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New screenwriter's story of Juno made it to movie theaters virtually untouched
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Published: January 3, 2008
MINNEAPOLIS -- Diablo Cody, a tattooed, punkish sex blogger, has a tough-chick reputation. She wrote a book about her year as a stripper, and the name of her blog is too risque for family newspapers.
But the novice screenwriter also has written a sweet, PG-13 movie that's shaping up as a hit.
Juno, a sardonic comedy about a pregnant 16-year-old who becomes a "cautionary whale" for her classmates, is rolling out to more and more theaters, picking up rave reviews and Oscar buzz along the way. And Cody is in demand, with several projects -- including one with Steven Spielberg -- pending. Entertainment Weekly recently ranked her 38th on a list of the 50 smartest people in Hollywood.
"It's insane, it really is. I sometimes wonder how much stimulation one person can take," Cody said. "I really feel like I have adrenaline fatigue or something."
Cody, 29, has defied high odds. Not only has her first screenplay been produced -- Juno reaches the screen just over two years after she wrote the first draft -- but she says it's virtually untouched from her original vision.
The chances of that happening are "one in a bazillion," said Mason Novick, who stumbled across Cody's racy blog while surfing for porn and ended up becoming her manager.
"Hollywood likes to hire a lot of writers and go through a lot of rigamarole," said Novick, one of the Juno producers. But the film's partners "knew that was her (Cody's) voice ... and left it alone."
Cody, who grew up in Lemont, Ill., outside of Chicago, was inspired by a high-school friend who got pregnant and had some of the same experiences as the movie's title character.
But Cody (real name Brook Busey-Hunt -- she took her pen name during a trip to Cody, Wyo.) said that the character of Juno is based on herself as a teenager. Juno's hamburger-shaped phone echoes one Cody herself had when she was growing up.
Cody chronicled her adventures as a stripper in Minneapolis in the 2006 memoir Candy Girl. For Juno, she said, she drew on her experiences when she was "young and sweet."
Juno director Jason Reitman, 30, said he was intimidated at the prospect of meeting Cody after reading her sophisticated screenplay, but the feeling didn't last long.
"And I've just kind of absolutely fell in love with her," he said. "We just clicked from moment one, and it became kind of a very strong collaborative working relationship in which she was on-set almost every day."
Reitman said he was amazed to find out that Cody -- who banged out Juno on a laptop at a Starbucks in a suburban Target -- had no formal training as a screenwriter. He also didn't know her background as a one-time stripper.
"I thought, ‘This girl's got a lotta wit,' and the words on the page seemed to live up to the woman. I was also struck by how much heart she had," Reitman said. "In our first meeting we talked ... as much about the ending of the movie being moving as we talked about the beginning of the movie being kind of snappy and funny."
Cody credits Reitman for setting the movie's tone and Ellen Page, a Canadian actress whose film credits include Hard Candy and X-Men: The Last Stand, for the musical and fashion choices. Page is "the soul of Juno," she said.
Juno picked up three Golden Globe nominations -- for screenplay; for best picture, comedy or musical; and for Page as best actress in a comedy or musical. It's also up for four Spirit Awards for independent films.
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