'Step Up' Star Ryan Guzman is Rio in 'Jem and the Holograms'

By the time Ryan Guzman had danced his way into Step Up Revolution, Jon M. Chu had vacated the director's chair in favor of producing the long-running franchise. But Chu must have been plenty impressed because he's set to work with Guzman on his live-action version of Jem and the Holograms.

Guzman will be taking on the role of Rio Pacheco, who fans of the trippy 1980s cartoon will remember as the band's road manager. Actually, the situation was more complicated than that as Rio had a crush on Jem even though he was the boyfriend to her civilian identity, Jerrica. One of the running plots of the series was Jerrica hiding her identity as Jem from him, which caused all sorts of problems. I won't lie, part of me saw Taylor Lautner in this role. Yeah, I've given Jem and the Holograms that much thought.

Guzman joins Aubrey Peeples as Jem, Stefanie Scott as Kimber, Hayley Kiyoko as Aja and Aurora Perrineau as Shana. He'll be seen next as part of the returning dance crew in Step Up All In. [THR]