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Adam Shankman Developing Bye Bye Birdie Remake

by Alex Billington
January 6, 2009

Speaking of Adam Shankman, the filmmaker will join fellow producers Doug Wick and Lucy Fisher to produce and develop a remake of the 1963 musical Bye Bye Birdie for Columbia Pictures. Bye Bye Birdie was originally a Broadway musical that debuted in 1960. Dick Van Dyke and Ann-Margret headlined a big screen version in 1963. Columbia has been developing an updated version for a number of years, with the story at one point re-imagining the title character as a hip-hop star. Step Up 2 director John Chu was once attached as a writer, as was Tina Fey, but this current version doesn't have any writers attached yet.

The original Bye Bye Birdie, set in 1958, is about a rock singer who travels to a small Ohio town to make his "farewell" television performance and kiss his biggest fan before he is drafted. While I've admitted plenty of times before that I was a fan of Shankman's Hairspray remake from last year, I'm not as excited about Hollywood's continued trend of bringing musicals to the big screen. Mamma Mia made Universal a whole lot of money, and I'm sure Bye Bye Birdie will do well, too, but I guess I'm just getting tired of seeing them. Then again, I'm not a fan of Bye Bye Birdie. Will it have the support it needs to be a box office hit?

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CatieLee

This is such a bad idea. Speaking as a Broadway fan, I think this film sink into infamy as a really lame idea. Thing that carried Birdie through the first time around was the naivety and earnestness of America at the time. We've been around the block a couple of times since then.
dave13

I don't know about that reason for it not working, but I've never been a big fan of this musical (also am a Broadway fan, whatever that means). I think if its redone, it should be updated though. we don't care about a musical making fun of 1950s culture. many things (like in the musical that oh so many high schools put on) will just go over the audiences heads, as most will never have been born in the 1950s, let alone have lived through it. boo hiss another remake.
athena

Hmmm, this could be interesting, but would be great to come up with a new movie instead of a remake, or revision of an old one. Not a bad idea, but not a great one either.