Fans will likely get the chills for this latest news about the upcoming Grease prequel, Summer Lovin, from director Brett Haley.
The helmer boarded the project, from a script written by Leah McKendrick, sometime in July. Summer Lovin is going to expound on the meeting between Danny Zuko and Sandy Olsson, based on the popular song Summer Nights. John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John played the characters in the original movie, but this prequel hasn’t signed up the stars just yet.
Speaking with Cinema Blend, Haley said that he’s excited about doing the prequel.
“It’s a dream project for me. I feel really honored to have gotten it,” Haley said. “I can’t say much about it, but I can tell you, yeah it’s going to be a full-on Grease musical,” the director added. “It’s going to be really true to the movie and I also tell people who maybe don’t like musicals that I think it’ll be something that will be a wonderful experience and a wonderful, surprising, fun, feel-good, fully-realized journey.”
Landing the dream project
Haley revealed that he got the job to direct Summer Lovin because of his passion for the 1978 original film. Paramount loved his pitch on how he will make the prequel appealing to the 2020 audience.
The director has been active in the industry since 2005 and has mostly done short and independent movies. This will be his first stab at a big studio movie, but it’s not his first time working with the movie’s production outfit, Temple Hill.
Meanwhile, Haley’s latest movie, All Together Now, just dropped on Netflix with Moana’s Auliʻi Cravalho as the lead. The young adult movie is also a musical.
The other Grease project
Aside from Summer Lovin from Paramount, HBO Max has a Grease musical series in the works with Temple Hill as producing partner as well. Grease: Rydell High will be set around the high school where the T-Birds and the Pink Ladies thrived.
As with the original film, the TV series will still take place in the 1950s and will feature big musical numbers, according to the press release. HBO Max’s head of original content Sarah Aubrey said that the series would have “the same spirit and energy” as the film.
The HBO Max production has no casting announcement so far. Both Summer Lovin and Grease: Rydell High haven’t sent the date of production amid the coronavirus scare.
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