And here we go again with the remakes!

It has been decided that they are going ahead and remaking Footloose. Why don’t they just leave these movies alone? Many would consider the original Footloose back in 1984, starring Kevin Bacon, a classic. The popular teen movie also starred a young Sarah Jessica Parker and the great Jon Lithgow.

I never considered Footloose a classic myself, but I do like Kevin Bacon, and I think they should just stop remaking these movies and come up with their own friggin’ ideas.

The original movie’s story was about a city kid who moves to a small town where rock music and dancing have been banned. No, it wasn’t filmed in Amish Country in Pennsylvania.

I would think they might have to update the story line a tad to make it relevant to today’s youth. Maybe this one will be about an urban white boy who wants to rap? Oh wait, Eminem already did that.

Chace Crawford of “Gossip Girl” has been tapped to play the part of Ren McCormack, the part made famous by Bacon. Originally High School Musical and Hairspray star Zac Efron was set to play the part, but dropped out of the project, supposedly because he was done acting in musicals. Hmmm….one man’s cheese is another man’s gold I guess.

A better question is, will Kenny Loggins update the theme song of the same name, or will they remake that as well?

Hollywood — destroying my youth one remake at time.

While Chace is certainly a bit more hunky than Bacon, what with his chiseled jaw and classic good looks, I don’t know if he has the dancing chops to fill the role as Bacon did. Bacon did most of the dancing in the original,although he did have a dance-double for the more difficult parts. Which reminds me, how has Bacon managed to avoid “Dancing With The Stars”?

Kevin Bacon in Origial Footloose 1984

Bacon even does a back flip at the school dance. But perhaps the most famous scene for Bacon is the warehouse dance scene. And if you need a refresher on this movie, like I did. Check out the original Movie Trailer.

Back to the remake….

Us Magazine reported:

It’s official! Chace Crawford will star in the Footloose remake, Paramount Pictures confirms to Usmagazine.com exclusively.

“Chace Crawford will play the lead role of Ren McCormack in the film Footloose,” Paramount told Us Tuesday.

The news is expected to be officially announced to trade publications Wednesday morning.

The actor has been considering the part for some time but had yet to officially sign until this week. He had been in contract negotiations and was struggling to make filming work around his Gossip Girl schedule, which is also due to start shooting its third season, a source told Us.

Crawford was offered the lead role of small town bad boy Ren — portrayed in the 1984 original by Kevin Bacon — after Zac Efron dropped out of the project in March.

The High School Musical star said the film “sort of” wasn’t a good fit.

“I want to grow a bit with the types of movies I want to make,” he said in April. “It was more along the lines that I was looking for a new challenge, and this was another musical.”

Footloose will be produced and directed by High School Musical alum Kenny Ortega.

Other stars who have auditioned recently for the movie, which is set to begin shooting in March 2010, include Hayden Panettiere, Amanda Bynes and Dancing With the Stars pro dancer Julianne Hough.

Well I am sure all pubescent gals will be drooling over this movie, just like they did High School Musical.

Wonder what Kevin Bacon will think of the movie remake? Well apparently, not too much.

From TopNews back in March:

Kevin Bacon has told Broadway bosses not to offer him a role in the stage revival of his hit movie musical `Footloose’, as he’’s just “not interested”.

“I”m not interested in doing that. They did one, and that’’s enough for me.”

I hear Bacon is a nice guy, plus, he gets major props for keeping his Hollywood marriage to actress Kyra Sedgwick going for the last 21 years — a lifetime in Hollywood years. While Kevin may not be interested in doing any more Footloose interpretations, perhaps he will be curious enough to give this movie the ol’ once over to see if Chace did his part any justice.

Of course, Kevin’s got plenty of his plate to keep him busy, like his rock band, the Bacon Brothers Band and the charity he started called Six Degrees.

The charity is set up so you can basically support your favorite charities by donating or creating fund-raising badges — as well as check out the favorite causes of other people, including celebrities online. 

A little help from Wiki to understand the premise behind the trivia game SixDegrees and the charity:

The charity was named six degrees after the trivia game based on the concept of the small world phenomenon and rests on the assumption that any actor can be linked through his or her film roles to actor Kevin Bacon within six steps.

The game requires a group of players to try to connect any film actor in history to Kevin Bacon as quickly as possible and in as few links as possible. In 2007, Bacon started a charity named SixDegrees.org. The fantasy author-editor Richard Gilliam devised his Movie Links online game in 1990, and it was played extensively on Genie four years before the quite similar Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game was promoted in 1994. Gilliam’s game was much more difficult in that a player was required to find the shortest number of movies linking actors as diverse as, say, Gloria Swanson and Chris Farley, rather than continual links to the same specific actor.

Pretty darn cool huh? Beat that Chace! For us in the “mature audience” we’ll take the original Footloose any day. No offense Chace!

In an industry where marriages are acquired and discarded as easily as a McDonald’s cheeseburger, Kevin Bacon and his wife Kyra Sedgewick have made theirs last for twenty years.  The secret?

The couple, who have been married for 20 years, were asked what kept them together as they arrived at the Screen Actors Guild awards last night with daughter Sosie, 16.

“You have to keep the fights clean and the sex dirty,” responded Kevin.

So THAT’S what I’ve been doing wrong all these years!  I had it totally reversed!  Thanks, Kevin! 

In other Kevin Bacon news, he’s one of those who has lost a bundle in this whole Bernie Madoff mess:

Kevin Bacon doesn’t have any projects lined up at the moment.

And that may be a problem.

The actor, who was taken to the cleaners in Bernie Madoff’s alleged Ponzi scheme, is coming to terms with his and wife Kyra Sedgwick’s new, more modest financial situation.

“There are a lot of things I’m grateful for: my health, my family, my career, my family’s health,” he told Life & Style magazine last Friday. “We’ll march on. We have to. There’s nothing you can do about it.”

Bacon, 51, says he was taken by surprise by money manager Madoff’s financial implosion.

“I didn¹t see it coming,” he said. “I don’t have anything lined up right now, but I need to work, for obvious reasons.”

Luckily, wife Kyra Sedgwick is gainfully employed in her hit TV series “The Closer,” for which she earns a reported $300,000 per episode.

Yep, Kevin…welcome to the club, dude.  Although I do feel for anyone who was swindled by that Madoff crook, I have to say that my cold, cynical heart tends to believe that Kevin’s definition of “modest  financial situation” and the definition adopted by those who purchase tickets to his movies might be an entirely different thing altogether.  I mean, I get the feeling he’s looking at having to downgrade to a bottle of wine worth $100, versus Joe Schmoe The Ragpicker from up the road having to downgrade from tap water to rainwater collected in a barrel.

So somebody hire the guy already.  Footloose 2: Electric Boogaloo?

Don’t be hatin’, I like Kevin.  I’m just sayin’.

(cookie for you if you can get through the rest of the day without the theme from Footloose playing in your head)