HISTORY:

 

Based on a book written by Alan W. Livingston, former president of Capitol Records and the man who signed the Beatles, Ronnie Finkelhof Superstar was published by Random House and optioned by Zanuck and Brown, producers of Jaws and The Sting, to be made into a feature film at Warner Brothers. The rights have reverted to the Livingston family. 

 

CAA COVERAGE COMMENTS:

 

 “This engaging effort delivers a smart, colorful, and believable young hero and a playful, energetic coming of age story. The writers have delivered an engaging young hero. Ronnie’s overwhelming smarts, vulnerability, and bristling teenage emotion carry the day quite nicely. His nicely detailed scenes with Aben and Ginny deliver solid bittersweet emotion and large doses of engaging humor. Ronnie’s struggle between his insecurity and emerging talent and confidence plays out nicely through inept bumbling as “himself” and his graceful and sensual “JOHNNY” persona on stage. This colorful inner battle holds our interest from start to finish. The writers have made strong use of moments of physical comedy with Ronnie delivering a number of strong laughs with just enough pathos along the way. This is a strong role for a newcomer. The role of Aben also delivers large doses of sarcastic self-deprecating humor and world-weary charm. His role also presents a nice casting opportunity.

 

Story-wise, the writers keep things moving along quite nicely. Ronnie encounters a strong series of dramatic obstacles at school and with the music business that keep him nicely off balance and deliver solid doses of real tension amidst the comic relief. We wish his scenes with Andy had more variety, but his engaging scenes with Ginny and Aben more than make up for it.  As long as the writers stick to the love story and the music biz struggle, this effort soars. Overall, this is an amusing, involving effort that manages to find a measure of true emotion amidst its comic coming of age story line. This is a very strong consider.”