Footloose: My big ’80s prom.
There aren’t a lot of really proven directors of movie musicals out there. You could name Rob Marshall of “Chicago” and the upcoming “Nine” fame, Adam Shenkman of “Hairspray, and start to run out of names.
Well, other than, of course, Kenny Ortega–he’s famous for choreographing “Dirty Dancing,” directing and choreographing the three “High School Musical” movies, and the about to be released Michael Jackson film, “This Is It.” He also choreographed a number of music videos and other musical sequences in otherwise nonmusical movies (“Ferris Bueller” is on his resume), and of course, choreographed the legendary “Newsies.” With that kind of experience–especially the HSM films–Ortega seemed to be the obvious choice for the (regrettable) remake of “Footloose” (note to the studio: so how did that “Fame” remake go?).
The film is set to star the shiny pretty Chase Crawford during his “Gossip Girl” hiatus this spring (the original starred a much edgier Kevin Bacon), with Julianne Hough of “Dancing with the Stars” as the love interest. Would I be meanspirited to note that the film is about a city slicker (Crawford) who moves to a small town where dancing is forbidden, but then fights the adults to get permission to have a school dance, and thus a professional dancer might seem out of place? The original starred a bunch of kids who performed the dance sequences basically as well as you’d expect from your average high schoolers at the prom. But I digress.
The point–and I do have one–is that Ortega has dropped out of the film due to creative differences and budget, sez Variety. Apparently Paramount studio head Adam Goodman wanted “an edgier drama with less emphasis on the musical numbers, and a budget around $25 million or less,” while Ortega wanted more dance and more money–like $30 million or so.
This warms my heart a bit. No offense to the talented Mr. Ortega, but the original was more of a drama than a dance movie, so at least someone out there gets it. So I would urge them to find a director who is, indeed, more interested in the drama than putting together another sunny, shiny movie peopled with perfect looking teenbots–like the recent “Fame” (the original “Footloose” was directed by Herbert Ross, also known for directing the intense dance drama “The Turning Point”). But the casting still makes me nervous.
