Are you a fan of "Gossip Girl," but can't help the fact that your inner nerd loves NBC's "Chuck"? Well, let creator Josh Schwartz pull you in two directions no longer, because he and "Gossip Girl" and "The OC" co-writer/producer Stephanie Savage have bought the rights to a book that seems to combine both genres seamlessly.
Yesterday, Deadline broke that Josh and Stephanie's Paramount-based Fake Empire production company bought the rights to Joe Schreiber's upcoming young adult novel "Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick" in a two-book deal, which has Roy Lee producing (he's behind most of the big horror movies of the past decade, and "How To Train Your Dragon." Go figure).
The novel follows a high school kid whose family takes in a seemingly ordinary and homely Eastern European exchange student, who reveals herself as a beautiful assassin after five targets when she convinced him to join her in New York City after prom night. That sounds like the best sort of mash of the lives of Serena van der Woodsen and Chuck Bartowski to us, so we decided to come up with a list of things we hope Josh and Stephanie draw from their previous works and bring to "Au Revoir."
The glitz and glam of the Upper East Side
One of the most fun parts of "Gossip Girl" is the city that it takes place in. If we're dealing with a beautiful assassin, we're guessing she's going to be going after a lot of high society Manhattanites in the big city. As long as we get one big, glitzy ballroom sequence, we'll consider ourselves satisfied by this film.
The fun side of spy work
OK, so the foreign exchange student reveals herself to be an assassin, and not a spy, but we look at them as being two sides of the same coin. The best part about "Chuck" is how light-hearted the TV show is in the fact of being about serious spy work, and we can see the main character in "Au Revoir" being a lot like Chuck. We'd love to see his character portrayed as the same comical, bumbling, lovable newbie that Zachary Levi pulls off in "Chuck."
The kick-ass soundtrack
Love the soundtrack of "The OC" and "Gossip Girl"? Well, you have Stephanie Savage to thank for that. Not that we had our doubts, but "Au Revoir" is sure to have one hell of an awesome soundtrack if Stephanie is involved in the decision-making process.
Embrace your inner nerd!
Seth Cohen in "The OC." Chuck, Morgan, Jeff and Lester… and, well, pretty much every character in "Chuck." Dan Humphrey (sort of) in "Gossip Girl." All of these characters gave a good name to nerds everywhere, and we hope Josh and Stephanie continue the streak and make "Au Revoir's" male protagonist a sexy, loveable nerd for us to wish we had in our own lives.
Unknown but beautiful young stars
Rachel Bilson. Chace Crawford. Yvonne Strahovski. Adam Brody. Leighton Meester. Zachary Levi. Together, Josh and Stephanie have managed to take a lot of beautiful nobodies and turn them into somebodies around Hollywood. Why recast some of their own — or someone known — for "Au Revoir" when they could get some new pretty faces and turn them into great stars with this film?
Are you looking forward to Josh and Stephanie working on this film? What are some of your favorite elements of "The OC," "Gossip Girl" and "Chuck"?
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