Lionsgate has announced that they plan to remake the hit film ‘Dirty Dancing’. Some fans will be overjoyed but others will shudder at the news. Kenny Ortega, who choreographed the original film, will direct the remake. Ortega also directed the Michael Jackson movie ‘This Is It’ and also ‘High School Musical’.
Ortega spoke to film magazine Variety about the news of the remake;
“The opportunity to direct Dirty Dancing is like returning home for me,” Ortega also said “Patrick Swayze set the bar for men dancing in movies as Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire did before him.”
The original film from 1987 starred Jennifer Grey opposite Patrick Swayze. It has maintained a strong fan base and has also been a huge economic success. The original film was made for $6 million and went on to gross $214 million worldwide, spawning a stage adaptation and a TV series.
In fact this is not the first attempt at a remake. In 2004, ‘Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights’ was released, it told a similar story but set the action in Havana on the eve of the Cuban Revolution, it was not successful. Let’s hope they do the original justice this time round.
It has been reported that Lionsgate was inspired to consider a remake due to the popularity of the Facebook page for ‘Dirty Dancing’, which has more than nine million fans.
