Rama's Screen

The director who brought Disney fans everywhere High School Musical movies, Kenny Ortega recently said farewell to the project FOOTLOOSE the remake because of disagreements with Paramount. Ortega wanted it to be a vibrant elaborate musical, brightly colored tale, while the studio wanted it to be more dramatic with less emphasis on the music, which I think doesn’t make sense, why the hell remake a FOOTLOOSE movie in the first place if it’s not going to be straight up musical?.. Read the rest of this entry »

Director Kenny Ortega thought his upcoming success, the Michael Jackson Concert rehearsal movie, THIS IS IT, will give him the respect he’s looking for but the opposite is what’s happening, concerning another project which has had his name attached for a while. Variety says Ortega has exited FOOTLOOSE the remake due to creative differences. Usually the report would end there leaving the rest of us wondering what happened but in this case, it’s clear to see whose fault it is… Read the rest of this entry »

UPDATE: Variety has confirmed this info

According to Entertainment weekly, the epitome of blond bombshell, Julianne Hough, country singer and the only reason I’d watch Dancing with the Stars, will screen test this week for female lead role in FOOTLOOSE The reboot which already stars Chase Crawford as the new Kevin Bacon.
For the record, Hough is an amazing creation. Check out her perfect samba

The info also revealed that Erin Brockovich scribe Susannah Grant is doing a rewrite on the screenplay and the original cast from the 1984 might show up in cameos. Does the 50 year old Bacon still know how to shake it in the warehouse?
In addition to that, there’ll be some new songs by new artists but the classic hit songs from the original movie will be part of the reboot too.
Directed by Kenny Ortega, those of you who are fans of High School Musical movies recognize that name because he’s the one who directed every last one of them.
The new FOOTLOOSE opens June 18th, 2010, the same release day as TOY STORY 3. It doesn’t take a genius to choose which one I’d rather see.

Here’s another sexy shot of Julianne Hough..for no particular reason at all.

Previous info on FOOTLOOSE The Remake was that Paramount has set June 18th, 2010 as the release date. I’m sure Kevin Bacon is sitting in his home right now wondering why he’s not invited to the party. Zac Efron was considered to play the role that made Bacon dance but Efron wanted no part of this gig due to his desires of becoming versatile and by that I mean he’ll sing and dance in other movies.

According to Hollywood Reporter, Paramount has found Efron’s second best, actor Chase Crawford from TV’s Gossip Girl. I don’t much about the 23 year old Texan except that I hope he knows what he’s doing. The project will be directed by Kenny Ortega, those of you who are fans of High School Musical movies recognize that name because he’s the one who directed every last one of them.

Footloose is one of those movies I’d watch for the laughs. Watching Kevin Bacon prancing around just brings tears to my eyes from laughing way too hard. So when word got out last year that Paramount wanted a reboot, I was thinking.. ‘Really, Hollywood?! Is that the best you can do?! Remaking Footloose?!’

Not too long ago, Zac Efron, who was attached to this project, announced that he did not want to do this gig anymore because he wanted to venture out to other genres and become a versatile actor. Whatever! A movie like ‘18 Again’ is as versatile as he’ll ever get.
Paramount doesn’t have its star yet but via comingsoon.net, it has a theatrical release date and FOOTLOOSE reboot will open on June 18th, 2010. Better get that casting choices crackin’, cause time is of the essence.

Another announcement is from Lionsgate about the movie BROTHERS, directed by Jim Sheridan (In America) starring Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal and the ever beautiful Natalie Portman. It will hit theaters on December 4th, 2009 in time for Oscar worthy season.

Based on the 2004 Danish movie Brodre directed by Susanne Bier, this was the official synopsis..
On his way to report for a peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan, Danish Army officer Michael stops to pick up his brother Jannik, who is getting out of jail that day. In Afghanistan, Michael’s helicopter crashes and he is presumed dead. Jannik and Michael’s wife Sarah discover that they don’t hate each other as much as they had thought, and Jannik decides to reform and make himself useful around Sarah’s house. Then Michael comes home with a full-blown case of post traumatic stress disorder because of what he had to do to survive in captivity. Write your own ending and draw your own moral conclusions, if any.

Jim Sheridan’s version will have different character names. Jake plays Tommy and Tobey plays Sam, they’re brothers and Portman plays Grace.
Thanks for Rama’s SCREEN reader Esteban for the heads up

Last year, there was info that Paramount wanted to put FOOTLOOSE remake project on the fast track and attach High School Musical poster boy Zac Efron as the star. The original featured Kevin Bacon in a very unmanly performance.
Everything seemed to be working in the direction of their plan at the time, the studio brought director Peter Sollett to rewrite the Jon Hartmere script and hired Craig Zadan and Neil Meron to join Dylan Sellers as producer.

But all lame things must come to an end too and there’s still hope for mankind because according to EW, Zac Efron doesn’t want to do this gig anymore because he’s had been advised to hold off on doing another musical until he’d established more versatility in a variety of genres.
Yeah sure, and making movies like 17 AGAIN would certainly establish his career… pffh!
That kid should just stick to what he knows best. Some of us may not like his dancing or singing but we’ll hate him even more if God forbid he tries to do anything Oscar worthy, resulting in an insult to those who actually can do Oscar worthy roles.