Under normal circumstances, if we read that director/screenwriter Peter Sollett (“Raising Victor Vargas,” “Five Feet High and Rising”) were tapped to rewrite the screenplay for “Footloose” then a flurry of hopeful excitement for a new, more sincere “Footloose” that is perhaps set in a more multi-cultural small town. However, when said announcement is listed in Variety with a sub-heading about “High School Musical” franchise wunderkid Zac Efron‘s seven figure salary, the air in our balloon is quickly deflated.
The bubbly musical fare of the original “Footloose” is not new territory to Efron – aside from his time as a high school heart throb for emotionally neutered teens everywhere he also starred in the PG-ified version of cult camp classic “Hairspray.” As you’ll well recall, if you’re old enough, the soundtrack to Footloose was packed with really terrible songs, including the Kenny Loggins title track (which one can reasonably expect to turned into a solo vocal turn for Efron) and several infamous Kevin Bacon dance montages.
After Sollett’s recent turn on indie-music-movie cum box-office-flop “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist” his indie cred is in question — penning a movie musical (yes, Variety also confirms that new songs are being penned to compliment the already iconic original soundtrack) that will star the whitest teen boy alive is quite the bold move for this guy. Is he running right into the arms of mainstream Hollywood on their terms?
Let’s all take a moment to remember Kevin Bacon’s star-making ’80s moment in the original preachy teen drama.