"Fame! I’m gonna live forever. I’m gonna learn how to fly… HIGH!"
Ok, now that you’ve hopefully got that song stuck in your head for the rest of the day and can share in my misery, let’s get down to business. MGM is footing the bill on a $25 million remake of the beloved 1980s musical, which is currently slated to shimmy and leap its way to theaters in 2008.
According to Rick Sands, MGM’s COO, a writer and director have already been brought on board, but he’s not saying who just yet—only that they’re currently hard at work on an updated version of the adventures of Coco, Doris, Montgomery and Raul with an intention to keep most of the musical elements. Which, obviously, would include that damned theme song.
I’ve really got nothing to add to this other than I was never a fan of the movie or TV show, where even as an 8-year old kid I thought the whole pouring out of the Performing Arts school and dancing through the streets was just dumb. I’m way more jaded than I was in the 80s, so I don’t think the pivotal scene will fare much better with me, if anyone’s asking. Which they’re not, so let’s move on, shall we?
Another interesting note on the film biz side of the same story reveals Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner’s United Artists gig is getting a big fat infusion of funding cash from Merrill Lynch. $500 million to be exact. That’s a boatload of cash, a lot of Hardy Men sequels and resolution to any doubters possibly thinking this United Artists thing was messing around.