“Nobody puts lucrative marketing opportunities in the corner!”. Well at least not for long. Dirty Dancing, which was once in the works for a remake in 2009, is now back on the radar with Kenny Ortega in the director’s chair.
Ortega might not immediately spring to mind but he’s been behind such muscial successes/apocalypses (delte as appropriate) as the High School Musical Trilogy and Michael Jackson’s This Is It. He was also the choreographer for the orginal Dirty Dancing so he’s got some vested interest in making sure it doesn’t suck.
“The opportunity to direct Dirty Dancing is like returning home for me,” he said in a statement, which Deadline were fast to pick up on.
“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. Patrick Swayze set the bar for men dancing in the movies as Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire did before him. I believe everywhere you look there is evidence that the talent is out there and I can’t wait to begin the process of discovering the next breakout triple-threats.”
There’s that old chestnut “bringing it to a new generation” which gets trotted out as an excuse to remake formerly decent movies. Just pay to have it rereleased in cinemas and be done with it.
