Pied pipers of teenage angst

But everything turned out fine,and the film,Fun Size,about a smart but disturbed teenager who loses her misfit younger brother on Halloween,is heading toward an October release. But the pressure is only mounting: Paramount is betting that Schwartz and his lower-profile but formidable business partner,Stephanie Savage,can deliver John Hughes-style hits (Sixteen Candles,The Breakfast Club) for a new generation.

Many have tried to replicate the Hughes magic: anxiety-ridden,oddball teenagers spinning toward adulthood against a backdrop of moment-defining music. There have been successes here and there (Superbad),but studios,focused ever more intently on big-budget sequels,animation and superhero movies,have largely ceded angst-filled teenage storytelling to television,where shows like Gossip Girl have become cultural forces. Adam Goodman,president of the Paramount Film Group,said in an interview that he was concerned that studios,including his own,had veered too far from originality. He sees an antidote in Fake Empire,the production company owned by Savage and Schwartz.

Specifically Goodman wants them to help Paramount make better use of its MTV Films and Nickelodeon Films labels,best known lately for The Last Airbender. By releasing and marketing Fake Empires movies under those banners,Paramount can tap into the brand identities that MTV and Nickelodeon have among young consumers to help fill theatres.

Its a Sisyphean task. Once Hollywoods most reliable audience,teenagers have become increasingly fickle and distracted by other leisure activities,like video games.

Stephanie is the secret weapon,a total killer,and I mean that in the best possible way, said Goodman,who worked on John Hughes comedies like Home Alone early in his career. I like that both Josh and Stephanie are truly excited to be here. That enthusiasm is contagious and makes its way onto the screen. Goodman added: Theyre also fast. They dont come from the movie business where everything moves,shall we say,at a certain pace. In less than two years Fake Empire has delivered Fun Size. written by Max Werner (The Colbert Report) and starring Victoria Justice (Nickelodeons Victorious). The company has also advanced on eight other movies,including a remake of Endless Love,the 1981 Brooke Shields vehicle.

But most of its projects are original screenplays based on young-adult novels. One,Au Revoir,Crazy European Chick,is about a high school student whose family hosts an exchange student who turns out to be an assassin.

Schwartz,35,and Savage,42,are working on multiple pilots for the fall season,including The Carrie Diaries,a prequel to Sex and the City. Fake Empire tends to pick projects that have a significant emphasis on fashion,a passion of Savages,and music,one of Schwartzs keenest interests. (The company is named after a 2007 song by the National,a Brooklyn indie-rock band.)

We love stories about identity and acceptance because theyre so universal, Savage said. She added: Coming-of-age stories in high school are exciting because everything that happens during that time is very heightened. The decisions feel like life and death.Theres this sensational narcissism,but you forgive it because teenagers are naïve.