Sometimes it's the little signs that point toward big roles -- like Dakota Fanning playing singer Cherie Currie in "The Runaways."

And in this case, that little sign was a little bit of body art.

Currie, chatting at the Sundance Film Festival, told me about when she and Fanning met over lunch to discuss re-creating her persona on the big screen. Fanning revealed to Currie that her journey to their table had started with a classmate who was holding some temporary tattoos.

Dakota's friend had brought the arty stickies to school, Currie said. "She picked a single cherry and put it on her arm."

When Fanning got home that day, her mother was holding the script for "The Runaways."

As Currie tells it, Joy Fanning said, "Dakota you’re not going to believe this. I’m holding this script and you would play a girl who has a cherry tattoo."

After that, Fanning hit it off with director Floria Sigismondi, and a new Cherie was born.

For Currie, a mom and recovering addict, there was nobody but Fanning for the part.

"She’s a prodigy, she’s incredibly unique," she said. "I think she deserves an Academy Award, I'm going to say that right now."

Source: Ministry of Gossip - LA Times

This is the last week in the project, so this week will be for people to "sign" the birthday book. Send your signature (either scanned or written in your favorite font/color) by February 4th to be included in the birthday book. admin[at]fanningworld[dot]com. :)

Forced to film romantic scenes in different ways since it involves 15-year-old Dakota Fanning, Floria Sigismondi says she could have had the actress' role topless in the film if she were older.

As if same-sex kissing scene between Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart in "The Runaways" is not racy enough, Floria Sigismondi said she could have done more if the 15-year-old actress were few years older. Speaking to LA Times, the helmer admitted that she actually wanted the role of Cherie Currie seen topless in the movie.

"There were a lot of things I couldn't do that I wanted to do," the 44-year-old filmmaker revealed. Asked about her desire that could not be fulfilled, Sigismondi said, "If I used an 18-year-old, I could've maybe had her topless ... just to give it a little more reality." Though so, she seems satisfied with Fanning and Stewart's works as the director called them "such pros".

Based on the 1970s all-girl rock band of the same name, "The Runaways" will cover the formation of the musical group through to Cherie Currie's departure at the peak of their success. It is also said to highlight the relationship between The Runaways' lead vocalist/keyboardist Cherie and guitarist/vocalist Joan Jett.

Beside Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart who take the lead roles of Cherie and Joan respectively, the biopic will see Scout Taylor-Compton playing Lita Ford, Stella Maeve portraying Sandy West, and Alia Shawkat starring as fictional character Robin. Premiered at the 26th Sundance Film Festival, this flick is set to open wide in U.S. theaters on March 19.

Source: Ace Showbiz

The Sundance Film Festival is all about reunions, as casts and crews who worked on films months or even years before meet up in the Rocky Mountains to promote their projects and hit some afterparties. Sunday night at the Eccles Theatre was the setting for one of the festival's more curious reunions, when the members of the pioneering all-teen-girl '70s rock band the Runaways walked the red carpet with the stars portraying them in a big screen biopic "The Runaways," which tells the story of the band's rise and fall.

So there was Runaways guitarist/solo star Joan Jett next to her onscreen counterpart, Kristen Stewart, and singer Cherie Currie walking alongside her young cinematic doppelganger, Dakota Fanning (both of whom star in the "Twilight" saga). Asked to give their reactions the first time they saw the teen actors in costume as the Runaways, Jett and Currie's eyes lit up.

Source: MTV

Sex, drugs and rock and roll — they are three powerful, dangerous temptations that have gone together like peanut butter and jelly for many years. They are also three things fans don't normally associate with teenage actresses Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart.

That is, until now.

Over the weekend, KStew and ... um, DFan? ... premiered "The Runaways" at the Sundance Film Festival. For those of you who've been sleeping under a '70s-era Marshall stack, the film tells the tale of the real-life all-girl rock band that broke boundaries, laws and lots of equipment four decades ago. It also features the two "New Moon" stars snorting cocaine in a bathroom — which could potentially be a problem for two young actors who many look up to as role models.

