From Boy Bands To Bubble Gum
Pop music alchemist Lou Pearlman thinks he's found a way to turn the oldies classic "Sugar, Sugar" into modern-day gold.
After launching the Backstreet Boys, 'N Sync, O-Town and other groups, Pearlman plans to create musical acts based on two cartoon bands, The Archies and Josie and the Pussycats.
The partnership with New York-based Archie Entertainment likely will spawn a live-action television series, merchandise and commercial tie-ins that could be worth $100 million, Pearlman said.
Archie Entertainment is an affiliate of Archie Comic Publications Inc., publisher of the Archie comic magazines that sell about 1 million copies a month.
"We have a built-in market," Pearlman said Wednesday. "We're going to try to make it fun, exciting, co-branding and co-sponsoring things such as clothing lines."
If the project gets off the ground, it won't be the first time the 60-year-old Archie cartoon has ventured into the music business. In the late 1960s, The Archies, a studio group inspired by the cartoon, produced bubble gum hits including "Jingle Jangle" and "Sugar, Sugar," which reached No. 1 in 1969.
The new band will record new songs and re-record the classics with a modern sensibility, said Pearlman, adding that the target age group is "age 8 to 80."
"Ninety-percent will be fresh material and 10 percent will be remake," said Pearlman, 47.
With the help of former BMG Entertainment president and CEO Strauss Zelnick, Pearlman and Archie Entertainment are shopping The Archies as a live-action television show to the networks. Once a television commitment is in hand, Pearlman will hold nationwide tryouts for the five or six men and women to play the kids from Riverdale High.
If he's successful, a group based on Josie and the Pussycats will follow. A live-action "Josie and the Pussycats" movie, starring Rachael Leigh Cook, Rosario Dawson and Tara Reid, received mixed reviews and meager box office revenue when it came out last year.
Animated shows based on the Archie comics ran in the late 1960s, the 1980s and the 1990s. But whether The Archies will appeal to a 21st century music audience is another question.
"The Archies weren't too hip, but I guess the intention is to update them and make them cooler," said Chuck Taylor, a senior editor with Billboard magazine. "The things that sound absolutely far-fetched are sometimes the things that catch pop culture at the right time."
Archie's re-entry into the music business comes during the comic strip's 60th year, when Archie Entertainment is trying to re-energize the brand with other projects such as an Archie stage production and a Sabrina movie.
The privately held comic book company has revenue in the "$20 million-range," said co-chairman Michael Silberkleit.
Pearlman could use a hit after watching his biggest successes - the Backstreet Boys, 'N Sync and O-Town - fly the coop amid legal battles and allegations of unfair dealings. In the past few months, more than a dozekey executives and staffers have left or been laid off from his company, Trans Continental Entertainment.
One thing is unquestionable, though: In their latest incarnation, Archie, Veronica, Betty and Jughead will retain their wholesomeness, despite entering a music business known for tattoos, body-piercing, crotch-grabbing and drug use.
"We have the Archie code of decency," Silberkleit said. "Our characters aren't going to be nude. They're going to be portrayed as virgins. No smoking. In a car, they're going to wear seat belts, and I doubt they're going to grab their crotches."
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