Looks like Chace Crawford won’t be playing chicken with tractors for quite some time.
The “Gossip Girl” star was announced to be the star of the new Footloose remake last May and filming was going to start during the hiatus; however, according to Variety, director Kenny Ortega (the High School Musical franchise) has left the production due to “differences with Paramount Pictures on tone and budget.”
More specifically:
Insiders said Ortega wanted to make a picture with elaborately staged musical numbers at a budget of $30 million or so. [Paramount] production chief Adam Goodman wanted an edgier drama with less emphasis on the musical numbers and a budget around $25 million or less.
To this, I say, why can’t you have both?
Remember a little movie musical called West Side Story? You know, that one that’s based off of William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” and won 10 Academy Awards, including the one for Best Picture?
Well, that movie had racial discrimination, gang violence, death by knife, and a near-rape scene and yet also features some of the most elaborate and most demanding choreography ever seen on film, thanks to director Jerome Robbins and his cast of mostly Broadway veterans.
And considering that the L.A. Times just profiled high schools in California that are forcing the students to sign binding contracts stating what dance moves they can and can’t use on the floor (“no touching breasts, buttocks or genitals”), I’d say that a movie about freedom through dance would definitely be welcome, both with and without drama.
Too bad Ortega wasn’t a strong enough negotiator to stick to his guns.
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