"Twilight" Chick To Play Joan Jett

12/03/08 4:47pm

by Kate Harper (CHARTattack)

Somebody must figure that Kristen Stewart is pretty tough, since she played a teenager in love with a vampire in Twilight. Now she'll soon be playing super tuff rocker Joan Jett.

Stewart has been cast as the female punk rocker in The Runaways, a biopic about Jett's first band, which will be written and directed by Canadian music video director Floria Sigismondi (Muse, Interpol). The movie will "focus on the band's 'metoric rise as teenagers to their dissolution and dissillusionment,'" according to Rollingstone.com

It's not yet known who will play the roles of singer Cherie Currie, guitarist Lita Ford, bassist Jackie Fox or drummer Sandy West, who died from cancer two years ago.

When CHARTattack first wrote about the film in April 2007, it had the title Neon Angel, based on The Runaways' song "Neon Angels On The Road To Ruin."

Vicki Blue, who replaced Fox on bass, made a fascinating 2004 documentary titled Edgeplay: A Film About The Runaways that shows what an asshole Runaways manager Kim Fowley was.

The Runaways formed in 1975 and were the first successful all-female rock band. They had a hit the next year with "Cherry Bomb" and their self-titled album, along with their 1977 Queens Of Noise sophomore disc, saw them attain a degree of stardom. But money and management squabbles led to the band's dissolution in 1979.

Jett went on to have a successful career on her own and with The Blackhearts, while Ford also had a decent solo music career. Currie dabbled in music and acting, but her main love these days is chainsaw carving. Her work is on display at her gallery in Chatsworth, Calif.