There’s about to be a lot more Grease in your diet. A year ago we learned a prequel film, titled Summer Lovin’, was in the works at Paramount. With so much going on it was probably pretty easy to forget about, or perhaps you were hoping it died a quiet death. Well, sad day for you, because the movie is still happening. The good news is it’ll have a great director in Hearts Beat Loud filmmaker, Brett Haley.
I’ve said it a bunch of times on this site that Brett Haley is among the best directors working today, and his involvement is worth making Summer Lovin‘ worth monitoring. Deadline says he will direct the prequel film, which could launch a potential Grease franchise. More on that in a bit. The movie will follow the summer of love between good-girl Sandy and troublemakin’ greaser Danny, played by Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta in the classic 1978 film. After meeting and falling head over heels, they go their separate ways…unaware they’ll be going to the same school.
As for the franchise aspect, it’s unclear if this will connect with the spinoff series, Rydell High, that we learned about last fall. It would make sense if they were, but nothing has been confirmed at this point. Because if not, that’s an awful lot of Grease coming from different sources.
Haley had his breakthrough with 2015’s I’ll See You in My Dreams, followed by 2017’s The Hero. He followed that up with the music dramedy Hearts Beat Loud, and earlier this year had the Netflix film All the Bright Places. He tells love stories with a lot of heart and humor to them, and that’s perfect for what a Grease movie should be.
