After failing to entice the likes of Zac Efron and Chace Crawford for the lead role of the “Footloose” remake/reboot, Paramount has given up altogether trying to land someone with name recognition, and have settled on Kenny Wormald. Who? In dance circles he’s pretty well known having toured with Justin Timberlake and appeared in videos for Madonna, Mariah Carey, Christina Aguilera, Chris Brown and Nelly Furtado. And yes, he does sort of have acting experience with a lead role in “Center Stage: Turn It Up” where he plays — you guessed it — a dancer.
Whatever, its not like these kinds of movies require real acting experience and from Paramount’s end by not going with an Efron or a Crawford, it will nicely bring down the budget for the film. But whether or not audiences will take a dance film with no stars remains to be seen if the project will be a “Step Up” success or a “Fame” failure. Certainly, the additional cast members of Julianne Hough (a sort of Jessica Simpson lookalike, who is best known for appearing on several seasons of “Dancing With The Stars” and being in Juicy Fruit commercial) and Dennis Quaid, who will play Reverend Shaw Moore, a uppity preacher who doesn’t like dancing. Geez Dennis, are you doing some kind of penance for dropping out of Steven Soderbergh’s “Haywire”?
The film is set to be directed by Craig Brewer (“Hustle & Flow,” “Black Snake Moan”) who is also writing the script based on Dean Pitchford’s original 1984 screenplay. So yeah, this one is going to faithful/inspired by the source material for those of you who might actually care about such things. There is no confirmed release date, but Deadline is hearing the studio is eyeing April 1, 2011. April Fool’s Day. How appropriate.
