Grab your comb and slick that hair back, because it’s time to travel back to 1959, baby! Specifically: Grease fans will soon have the chance to revisit one of the most memorable young love affairs of all time in Summer Loving, a prequel to the 1978 film starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John as star-crossed lovers with very different tastes in clothes.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Paramount Players has chosen John August (Big Fish) to write the script for the new film, which is currently in development. The title derives, as even casual fans likely know, from one of the musical’s foremost earworms, “Summer Nights.“ The song finds Danny and Sandy, two high-schoolers, recounting how they first met—the former mostly boasting about how steamy their love affair was, while the latter rhapsodized about their emotional intimacy.
One might think that such backstories are better left untold, but in an I.P.-driven entertainment that feels compelled to explain how any and all iconic characters got their names or weathered tragic backstories, such a move feels pretty much par for the course. It’s unclear from this report, however, whether this prequel will be a musical like its progenitor.
The interest in resurrecting Grease is understandable; even decades after its release, the film has remained a cultural touchstone. Even those who do not count themselves as fans can likely name at least a couple of its more memorable tunes. The musical also inspired a well-received live TV version in 2016, which starred Aaron Tveit and Julianne Hough as the central couple, with Vanessa Hudgens on board as the Pink Ladies ringleader, Rizzo. That TV musical remains one of the most critically successful entries into the genre, with strong ratings to boot.
With so many details up in the air—who will direct, who will star, whether the production will include musical flourishes or not—it’s hard to say whether this film will be an automatic, systematic, hydromatic, greased lightnin’ success like the original. But given how hard it generally is to recapture lightning in a bottle, it is safe to say that the film’s cast and crew will face a tough road ahead. Unless they have a flying car.
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