Whatever your opinion, you will probably be horrified to learn that the team onboard Dirty Dancing’s facelift include High School Musical and This Is It director Kenny Ortega and screenwriter Maria Maggenti, whose credentials included this year’s Monte Carlo, a train wreck of a chick-flick about girlies who get bored in Paris and end up frolicking around Monte Carlo instead.

On the plus side, Ortega worked on the choreography for the original in 1987, and also on choreography for Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, that classic dance film.

Don’t worry, Lionsgate have fast-tracked the project, so it will be with us before we know it.

For the four of you left that don’t know, the 80s hit centres around a privileged teen named Baby who falls for rough-edged dance instructor Johnny Castle while at a holiday resort. Cue class differences, sequins, flailing limbs and watermelon quotes all round. Kenny Ortega (director of This Is It) has been brought on to helm the re-boot, and there’s as yet no word on potential casting. It’s going to be quite the challenge to find anyone mad enough to reinvent the iconic performances of Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze, but it looks like Ortega can’t wait to get started. He stated:

“The opportunity to direct Dirty Dancing is like returning home for me…. 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.”

Yeah. We can’t wait either. Nothing like yet another pointless venture, eh?

Maybe not. But the story that made him famous; that of a teenager who discovers that his new hometown has outlawed rock music and dancing, might very well be back on our screens. And who’s heading up the Footloose remake? Non other than Black Snake Moan’s Craig Brewer.

Well what did you expect? We’re so used to typing the word ‘remake’ at the Best for Film mansions that our gold encrusted keys are wearing down. We’ve heard tell of a re-make My Fair Lady with Carey Mulligan (whew) and possibly Hugh Grant (nooooo), we’ve had a Fame do-over and now this. It’s only a matter of time before John Travolta dusts off his tightest trousers and gets those pesky chills that start multiplying all over again.

So why Craig Brewer and not, as was originally reported, Kenny Ortega of High School Musical fame? Apparently we can thank Paramount president Adam Goodman for the directorial switch-around – he wants the remake to be “edgier” than the original. And maybe, just maybe, he doesn’t want it to be anything like High School Musical. A real shame.

Are you happier with a dark and edgy Footloose remake? Or did you want our beloved Zac Efron to fill Bacon’s Sunday Shoes? Let us know below

Slipped into the bottom of a press release announcing the Coen brothers’ latest release, the studio announced that the film, previously scheduled for a June release, had been pulled from their schedule. Seems the idea has become so unpopular at Paramount, it doesn’t even warrant a statement of its own. Hardly surprising in a post-Fame 2009 world.

When the studio first announced the remake back in 2007, it seemed set to go great guns, with Zac Efron to take over Kevin Bacon’s role from the original and High School Musical‘s Kenny Ortega directing. When Efron dropped out due to other filming commitments, his role was quickly snapped up by Gossip Girl star Chace Crawford (almost as much of a hit as Efron amongst the screaming teen girl demographic the producers were obviously aiming for), and it seemed all was back on.

But last October Ortega went the same way as Efron, backing out of directing the remake because, according to a studio press release, he wanted to take a career break after working on This Is It. Hollywood press reported otherwise – apparently Paramount refused to give Ortega a budget of more than $25 million, a pretty paltry sum by today’s standards.

Still, after the performance (or lack thereof) of similar remakes at the box office recently, who could blame them? The key to these movies is obviously to fill the cast with no-names, make it on a shoestring and rely on a fair amount of people going to see it for the curiosity factor, despite the fact it’s clearly going to be a stinker. Either that or, you know, leave it the hell alone. Good to see Paramount’s going for option two, although not for lack of trying. Let’s just hope Footloose Two-Thousand-and-Whatever remains buried for a looong time to come.

How do you feel about the canning of the new Footloose – disappointed or goddamn relieved? Comment away, my friends.

The film is certainly not, as Elizabeth Taylor avidly stated, “the single most brilliant piece of filmmaking I’ve ever seen”. Neither is it an adequate send off for one of music’s last remaining legends. But for all Michael Jackson fans (which should be everyone), it’s sure to make hairs stand on end. In terms of trying to show how good he actually was through this collection of rehearsal clips pieced together and scored by classics such as Billie Jean and Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough, it’s obviously not as breathtaking or overwhelming as the tour would’ve been. However this is not to say that creative director Ortega (Dirty Dancing and High School Musical) failed. After all, it’s a difficult ask to try and communicate Jackson’s magic presence onstage via film. What it does confirm though is that despite his skeletal frame and seeming frailty, Jackson was in good health and still had the same enchanting aura he posessed, back when he out-sang his siblings and became the undisputed King of Pop.

Michael Jackson always said, “I want to start where everyone else would end”. The film doesn’t do enough justice to his musical and choreographic brilliance – it might be called ‘This Is It’ but we know that this is definitely not. Michael Jackson’s legacy will live on forever.

Special Features

The Unfinished Rehearsals Featurette
2 Making-Of Documentaries
The Gloved One Costumes Featurette
Memories of Michael Featurette
Auditions: Searching for the World’s Best Dancers Featurette
Theatrical Trailer