Nothing Diablo Cody has done since Juno has quite topped that movie's success, though to be honest, winning an Oscar for your first-ever screenplay is a pretty tough act to follow. She'd probably be crazy to try to replicate the formula, but that won't stop her from trying-- THR reports that Cody is teaming up with Mandate Pictures and Mr. Mudd for her next screenplay, Young Adult.
All the producers involved were on Juno too, and though there's no mention of Jason Reitman, he produced Jennifer's Body and could easily wind up on this as well. Except for the Midwestern setting, the new script seems to have nothing to do with Juno-- the main character is a young-adult fiction writer who returns to her hometown to chase her high school boyfriend, who is now married with a child.
The young-adult fiction angle may very well have been inspired by Cody's other recent writing project, adapting the Sweet Valley High novels for a film. As excited as I am about that one-- as a child of the 80s and 90s, I have a very soft spot for the Wakefield twins-- I'm looking forward even more to another original script from Cody. Sure, Jennifer's Body had its flaws, but she still has one of the most interesting and unusual voices out there, and the very notion of her writing a romantic comedy-- at least, I'm assuming this is a romantic comedy-- told from the point of view of a woman is a huge breath of fresh air. In a world full of Bride Wars and Leap Year, something like this is exactly what we need.
