After going on a historical journey to where the Josie and the Pussycats movie could exist as a commercial entity in the late nineties, now we get into the nitty gritty of development. Writing and directing duo Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont sign on to direct after their hit Can’t Hardly Wait and they put out an offer to Rachael Leigh Cook for the role of Josie. Tara Reid gets locked in as Melody and everyone from Aaliyah, Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes, Beyoncé and Regina King audition for the part of Valerie.

Welcome to the second episode of Josie and the Podcats, a six-part limited podcast series all about the 2001 cult classic Josie and the Pussycats.

Josie and the Podcats is hosted, researched and written by best-selling author, screenwriter and journalist Maria Lewis. She can be found on Twitter @MovieMazz https://twitter.com/moviemazz and marialewis.com.au The show is produced by film critic and podcast/producer behind One Heat Minute and All The Presidents Minutes Blake Howard. He can be found on Twitter @OneBlakeMinute https://twitter.com/OneBlakeMinute and graffitiwithpunctuation.com

For the hearing impaired, a written version of this episode is available online here: https://graffitiwithpunctuation.com/josie-and-the-podcats

If you like this show, please rate, review, and subscribe. New episodes drop every Sunday, with bonus episodes during the week.

Josie and the Podcats logo was designed by Aimee Reid who you can find on Instagram at @ai.me.me or via email at aimee.reid0310@gmail.com

Amandah Wilkinson of Bossy Love and Edwin Organ are responsible for our jerkin theme song, with Bossy Love’s new album Me + U out now: www.bossylove.com and Edwin online at edwinorgan.com

This episode was sponsored by Nicola Scott Art https://www.nicolascottart.com and the new book by Maria Lewis, The Wailing Woman https://www.amazon.com/Wailing-Woman-Maria-Lewis/dp/0349421323

Tune in for next week’s episode of Josie and the Podcats, Production, and our upcoming bonus episode, Fashion.