Want to know what rarely works in Hollywood? Prequels. Too often we go into these stories knowing exactly how they’ll end, which is why most, if not all, can be filed under the increasingly overstuffed Bad Idea Jeans cabinet. The latest addition? A prequel to Grease.
Yes, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Paramount wants to turn the key again on Danny Zuko and Sandy Olsson’s relationship with Summer Loving, their aptly titled prequel that doubles back to the time when the two star-crossed lovers met on the beach one summer.
You know, everything the two already detailed in the song “Summer Nights”? Nevertheless, screenwriter John August has been tapped by the studio to tell us more, tell us more, and he’ll have the unenviable task of capturing magic that’s now well over 40 years old.
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Currently, there’s no director attached, but god have mercy on the soul of any casting director who has to find replacements for John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. Perhaps they could go the Scorsese route and de-age the two stars for a wickedly talented spectacle?
We’ll have to see. In the meantime, revisit the song below, and while it’s playing, try to remember a single song or moment from Grease 2. Don’t remember Grease 2? Rest assured, it’s as great as the original and in no way a harbinger of things to come for this project.
