Jennifer Grey
“Dirty Dancing” comeback for Frances “Baby” Houseman
Jennifer Gray as Frances “Baby” Houseman and Patrick Swayze as Johnny Castle in Dirty Dancing (1987).
© imago/Everett Collection
There will be a new Dirty Dancing movie starring Jennifer Grey. According to a media report, this was announced at CinemaCon.
“Dirty Dancing” became a surprise hit in 1987 and has since achieved cult status. 35 years after the love story of Johnny Castle (Patrick Swayze, 1952-2009) and Frances “Baby” Houseman (Jennifer Grey, 62), the film could actually get a sequel.
“Entertainment Weekly” now reports at least about a first official allusion: “Jennifer Gray returns to Kellerman’s in the next chapter,” it says, citing a comment on the original recordings of “Dirty Dancing”. This could be heard during the Lionsgate presentation at CinemaCon in Las Vegas. The Kellerman’s resort is the setting of the original “Dirty Dancing” storyline. However, there is no further information about this “next chapter”, it said.
New trial
There have already been some attempts to continue the success of “Dirty Dancing”. This includes a short-lived TV series in the USA from 1988. The prequel “Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights” also came out in 2004 and flopped. Patrick Swayze was seen again in a supporting role as a dance teacher. A stage version, made in Australia in 2004 and touring around the world, was more successful. In 2017, another US TV movie starring Abigail Breslin (26) and Nicole Scherzinger (43) was released, but again it didn’t find many fans.
A possible sequel with Jennifer Gray was already reported in 2020. The actress told the US site People at the time About her co-star Patrick Swayze, who died in 2009: “What I can say is that nobody is being replaced who has passed away – you should never try to repeat something that was so magical”. The actress – who also reportedly plans to co-produce the “Dirty Dancing” sequel – added, “You have to think of something else.”
With a budget of only five million US dollars, “Dirty Dancing” by filmmaker Emile Ardolino (1943-1993) made a whopping 218 million US dollars at the worldwide box office and quickly became a classic.