New Kids on Screen

They sell millions of records, pack stadiums and adorn the covers of a slew of teen magazines and paperback bios. But are New Kids on the Block movie material?

Columbia Pictures thinks so: A studio insider reports that a feature film is “in very active development” for the five singing/dancing heartthrobs--who record for Columbia’s CBS Records.

Dick Scott, who has managed the group since they got together in 1985, tells us that studio chief Jon Peters was instrumental in “setting everything in motion,” after catching the Kids’ act last summer at the Universal Amphitheatre, and that the film “won’t be an exploitation film--a teeny-bopper movie. We want it to have some depth and feeling.”

After spending time with the Kids on the road during their ’89 tour, Michael Schiffer (“Lean on Me”) is writing what Scott calls “a fictionalized version--this is not their story, exactly,” of the Kids’ story. Scott will executive produce; the director is yet to be named.

But what if the teen faves--currently in the midst of their “1990 Magic Summer Tour,” which includes a Sept. 14 gig at Dodger Stadium--are no longer the rage when the cameras are set to roll?

Argues Scott: “You can’t think that way. People always are predicting the demise of the group. . . . I never worry about stuff like that. I think only of today, and today they’re the biggest thing in the country. They’ve struck a nerve with America.”