Lionsgate has no love for LOL

LOL” was supposed to represent a big step for Miley Cyrus’ movie career as she attempts to mature beyond her saccharine sweet image as Disney’s Hannah Montana. Instead, it has turned into a tough lesson about how quickly a Hollywood studio can fall out of love with a movie.
An English-language adaptation of the hit 2008 French film of the same name, “LOL” is about teen romance in the age of texting and social media. The picture’s sophisticated tone is set in one of its first scenes when Cyrus takes a shower while her mother, played by Demi Moore, takes a bath in the same room. The two have a frank talk about sexuality after Moore’s character notices that her naked daughter has had a Brazilian wax.
“I really thought this movie could be universal,” filmmaker Lisa Azuelos, who wrote and directed the American and French versions of the films, said in a telephone interview from Morocco. “Usually teen movies are tender or scary or have vampires in them, but they’re never realistic. This story isn’t too dirty and not too stupid.”
The Cyrus movie was made in 2010 and produced by Mandate Pictures for about $11 million, with money raised primarily from sales to foreign distributors. Lionsgate, Mandate’s parent company, acquired domestic distribution rights for several million dollars. In a statement released at the time, Lionsgate’s then-production president, Allie Shearmur, described it as “the kind of smart, fresh and accessible comedy that … is a great fit for Lionsgate’s release slate.”
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