer Cherie Currie’s memoir about the band called “Neon Angel.”

The book and movie depicts the ’70s all-girl teen punk band, The Runaways, that was in its prime in 1976-78 and is best known for the hits “Cherry Bomb,” “Born to Be Bad” and “Neon Angel.” During its reign as rock queen, the group was big enough to headline tours with bands like The Ramones and Cheap Trick.

According to Currie’s book, during its short but dramatic time together, the band had several members leave (including lead singer Currie herself), romances and hookups between band members, kidnappings, rapes, pregnancies and attempted suicides.

With that much drama, it’s actually kind of amazing that it took this long for someone to make a movie about The Runaways.

But like most biographical movies, certain parts are dramatized, and others are cut. Surprisingly, “The Runaways” actually cut out some of the grittier details that Currie’s book exposes, like the rapes, pregnancies and kidnappings. But other events — like Currie leaving the band — are dramatized and set in new scenarios.

The disconnect between the screenplay writer and director, Floria Sigismondi, and the band member caused a bit of tension on set.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Currie called the set “kind of tense,” and remarked that Sigismondi “never even called me once. She never picked up the phone to call me or ask a question or anything. There were some things that upset me [in the movie].”

But tensions aside, Currie, who is played by Dakota Fanning in the film, said she enjoyed working on it, and the film actually brought her and Joan back together in the studio to record some tracks for the movie.

All in all, I think it should be a nice addition to the genre and a damn interesting story to watch unfold.