If you're not having the time of your life today, this piece of exciting news might lift you right up. Dirty Dancing 2 has been confirmed to be in the works over at Lionsgate, and Jennifer Grey is on board to play Baby again. Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer made the announcement, along with word from the studio that John Wick 5 is happening and horror film Antebellum skipping its theatrical release.
Just a few weeks ago, rumors swirled around a Dirty Dancing sequel when Jennifer Grey signed on to star and executive produce a mysterious dance movie with the same studio behind 2004’s Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights. One detail in particular that tipped fans off was the unnamed film’s setting in the ‘90s. Just count thirty-some years since Baby’s unforgettable summer at the Catskills Resort and everything lines up.
Jonathan Levine, the talented director behind Seth Rogen films 50/50 and Long Shot, is developing the project with his frequent collaborator, Gillian Bohrer. Mikki Daughtry and Tobias Iaconis, the writers of the 2019 romance Five Feet Apart and Conjuring universe horror film The Curse of La LLorona, are penning the Dirty Dancing 2 screenplay.
The announcement that came during the Thursday studio earnings call prompted Lionsgate’s CEO Jon Feltheimer to make this comment (via Deadline):
It will be exactly the kind of romantic, nostalgic movie that the franchise’s fans have been waiting for and that have made it the biggest-selling library title in the Company’s history.
The original Dirty Dancing was a massive success when it hit theaters in 1987, making over $200 million worldwide against a $5 million budget. As the CEO alluded, the romance became the first movie to ever sell over 1 million copies on home video, cementing the title’s immense popularity at the dawn of the medium’s rise to prominence. The movie also scored the Best Original song Oscar for “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life.”
It's too early to know anything about the specifics of the plot for Dirty Dancing 2, except that it will center on Baby in her 50s. Maybe it will be about her deciding to take up dancing again years later? Jennifer Grey did win 2010’s season of Dancing With the Stars next to Derek Hough, so one would imagine she’s up to learning some more moves.
Jennier Grey recently starred in Amazon Prime’s comedy Red Oaks from 2014 and 2017, and she was on three episodes of Grey’s Anatomy last year. Dirty Dancing was remade for television by ABC in 2017, starring Abigail Breslin – an opportunity Grey did not get involved in. Stay tuned here on CinemaBlend as more news develops about this exciting remake of an ‘80s classic.
