'Dirty Dancing' remake: Kenny Ortega to direct
If the song “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” makes you want to twirl across a dance floor, and you know where the line “Nobody puts Baby in a corner” comes from, this news is bound to stir up all kinds of emotions in you: Kenny Ortega has signed on to direct a big-screen remake of the 1987 hit Dirty Dancing. Ortega served as the choreographer on the original film, which starred Jennifer Grey as a wealthy 1960s teen who falls in love with a dance instructor (Patrick Swayze) while spending the summer at a Catskills resort.
Ortega — who most recently directed the documentary Michael Jackson’s This Is It — said in a statement, “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.”
One of the most profitable films of its time, the original Dirty Dancing was made for $6 million and went on to gross $214 million worldwide, spawning a stage adaptation, a TV series, and an unsuccessful 2004 quasi-remake, Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights, which told a similar story but set the action in Havana on the eve of the Cuban Revolution.
Ortega’s remake will utilize classic songs from the ’60s and the hits from the original movie, as well as new songs. No casting has been announced yet, but feel free to nominate your own picks below. Who should play Baby? And who could possibly fill Swayze’s dance shoes as Johnny Castle?
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