Chace Crawford Drops Out of Doomed 'Footloose'

Footloose is another project they should probably just shoot in the head. It's happening with alarming frequency these days, where a film loses so many key pieces or gets delayed and delayed (or in this case, both), and you just wonder why the studios don't just eat their losses instead of incurring new ones. Back to Footloose: It was originally a Zac Efron vehicle, with his High School Musical director Kenny Ortega at the helm. Efron bounced about a year ago, and Chace Crawford stepped in. Then Michael Jackson died, so Ortega had to hurriedly finish his documentary, This Is It. After rushing to get that done, Ortega begged off the project and was replaced by Hustle & Flow's Craig Brewer, which is not exactly the same thing. He also re-wrote the script, which caused more delays, and now Chace Crawford has quit the film, as well. So, in roughly a year, the film has a new script, new star who wasn't nearly as big a star, a new director, and a delayed production and release schedule. Now they have to start over again. It's being reported that Paramount may go with an unknown for the lead role, and, after all, it worked the first time with Kevin Bacon. But even if they sign some nobody who doesn't have Gossip Girl's shooting schedule to work around (the official reason given for Crawford's departure), there are other issues to work out on top of it. For one, Craig Brewer has something else to direct, so if the studio really wants him, the wait gets extended yet again. Seriously, Paramount doesn't need this much trouble on a Footloose remake. Sure, it was a massive hit in 1984, but the real star was the soundtrack, which sold nine million copies. And the movie soundtrack is dead.