Shall We Footloose?
After 20 years, Paramount's exuberant Footloose, the 1984 movie starring Kevin Bacon as a rebellious youth who leads a campaign to legalize dancing, is available on a special edition DVD, with audio commentary by Bacon and screenwriter Dean Pitchford. During a recent interview with Box Office Mojo, Pitchford talked about making Footloose, which, at one point, almost became a budget-busting epic.
With a mix of future stars—besides Bacon, John Lithgow was cast as a fundamentalist Christian, Dianne Wiest as his compliant wife and Sarah Jessica Parker as a small town girl—and a best-selling soundtrack, Footloose grossed $80 million, outperforming both such other dance pictures as Dirty Dancing and The Full Monty.
Pitchford, who created the tale after reading about a town that banned dancing, credits the staying power with a good story and a universal theme. "It's often thought of as that movie about the town where you can't dance," he said. "But, really, dance is the mechanics to explore repression and expression."
Lyricist Pitchford, who had written the words to the title song from Fame, which won Oscar's Best Song for 1980, said he had read reports of a high school class that wanted to have a dance in a town that outlawed dancing. He followed what happened, and he visited the small town; Elmore City, Oklahoma.
"A fight ensued and people took sides," Pitchford recalled. "Families were split. Neighbors weren't talking to neighbors. The minister put his foot down [and dancing was banned]."
Fresh from his success with Fame, the former Broadway dancer and songwriter sought to match the plot with a collection of songs. He figured the only way he could make it work was if he created the movie, so he wrote the screenplay. The music followed, ranging from rhythm and blues to rock, performed by a variety of artists including Sammy Hagar, Deniece Williams and Kenny Loggins. The soundtrack became one of the best-selling of all time.
Not everything went as planned. Sex in the City star Sarah Jessica Parker was not Pitchford's original choice to play Lori Singer's best friend, Rusty; he had written the role for Parker's former television co-star, actress Tracy Nelson.
"Tracy came in, auditioned and nailed it," Pitchford said. "But, the first day she came up on screen, she looked like she should be in a drawing room in Paris. There's something regal about Tracy—we stayed friends after all this went down—and [Footloose director] Herbert Ross' wife said, 'oh, my God, that girl is a square peg—she really doesn't fit into this movie.' There was this mad scramble and who do we get but her Square Pegs co-star, Sarah Jessica Parker. It fell to [co-producer] Craig Zadan to tell the unfortunate news to Tracy. It was such a painful thing." Footloose was Parker's first motion picture.
Footloose almost heralded the return of Michael Cimino (The Deer Hunter), who had just made the over-budget Heaven's Gate, which bankrupted United Artists.
"Herbert Ross (The Goodbye Girl, Boys on the Side) and the studio [Paramount] could not make a deal," Pitchford remembered. "So someone had the idea to single-handedly resuscitate the career of Michael Cimino." According to Pitchford, Cimino was the director of Footloose for about four months.
"He kept asking for more grandiose set-ups and making more demands," Pitchford said. "That's when the studio said, 'this is how a Heaven's Gate happens.' They bid good-bye to Michael Cimino, bit the bullet and did the deal with Herbert Ross. We had to undo a lot of what had been done, and we made Footloose for $8.2 million."
RELATED ARTICLES
• Music Man - An Interview with Dean Pitchford
• Dean Pitchford's Movie Music
With a mix of future stars—besides Bacon, John Lithgow was cast as a fundamentalist Christian, Dianne Wiest as his compliant wife and Sarah Jessica Parker as a small town girl—and a best-selling soundtrack, Footloose grossed $80 million, outperforming both such other dance pictures as Dirty Dancing and The Full Monty.
Pitchford, who created the tale after reading about a town that banned dancing, credits the staying power with a good story and a universal theme. "It's often thought of as that movie about the town where you can't dance," he said. "But, really, dance is the mechanics to explore repression and expression."
Lyricist Pitchford, who had written the words to the title song from Fame, which won Oscar's Best Song for 1980, said he had read reports of a high school class that wanted to have a dance in a town that outlawed dancing. He followed what happened, and he visited the small town; Elmore City, Oklahoma.
"A fight ensued and people took sides," Pitchford recalled. "Families were split. Neighbors weren't talking to neighbors. The minister put his foot down [and dancing was banned]."
Fresh from his success with Fame, the former Broadway dancer and songwriter sought to match the plot with a collection of songs. He figured the only way he could make it work was if he created the movie, so he wrote the screenplay. The music followed, ranging from rhythm and blues to rock, performed by a variety of artists including Sammy Hagar, Deniece Williams and Kenny Loggins. The soundtrack became one of the best-selling of all time.
Not everything went as planned. Sex in the City star Sarah Jessica Parker was not Pitchford's original choice to play Lori Singer's best friend, Rusty; he had written the role for Parker's former television co-star, actress Tracy Nelson.
"Tracy came in, auditioned and nailed it," Pitchford said. "But, the first day she came up on screen, she looked like she should be in a drawing room in Paris. There's something regal about Tracy—we stayed friends after all this went down—and [Footloose director] Herbert Ross' wife said, 'oh, my God, that girl is a square peg—she really doesn't fit into this movie.' There was this mad scramble and who do we get but her Square Pegs co-star, Sarah Jessica Parker. It fell to [co-producer] Craig Zadan to tell the unfortunate news to Tracy. It was such a painful thing." Footloose was Parker's first motion picture.
Footloose almost heralded the return of Michael Cimino (The Deer Hunter), who had just made the over-budget Heaven's Gate, which bankrupted United Artists.
"Herbert Ross (The Goodbye Girl, Boys on the Side) and the studio [Paramount] could not make a deal," Pitchford remembered. "So someone had the idea to single-handedly resuscitate the career of Michael Cimino." According to Pitchford, Cimino was the director of Footloose for about four months.
"He kept asking for more grandiose set-ups and making more demands," Pitchford said. "That's when the studio said, 'this is how a Heaven's Gate happens.' They bid good-bye to Michael Cimino, bit the bullet and did the deal with Herbert Ross. We had to undo a lot of what had been done, and we made Footloose for $8.2 million."
RELATED ARTICLES
• Music Man - An Interview with Dean Pitchford
• Dean Pitchford's Movie Music
