Roberts resurrects Nancy Drew

By Joshua Tyler Sep 13, 2005, 15:15 GMT

There’s still money to be had in the teenage girl market, but with kid stars like Hillary Duff and Lindsay Lohan starting to grow up, how do you get it? For Warner Brothers, the answer is the resurrection of Nancy Drew.

Warners first made movies about the popular teenage super-sleuth back in the thirties, and books sporting her name have been appearing on girls shelves nearly as long as their male, Hardy Boys counterparts. The first film in the new ‘Nancy Drew’ series is called ‘Nancy Drew: The Mystery in Hollywood Hills’ and 14-year-old Emma Roberts is slated to star.

In addition to being the daughter of Eric Roberts and niece of Julia Roberts, Emma has a slew of new films already on her plate. In 2006 alone she’s tapped to appear in ‘Aquamarine’, ‘Camp Couture’, and a film whose title sounds suspiciously like a pornographic remake of ‘Bedknobs and Broomsticks’ the oddly named ‘Bras and Broomsticks’. Throw in her role on Nickelodeon’s ‘Unfabulous’ and it looks like Emma is doing a good job of positioning herself as a Hillary Duff replacement.

Her ‘Nancy Drew’ film still has no start date, but the Tiffany Paulsen penned screenplay will be directed by Andrew Fleming and likely start shooting before Emma Roberts grows up. She’ll turn 15 in February.