The ‘Grease’ Prequel Movie Is Moving Forward With a New Director
Who’d have thought that in these uncertain times, the most enduring franchise — the one that would be getting simultaneous film and television projects, spinoffs and prequels all at once — would be Grease? 2020 continues to be wild.
Deadline reports that the previously rumored Grease prequel, which is called Summer Lovin’, is moving forward with a new director: Brett Haley, best known as the filmmaker behind 2018’s Hearts Beat Loud. The premise is exactly what you’d expect from the title: An expansion of the events from the Grease song “Summer Nights”:
The 1978 musical classic starred John Travolta as greaser Danny and Olivia Newton-John as good girl Sandy, high school teens who after having a brief summer fling come to find out they are attending the same high school. Even though they come from opposite ends of the world, the two try to make their relationship work while singing now-iconic songs that still resonate today. One of the songs, “Summer Nights,” details the summer fling that started the relationship, and Summer Lovin will detail that fateful meeting and what followed.
This project is in addition to Grease: Rydell High spinoff show that is in development at HBO Max. That one is supposedly “inspired by” the John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John movie, and “will also be set in the 1950s, when ‘the Pink Ladies and the T-Birds still rule the school.” So we could have an Armageddon/Deep Impact type situation in the near future, where two alternative visions of the world of Grease are competing for our attention at the same time.
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