We’ve seen reimaginings of Alice in Wonderland, King Kong, Ocean’s Eleven, and a new Footloose is in the works too, but there are just some stories that need to be left alone. Dirty Dancing is one of those movies that just can’t be touched or improved upon. Variety reports that Lionsgate has hired original Dirty Dancing and High School Musical choreographer Kenny Ortega to direct the beloved 1987 summer dance romance.
Before we get into the details of how much producers in the industry are looking forward to paying homage to the classic, let me just say that this should not happen. There have been plenty of wannabe dance movies with music video-like montages which hope to shine in comparison to Patrick Swayze as Johnny Castle and Jennifer Grey as Baby is performing the famed lift, but there are no other movies that can truly compare! Hearing of this news may excite some moviegoers who like to hear remixes of classic songs, but enough is enough. If you’re gonna honor the movie, at least let Glee do a Dirty Dancing-themed episode and be done with it… Or perhaps someone on Broadway should step up because that’s the only acceptable forum in which this movie should be recreated (in my opinion)! Live audiences will eat that stuff up, but any hopes of a movie remake sound like they’re going straight-to-DVD.
Back to the news… The movie is set to be “a modernization that will incorporate songs from the original, as well as classic songs from the 1960s and new compositions,” and is also produced by Ortega and Debra Martin Chase (The Princess Diaries). In addition, Ortega gleaned over his participation in the film with, “The opportunity to direct ‘Dirty Dancing’ is like returning home for me… Growing up in the ’60s on the dance floor helped define me as a person and as an artist. I am looking forward to assembling a great creative team and an exciting cast to bring ‘Dirty Dancing’ to the screen for a new generation.”
It’s been less than two years still since Swayze lost his battle with pancreatic cancer, but he is still heralded as a dancer who “set the bar for men dancing in the movies as Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire did before him,” says Ortega. Also, producer Chase adds, “This remake of ‘Dirty Dancing’ presents an exciting opportunity to both celebrate what has made this movie so beloved and refresh and enhance it so that new audiences can claim it as their own.“
After all, there was a mild attempt to reinvent the sexy dance fever that the original movie introduced when Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights hit the big screen back in 2004 starring virtually unknowns at the time, Romola Garai and Diego Luna. Does anybody even remember the sequel anyway?
As more develops about this project, Movie Buzzers will be following. What do you think of this remake? Is it a good idea to revive a classic that has stood the test of time? Can anyone really replace the one of a kind chemistry that thrived on screen between the original Johnny and Baby? And really… can anyone else really deliver the line “Nobody puts Baby in a corner” like we’ve always known it to be said?
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