Source: VH1.com

At some point, everybody dreams of being a famous musician, touring around the world and performing for screaming crowds. Everyone can also relate to the movie star dream, imagining moving to Hollywood, making hugely successful movies and walking red carpets looking glamorous. Recently, Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning premiered their upcoming rock biopic "The Runaways" at Sundance, enjoying the best of both fantasies before either one has turned 20.

So, from folks who are neither to women who are both, we had to ask: Which is more awesome, being a rock star or a Hollywood star?

"Hmmm," pondered Stewart, who, thanks to the "Twilight" films, is arguably hotter than any actress in Hollywood at the moment. "What's cooler?"

"I enjoy being an actor pretending to be a rock and roll star," Fanning laughed.

"It's like the best of both worlds," KStew agreed.

Source: VH1.com

We'll get to that kiss in a second, but first let's note the other hot thing about The Runaways.

The outfits that Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning wear are nothing short of spectacular. We're talking cha-cha heels, skintight bodysuits, lots of sequins and just about anything else you can think of when it comes to the drugs, sex and rock 'n' roll era of the '70s.

"I kept all the wardrobe," Fanning told reporters at the movie's Sundance Film Festival premiere. "I can break it out again some day."

Can't wait. So OK, risqué clothing wasn't the only naughty thing going on in the movie...

In one scene, Fanning and Stewart lock lips. It's pretty cool just how OK these two actresses are about same-sex smooching.

Source: E! Online

From the moment I arrived at Sundance, the movie that more or less everyone, including me, wanted to see most was The Runaways — and not just because it offered the chance to see whether Kristen Stewart, as Joan Jett, could leave her swoony Twilight mopiness behind her and play a rock & roll princess with down-and-dirty spunk. (Verdict: She can.) It’s also because the Runaways, a packaged group of choppy-haired teen-glam feline punkettes from L.A. who, in 1976, did for girls playing power chords what the Sex Pistols did for beer-spewing anarchy, may seem cooler now than they did then. In hindsight, they blazed quite a trail, but they didn’t have many good songs — and even their best one, “Cherry Bomb,” never quite broke free of their jailbait novelty-act image.

Source: EW.com Movie Critics

Rock pioneer Joan Jett played a special Saturday night set at the Sundance Film Festival in celebration of "The Runaways," the upcoming film about her '70s L.A. all-girl rock band of the same name that had its festival premiere Sunday night. Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning, the film's stars, joined Jett on stage.

A private reception sponsored by SPIN, Blackheart Records, Apparition, and FLO TV was held at the Interluxe Lounge just before the show.

It was fitting that Jett ignited her set at Park City's Harry O's with "Bad Reputation," one of the biggest hits of her solo career. She followed with her No. 1 charting anthem "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" and her ode to self-loathing, "I Hate Myself for Loving You."

The standing-room-only audience joined Jett with boisterous screams and shouts of "Oh! Yeah!" during the sassy "Do You Wanna Touch" and gave the stuttering "ch-ch-ch's" during Jett's kiss-off version of "Cherry Bomb."

Source: Spin Magazine Online

After a mostly depressing day of dramas, Sundance 2010 got a much needed jolt Sunday night.

The Eccles auditorium was overflowing and every seat was taken for “The Runaways,” a juiced up biopic about rocker Joan Jett and her original group of all-female players, The Runaways circa 1975.

Kristen Stewart, of “Twilight” fame and also another good Sundance film,”Welcome to the Rileys,” plays Jett circa 1975. Dakota Fanning, who is still just 15, takes the role of Cherie Currie, Joan Jett’s founding partner in The Runaways. The movie does feature what seems to be a heavily suggested love scene between the two which should be pretty controversial when “The Runaways” is released by Apparition Films.

There’s a lot going on in “The Runaways,” too: Tatum O’Neal plays Cherie’s mom (Dakota’s mom). And Lisa Marie Presley’s 20-year-old daughter, Riley, plays Dakota’s sister. Yes, Elvis and Priscilla Presley’s granddaughter! Do you feel old now?

“The Runaways” marks the auspicious feature film debut of music video director Floria Sigismondi. The film was scored by Sigismondi’s talented musician husband, Lillian Berlin (yes, he’s a man, a very nice young man). Michael Shannon is also featured as The Runaway’s infamous awful manager, Kim Fowley.

Source: Showbiz 411