"Dirty Dancing" Sequel Is Moving Forward

The long-awaited “Dirty Dancing” sequel, with star Jennifer Grey returning as Frances “Baby” Houseman, will soon head to movie theaters.

Lionsgate has tapped “The Hunger Games” and “Crazy Rich Asians” producers Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson to oversee the movie, with the studio eyeing a start of production later this year.

The screenplay will be written by Emmy and Golden Globe nominee and 2025 Humanitas Prize winner Kim Rosenstock.

“Dirty Dancing” — a Catskills-set love affair between a teenager (Grey) and her dance instructor (Patrick Swayze) — premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 12, 1987, and was released in theaters that summer, earning over $214 million worldwide.

In 2024, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

The soundtrack, which featured Grammy and Oscar-winning song “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life,” spent 18 weeks at the top of the Billboard charts and went platinum 14 times.

The franchise has since expanded to include a 1988 television series (which featured Swayze), multiple reality competition shows, a 2004 prequel (“Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights”), a stage production and a made-for-television musical adaptation in 2017.

The new “Dirty Dancing” movie was announced in 2020 with Grey attached to star and executive produce, but the studio pushed back a planned 2024 release due to the Hollywood strikes.

Jonathan Levine was originally set to direct the project, but has opted to stay on as an executive producer.

“The role of Baby has held a very deep and meaningful place in my heart, as it has in the hearts of so many fans over the years,” Grey said about her decision to return. “I’ve long wondered where we might find Baby years later and what her life might be like, but it’s taken time to assemble the kind of people that I felt could be entrusted to build on the legacy of the original film… and I’m excited to say that it looks like the wait will soon be over!”.

Meredith Wieck and Maria Ascanio will oversee the project for Lionsgate. The deals were struck by Phil Strina for Lionsgate.