Guess
Aug 28th, 2007, 09:59 AM
Peter Barsocchini is a screenwriter who a few years ago took what he thought was a small assignment to write a kids’ TV musical so he could entertain his preteen daughter, Gabriella, even naming the female lead after her. That small assignment for Disney Channel turned into "High School Musical," and more recently "High School Musical 2," which became a global entertainment phenomenon - and one of the most lucrative payouts a Hollywood writer has ever received for a single property.
He started getting calls the day after the first "HSM" aired in January 2006, and now he fields more offers than he has time to write. Current projects include a musical he’s writing with Mariah Carey for HBO based on her album "All I Want for Christmas," an independent feature based on Pico Iyer’s novel "Cuba and the Night" that he’s been developing since 1994, an adaptation of a young-adult novel called "Define `Normal’ " for Lifetime, and a "Hard Day’s Night"-style romp starring Oreskaband, a real-life ska band made up of six teenage Japanese girls.
Despite Hollywood’s notorious fixation on youth, if someone now wants to make a film that appeals to music-minded teens, apparently fiftysomething Peter Barsocchini looks like the one most likely to succeed.
Source: The L.A Times
He started getting calls the day after the first "HSM" aired in January 2006, and now he fields more offers than he has time to write. Current projects include a musical he’s writing with Mariah Carey for HBO based on her album "All I Want for Christmas," an independent feature based on Pico Iyer’s novel "Cuba and the Night" that he’s been developing since 1994, an adaptation of a young-adult novel called "Define `Normal’ " for Lifetime, and a "Hard Day’s Night"-style romp starring Oreskaband, a real-life ska band made up of six teenage Japanese girls.
Despite Hollywood’s notorious fixation on youth, if someone now wants to make a film that appeals to music-minded teens, apparently fiftysomething Peter Barsocchini looks like the one most likely to succeed.
Source: The L.A Times