It seems like “forever” since it was announced that Abigail Breslin would be cast as the female lead in a three-hour remake of the 1987 blockbuster hit Dirty Dancing.
Actually, it might as well be because the first signs of wanting to do a remake — before Abigail Breslin was even a “thing” — was back in 2011 according to Deadline .
According to their report, Kenny Ortega was in consideration to direct the Dirty Dancing remake with Lionsgate who wanted to reset since their Artisan 2004 sequel Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights “tanked.”
One of the reasons for this was because actors Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze were asking what would now be considered a modest amount of $5 million each, which is about how much the original film cost to make.
Due to delays, the planned miniseries would evolve into a musical for ABC who ordered it in December 2015 when Abigail Breslin — now 20-years-old — was announced for the lead role.
Abigail Breslin will be familiar to M. Night Shyamalan fans seen in the film Signs and even indie film connoisseurs as she was also in Little Miss Sunshine and 2009 hit Zombieland .
Breslin’s Dirty Dancing will also include some people who are already involved in some of her projects such as Jessica Sharzer who works behind the scenes on Scream Queens, which also involved Abigail during the first season.
This is not the first time that Dirty Dancing has been on television. Actually, there was a short-lived series the year after the original was released on the big screen.
Lionsgate released a new poster this week which looks just like the original poster, with Abigail Breslin looking a lot more like “baby” than Colt Prattes looks like Swayze’s character Johnny Castle.
https://twitter.com/rogersandcowan/status/837097599777660928
It’s also been reported that Abigail Breslin opened up the month of March with a panic attack during the opening of a new play called All The Fine Boys .
She tweeted about her experience.
When you’re on stage doing a play and you have an actual panic attack mid show cuz anxiety doesn’t warn you
— SOPHOMORE(abigail breslin) (@yoabbaabba) March 1, 2017
Apparently, her co-stars were able to help her get through the ordeal.
Breslin, having experience with both on screen and on stage for live theater, appears to have come at a crossroads of a more in-depth theatrical experience with the televised Dirty Dancing musical and the independent off-Broadway All The Fine Boys.
Playbill — a media outlet that covers plays sets the story for the performance for the 80’s as opposed to Dirty Dancing which takes place in the 60’s.
Both stories happen to take place in North and South Carolina, with Abigail Breslin’s Dirty Dancing reportedly bringing a fair amount of jobs into the area as it was already filmed last year.
The Wrap provided a review of the play saying that Abigail had certainly matured since building a reputation on playing memorable roles as a child.
‘All the Fine Boys’ Theater Review: Abigail Breslin Grows Up @yoabbaabba https://t.co/st4MMiW5CT pic.twitter.com/gEoHUQRXbM
— TheWrap (@TheWrap) March 2, 2017
The differences being that the play handles more adult oriented themes about sexuality . The story is a different coming of age story of adolescence with what the review describes is a graphic sex scene with Abigail.
It so happens that the off-Broadway play has some other big names attached to it such as Peter Dinklage of Game Of Thrones fame in that his wife, Erica Schmidt, wrote and directed the play according to The Daily Mail .
Dinklage was present at the play’s opening which is expected to run until March 26 in New York at The Pershing Square Signature Center at the Ford Foundation Studio Theatre.
Dirty Dancing with Abigail Breslin will air on ABC on May 24 at 7 PM CST.
[Featured Image by John Shearer/Invision for The Weinstein Company/AP Images]