I’ll be honest right from the off and admit that Dirty Dancing isn’t my type of film. I’ve seen it, I thought it was OK, but like Sex and The City and anything Hugh Grant has ever been in, it’s a film written and produced for the female of the species. And gay guys I suppose.
Dirty Dancing was released in 1987 and was a huge box-office success, making $200 million from a measly budget of just $5 million. It made stars of Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey but has saddled them with the characters ever since. Probably because teenage girls wanted to be Grey and marry Swayze.
According to a tweet from Production Weekly, Lionsgate is developing a Dirty Dancing remake. Juila Dahl (Uptown Girl) is penning a script but there is no word yet on any possible castings. I’m guessing Swayze, currently bravely battling cancer, and Grey won’t be involved.
I think the timing of this could have been better, what with Swayze seriously ill, but I’m guessing Lionsgate want to take advantage of the Footloose remake due out next year. If a Dirty Dancing remake is in production by then it’s almost guaranteed publicity around that time.
The bigger question is whether this is really necessary. By all means remake movies that didn’t quite make it, live up to expectations, or flopped at the box-office, but not movies which still live on today as classics of the genre. I really cannot see the point.
