Abigail Breslin to Star in ABC Remake of Dirty Dancing

Dirty Dancing, along with Star Trek, was a significant influence during my formative years. This is probably why I’m such a weirdo. But BE THAT AS IT MAY, ABC recognizes that this is the case for a lot of people — particularly women — and will be jumping on the nostalgia train with a three-hour remake of the film! But wait, wasn’t the original film only 100 minutes? Yes. Yes, it was.

This musical remake will indeed be a remake of the film, not of the Broadway musical, Dirty Dancing: The Classic Story on Stage, and it will star Abigail Breslin in the iconic role of Baby. For a 3-hour TV movie, they’ll have to pad the original story with a lot of dance numbers and/or class drama. However, as /Film points out, “keep in mind this is television, so really it’s only about 135 minutes or less with commercials.”

Now, here’s the good news or the bad news depending on how much Ryan Murphy stuff you like: much of the creative team comes from his projects (though he won’t be involved!). Jessica Sharzer, an executive producer on American Horror Story, will be writing the script, and music will be handled by Adam Anders and Peer Astrom, who were music producers on Glee. Wayne Blair, who’s the director of an Australian musical drama called The Sapphires, will be directing the film. And here’s the best part — Allison Shearmur and Eleanor Bergstein, who wrote the original screenplay for Dirty Dancing, will be executive producing the endeavor.

The only major piece of the puzzle that needs to be found is the actor/dancer who will play the role of Johnny Castle (played to perfection by the late Patrick Swayze in the original).

Who do you think has the dance moves, the acting chops, and the sheer sexual swagger necessary to pull it off? And more importantly, will you be indulging your Dirty Dancing nostalgia with me when this finally airs?

(Image via Gage Skidmore on Flickr)

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Teresa Jusino

Teresa Jusino (she/her) is a native New Yorker and a proud Puerto Rican, Jewish, bisexual woman with ADHD. She's been writing professionally since 2010 and was a former TMS assistant editor from 2015-18. Now, she's back as a contributing writer. When not writing about pop culture, she's writing screenplays and is the creator of your future favorite genre show. Teresa lives in L.A. with her brilliant wife. Her other great loves include: Star Trek, The Last of Us, anything by Brian K. Vaughan, and her Level 5 android Paladin named Lal.

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