|
Street
Dreams
Jason
was cast in 1998
as the male
lead in Street Dreams, an
independent film to be directed by
John G. Avildsen (Rocky,
The
Karate Kid). The film would
have marked Jason's feature film
debut, but Street Dreams ultimately
never
went into production.
Daily
Variety announced the film in
February 1998; Jason also discussed
the film in his TalkCity
and Hollywood
Spotlight chats. According to
these sources, Street
Dreams would tell the story
of working-class teens competing in
annual high school fashion
competitions in Hoboken, New Jersey.
As the
teens create and model their designs,
they imagine how jobs in
the fashion industry would help them
to overcome their socioeconomic
statuses. Jason's
character, a Hispanic model, falls for
Angela, an
Italian girl who works in her
father's tailor shop while creating
her own clothing designs at night.
Because of the teens'
different ethnic backgrounds, their
parents don't approve of the
budding romance. "My character infuses
Angela with the
desire to follow her dreams," Jason
told Hollywood
Spotlight,
"and it's about the desire to get to
New York."
In Daily
Variety, Avildsen
described Street Dreams as "Romeo
and
Juliet in Hoboken"; on TalkCity,
Jason referred to it as "Kind
of like a West Side Story,
crossed with Dirty
Dancing." Street
Dreams was
not intended to be a musical, but once
Jason was cast, his
character was rewritten to be an
aspiring actor/singer as well as a
model. This would have enabled Jason
to record songs for the soundtrack.
The film had been referred to as Fashion
Wars on several film
sites. Virginia Clark and Marjorie
Short were the screenplay writers;
Gene
Kirkwood and Norman Stephens were set
to produce. The film would have
filmed on location in New Jersey and
New York beginning in November
1999. Details as to why the
film fell through are unknown. |
|
|
