The Runaways Movie Trailer: Fast, Cheap And Hopefully Out Of Control

Floria Sigismondi's account of the formation and early career of The Runaways is opening soon, and here's the first full trailer for the film. It's a a lot better than the teaser, as it goes slightly lighter on all the world-changing crap and shows off the characters and the LA dives and parties in which they came together.Yahoo has the trailer, and I wonder if the film will look as washed out on screen as it does in the trailer. I get it — there's some attempt to recreate the visuals of the time, and I can see the washed-out images being part of that. I do love how creepy Michael Shannon looks as Kim Fowley, the producer who helped the group come together and took more than his share of the credit for the band. Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart look a bit like girls trying to look like rock stars, but that might be exactly the point. Is that what the real versions of their characters were like? Could be.

And is that what the 'rock and roll history' part of the narration is meant to represent? Some youthful naivete and misunderstanding of the mercurial nature of the music business? Maybe.

You can also now hear the full version of 'Cherry Bomb' as sung by Dakota Fanning for the film. (It's heard in part in the trailer.) I've seen some comments blasting Fanning's performance, but let's face it: Cherie Currie always got by on style and moxie more than vocal ability. Fanning stacks up fine, I think. Is this going to go into the iPod rotation? Probably not, but it is hardly a bad job.

Here's the original version. Cherie sounds a hell of a lot older than she was at the time.

The Runaways opens limited on March 19, then goes wider to 1000 screens  on April 9.