Jennifer Grey To Reprise Role As Baby In ‘Dirty Dancing’ Sequel
Dirty Dancing is coming back and so is Jennifer Grey’s “Baby,” but this time in ’90s style. Per Deadline, the sequel to the 1987 romantic dance drama has landed director Jonathan Levine (Warm Bodies, 50/50). Dirty Dancing is set to take place in the 1990s at Kellerman’s, the same fictional Catskills resort as the original (which took place in the ’60s).
According to the outlet, the film will also be titled Dirty Dancing and like the original, “will be a coming-of-age romance centered on the experience of a young woman at the summer camp, but Baby’s own journey will intertwine with this to create a multi-layered narrative.” Jennifer Grey will reprise her role as Frances “Baby” Houseman while Patrick Swayze’s character, Johnny Castle, will be “part of Baby’s journey in the story.”
“This film exists in a dialogue with the original,” Levine revealed. “We want to introduce this story to a whole new generation. That said, Johnny’s absence looms large over the story, so it’s a coming-of-age story but also a coming-of-age for Baby’s character in a way.” Swayze died in 2009.
Grey, 62, may not be the only original cast member to return, 35 years after the first film hit theaters. “We are about to talk to people and are exploring that,” Levine teased, adding that Grey’s character “is an invaluable collaborator. We’re going to try to involve as many people from the original as is appropriate. We want to be respectful in every way.”
Levine also hinted that music from Liz Phair and Alanis Morissette could make the soundtrack, “which will range from songs from the original movie” (including “Hungry Eyes” by Eric Carmen) “to ’90s hip-hop.”
In the original Dirty Dancing, Baby (Grey) is a teenager whose life is changed after she meets sexy, enigmatic dance instructor Johnny (Swayze) at an upscale Catskills resort, Kellerman’s, during the summer of 1963.
In Swayze’s memoir, The Time of My Life, he revealed that he struggled with the script. Of his iconic “nobody puts Baby in a corner” line he could hardly bring himself to say it. “It sounded so corny,” Swayze wrote. “But, seeing the finished film, I had to admit it worked.”
