"I was just experimenting with several scripts," said Cody, who also has worked on the Showtime television series "The United States of Tara" and the script for the college comedy "Girly Style." "I did not think this would be my follow-up to 'Juno.' But I don't know if I will ever write [another] highbrow, artsy movie."
In fact, Cody tried to get her Oscar out of her mind -- and eyesight. "I literally put it away -- under my bathroom sink with the toilet paper," she said. "It was difficult to look at. I wanted to think of something else."
Just as "Juno" was hardly a standard-issue teen pregnancy film, "Jennifer's Body," which comes out next year, intends to be an equally atypical genre movie.
Yes, several people will die horrific deaths. Of course, a stunning girl will appear wearing very few clothes. A young couple will fumble having sex. Pretty much everyone old enough to pay bills -- police, parents, teachers -- will come across as inept. And then, if Cody and Kusama can pull it off, "Jennifer's Body" will veer off in new directions, trying to bring some girl power to what are almost always damsel-in-distress narratives.
"I want to be faithful to the genre but also turn all of those things sideways," Cody continued. "My biggest priority is putting words in women's mouths -- it just doesn't happen. Women don't get the good lines. They don't get to do anything. And they don't get to be reckless. And I've always been reckless."
A former alternative newspaper reporter, Internet blogger, sex industry worker and memoirist, Cody grew up loving scary 1970s and 1980s movies -- "I'm a horror junkie," she said. Cody was particularly drawn to thrillers with artistic flair -- "Rosemary's Baby," "Carrie," "The Shining," "Poltergeist" and the darkly comic pre-"Spider-Man" films from director Sam Raimi, especially "The Evil Dead."
Yet Cody was equally struck by films that many might not find inherently terrifying, including Sofia Coppola's "The Virgin Suicides." "There's the idea of the adolescent feminine mystique being inherently creepy," Cody said. "Two girls holding hands platonically as they cross a schoolyard -- I find that creepy."
Just girls being bad
