First look: 'Footloose' and fancy free again

By Susan Wloszczyna, USA TODAY

Updated 5/6/2011 1:08 PM

ATLANTA — A scowling teen boy in jeans, hoodie and T-shirt bangs on the roof of his 1978 canary-yellow VW bug that's parked in a cavernous empty warehouse. Raucous guitar chords bounce off the walls and sparks fly from metal pipes as he proceeds to physically vent his rage with aggressive dance moves and acrobatic feats.

Sound familiar? That's because the sequence being shot today is inspired by one of the most iconic MTV-ready moments in movie history: the "angry dance" from 1984's Footloose.

But expect more than a few switcheroos in the remake that will kick off its Sunday shoes, as Kenny Loggins so memorably crooned, when it bops into theaters Oct. 14.

Instead of then-rising star Kevin Bacon in the showy role of Ren McCormack, the Chicago city boy who moves to a repressive rural town, it's newcomer Kenny Wormald (TV's Center Stage: Turn It Up) as a Boston-bred high school rebel.

Instead of Never by the all-but-forgotten Australian band Moving Pictures blaring from a cassette deck, it's the White Stripes' Catch Hell Blues shrieking out of an iPod.

And instead of a generic white-bread burg in the Midwest, Bomont is now a diversely populated hamlet in Dixie that takes full advantage of down-home Georgia locales, from a bar called Cowboys in Kennesaw to the exterior of the Bostwick Cotton Gin in the prom finale.

As for the car? Well, some things never change — including the pivotal plot point that public dancing is verboten by law in Bomont, much to the chagrin of the hot-to-trot young folk.

Hollywood loves nothing better than to pillage a previous era's pop-culture treasures and capitalize on time-tested titles, and the '80s are ripe for the picking. The Karate Kid and Friday the 13th were recently remodeled into successful 21st-century vehicles, and Red Dawnis not far behind.

But if cinematic nostalgia is to be exploited, it's probably best not to alienate a built-in audience while wooing a new generation of fans. That's especially true when the best-known stars are Dennis Quaid as the reverend who disdains revelry, Andie MacDowell as his supportive wife, and Julianne Hough of TV's Dancing With the Stars, who follows up her big-screen debut in Burlesque as their wild-child daughter, Ariel.

As was the case even 27 years ago, the star of Footloose is Footloose.

Still, for Wormald, 26, who has danced mainly in music videos for Mariah Carey, Madonna, Christina Aguilera and Chris Brown and also toured with Justin Timberlake, this is just the career break he needs.

"Dancing is what I've been doing since I was a kid, but I also took acting classes," he says. "I've always watched films. I definitely always want to be the guy."

That includes Ren McCormack. "I was born in 1984, the year Footloose came out," he says. "I was about 10 when I saw it for the first time. I remember thinking, 'That is awesome. He's dancing in a factory. I want to do that.' Cut to 25 years or so later, and I am sitting here in this warehouse."

Baby-faced Bacon was about 25 when he cut loose on the big screen. Does Wormald feel a bit old to play a teenager? "Dennis Quaid said something to me. He said, 'You know, I played 17 until I was 27. So you get another year, kid.' Hair and makeup helps. I don't smoke or anything."

Hough, 22, can't help but be excited for the opportunity to take on a lead. Not only does she get to show off a side of her dancing skills other than ballroom, but she also proves she can strip away the big hair, dramatic makeup and revealing outfits that were required on Dancing With the Stars and simply act.

"People are going to see my performance rather than the glitz," she says of the role that requires her to play a 17-year-old. "This is hometown-girl hot. I'm definitely wearing some tight jeans in this movie."

Keeping a watchful eye on the proceedings is producer Craig Zadan, who — along with fellow producer and business partner Neil Meron— regenerated the movie musical with the Oscar-winning Chicago in 2002 and has overseen such tune-filled Broadway revivals as the Tony-nominated How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

He's even more protective considering that Footloose— which, along with Saturday Night Fever and Flashdance, helped popularize a genre of non-singing musicals known variously as "dansicals" or "popsicals" — was his entry into the filmmaking world.

"Little do you know in your lifetime you are going to remake one of your movies," says Zadan, 62. "Originally, everyone just thought they would call and say, 'Come, do this,' and I would say, 'Great.' Instead, I was the naysayer. I wanted to be convinced."

It's not as if the first Footloose is an easy act to follow. Made for $8 million and released with few expectations, it grossed 10 times that much at the box office — which adds up to more than $160 million in today's dollars. Even more impressive: Its soundtrack album, which sold more than 9 million copies, halted Thriller's 37-week reign atop Billboard's album chart and scored six top-40 hits, including two No. 1's —Footloose and Let's Hear It for the Boy by Deniece Williams.

What seduced Zadan was how the script, based on the real-life town of Elmore, Okla., and written by Dean Pitchford (who also did most of the song lyrics), was made more relevant to today.

"We built into the story that all the hardships the characters go through are because of the economy," he says. "Ren's father left the family because he had to be the breadwinner, and his mother got sick and died. So he moves in with the family of his uncle, a cars salesman who is struggling. Even the whole issue of religion and the separation of church and state feels very contemporary."

Also important was hiring a director who was not only a rabid fan of the original but also confident enough to add his creative DNA where needed.

That's where Craig Brewer comes in. Even though there's a November chill inside this unheated industrial space, there also is a sense of excitement — much of it coming from Brewer's passion for his dream project even as shooting winds down. The filmmaker, 39, whose sexy Southern-fried steam permeates 2005's Hustle & Flow and 2007's Black Snake Moan, spent much of his 13th year in thrall to Footloose.

"I had the soundtrack in my Walkman all the time," he says. "I constantly played it."

While his parents' jobs kept them moving around the country, including to the Bay Area in California, Brewer would spend summer and Christmas visiting his family in the Tennessee countryside. Like Ren, he was a fish out of water when it came to rural living. Especially with fashion. Take the knockoff of the red-leather jacket from Michael Jackson's Beat It video that he bought on layaway at the '80s chain store Merry-Go-Round.

Brewer came on board only when director/choreographer Kenny Ortega of High School Musical fame backed out shortly after the original lead, Zac Efron, bolted. (Chace Crawford was also briefly attached.)

"The project that they wanted to do was like a big dance celebration of Footloose," he says. "I gravitate more toward the conflict between Rev. Moore and his daughter. The relationship between Ren and Willard."

Brewer took a crack at the script and adjusted it to mesh with his grittier sensibilities. In the first Footloose, some members of the congregation who oppose dancing come off as out-of-control zealots, even burning library books at one point. To make their objections more understandable and less fanatical, Brewer chose to have the first scene of his movie reflect the real reason for the ban — something that is spoken about in the original but never shown: a tragic auto accident three years earlier that killed five high school seniors, including Ariel's older brother, after they went to a keg party with drinking and dancing.

"When you open with that car crash, it is shocking, terrifying and really unsettling," Zadan says. As a result, "everything Craig has done feels authentic. The first film was a fable. This one is real. When they fight, they really fight. The dancing in the first film was nice. The dancing in this one is fierce."

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