Sounds great-- more promising than that teen werewolves and vampire film he was stuck with for a bit, at least!
Absolutely, though by default I would have high hopes for anything he was attached to, no matter the source. I know you dug
The Hole and its
Goosebumps vibe which the vampire/werewolf film would undoubtedly also have, but I'm glad this sort of thing isn't his next movie. For a while there was another project he was going to do about a giant bat terrorizing a plane. The Corman biopic just feels like a dream come true - especially for Dante himself - as I've long-thought he needed to do a project exactly like this to creatively regroup after almost two decades of having difficulties. So we'll see!
Meanwhile, like you, I do believe the ultimate Joe Dante movie would (will?) be a straight comedy/drama about teenagers - if my imagination (projection?) is apt, a straight-forward take on the teen from Dante would gives
Skins a run for its money, which is saying everything!
Matinee and that
Eerie, Indiana episode with Danielle Harris are enough proof of this (& to some extent the opening act of
Explorers too, and damn I wish we had the deleted scenes with Hawke and "the girl next door," there was a ton of extra high school stuff and with her that was actually shot but cut out).
And for the curious, that double feature MGM put out a few years back with the Trip and Psych-Out is worth watching some drug-enchanted evening
Seconded! I own this release as well and it's a blast.