Paramount Puts Footloose on the Fast Track

Paramount Pictures has fast-tracked Footloose, hoping to get the film ready for High School Musical 3: Senior Year director Kenny Ortega and star Zac Efron to start production next spring, says Variety. 

The studio has brought on Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist director Peter Sollett to rewrite the Jon Hartmere script and hired Craig Zadan and Neil Meron to join Dylan Sellers as producer. 

Zadan and Meron are established producers of musicals Chicago and Hairspray, the latter of which was Efron's first feature. Zadan also was a producer of the original 1984 Footloose. They join Sellers, who has put two years of work into the musical with Ortega. 

While Sollett rewrites the Hartmere script, the studio is working on new songs that will complement some of the memorable original tunes from the film that made Kevin Bacon a star.